In deep crisis when basically everything in a corporation
is going down the drain, there are only two options available; one is to give
up and let it sink, the other is to come to a complete standstill.
Standstill is defined in many ways, depending from each
angle you are looking at. It could be a standstill for Lenders where you freeze
the accounts with interest and principal payments to the Lenders, or it could
be a complete standstill, where the management puts a halt, and takes a step
back to assess the battle field.
Imagine yourself driving behind a truck; you are so close
you cannot see anything. So why do not put
your foot on the brakes, and just slowly decreasing the speed to increase your
ability to see?
Personally, I do brake, but I make a full stop when
assessing a crisis and then I walk myself through the following steps.
Retreat;
taking the step back to be able to see
Analyze; what
is it I am actually looking at
Break down;
take the big picture and put it into smaller batches to understand the core
Analyze; profound
analysis of the batches
Rebuild; clean
out the non-core elements and start rebuilding the structure with new bricks
Advance; take
a step forward with the new rebuilt structure
This loop can be repeated as many times as needed or
whenever you find yourself behind a truck or in a crisis, or even used in your
daily life.
Though I bet that JWH never used the above method, or
maybe he did, maybe he walked through the steps faster than lightning inside
his head, and when he swung his revolvers he was already in the Advance stage.
On a personal level, I am at standstill, being home and
cleaning out my Mom’s apartment with my brother. It is like a time machine in
her apartment, she was indeed a collector; my baby shoes when I was 6 months
old, her father’s love letters to her mother, my Grandpa writhing to my Grandma
1915, in the middle of the First World War, books from 1928, movies from 1959
in the Italian Alps where my brother took his first stumbling steps. But since
she was a ”crossdrawer”, unconventional, she was of course up to date with the
current state of life; latest DVDs, a lot of action movies by fact. She liked real
hard core actions, especially when there were killing involved, killing of the
bad guys. I remember one day years back, me and Mom had a full day of Steven
Seagal movies. Amazing. When Skyfall premiered, I took her to the Theater, and there
were two things going on in that movie saloon; One, a great action movie on the
screen, two, my Mom highly commenting what was happening on the screen,
shouting out ”watch behind you” ”shoot him”..And popcorn was flying everywhere.
That was my Mom in a nutshell.
When you are in a standstill, you have to be ice cold.
Nothing can disturb, you have to “close” yourself out from external factors
that might affect your decisions. There will be ”opinions” flying around you
like a hail storm, everyone has an opinion believe me, and they all want to
make themselves heard.
When you really feel that you are on the right way, just
do it. Do not change. Make the move, ask the question you know everyone would
like to ask, but they do not dare, because they are streamlined to fit in, to
be political correct.
Political correctness dictates our lives, what we can and
cannot say and do. Instead of moving forward, everything has come to a real
standstill, everything and everyone is paralyzed, and meanwhile everything
around us, things and matters we all want to change, are still there,
disturbing and ruining settings, environments, structures, lives.
I have stopped being and probably never was political
correct. Call things what they are, and do not tiptoe when you know you are
right. Do not consume yourself in trying to save the mainstream ones. They are mainstream
for a reason, and you are right for another reason.
I came to a standstill at one of the international
airports I frequently use the other day, when I went through the security check.
Following took place; 6 employees, all busy with their phones, even when I put
my stuff through the scanner, the woman who supposedly should check my bags,
was TEXTING at the same time. So me being me, wishing I could be back in the
old West, cross drawing and take ignorance down, once and for all, went through
all the above steps and Advanced in one second. I had to ask her, what is out
there, in cyberspace or wherever she was, that is so more crucial than to check
what I might carry on board.
I know what is out there: Ignorance and constant and
immediate confirmation of the individual. Personally, I hate smart phones, or
maybe should I correct myself, by saying that I do not hate them, I hate what
they have become in our lives and what we have chosen them to become.
In a standstill, the focus needs to be on the core, the
engine that is needed to restart the corporation. When a person is about to
die, the functions slowly goes down, the color of the legs is changing,
temperature is going down in hands and feet, so all power is diverted to the
heart, the engine. It is the last survival instinct in the human body; it is
our brain who steps into the “reptile” stage, pure survival.
It is the same in a deep crisis with standstills, focus
on the core, the fire that will ultimately take you down. That is the fight to
go for, the rest can be lost, and you will lose arms and legs but save the
heart, and restart the engine. You want to win the war, and by that you can
lose some battles.
Focus on cash and your order book. Cash is the blood that
will refuel your engine; Order book is the back bone on where you will rebuild
the structure.
I would be back in the Wild West, the street empty in
front me, people standing behind me. A slight wind stirring up some dust, have
to wipe my eyes. All silent, a dog barking, and I would shout; “Pull” and as a
glimpse coming from the above, a phone is flying through the air over my
shoulder and suddenly one more. I yank my revolvers in a cross-draw and by a
split second I shoot the devices out to outer space. The dog is still barking
when I hear a movement behind my back, and suddenly I feel a hand on my
shoulder. I turn around and I am finding myself starring into the blue eyes of
JWH and he smiles.
And No, I am not
political correct, but I tend to deliver a result, even when everything
seems to be hopeless.
Now back to my Mom’s time machine.
