From Vacation to Velocity

With summer drawing to a close, we are faced with the challenge of shifting from vacation mode to work mode. It’s often difficult enough to do this for ourselves, much the less engage our employees.

I recently facilitated a session with a client which I called “Vacation to Velocity.” With summer being their slow season, finding a method to get everyone focused and working in the right direction was critical to gearing up productivity for the fall, their busiest time of the year.

We held a brief meeting with all staff to transition from vacation to velocity, covering several key areas, the intent of which was to increase communication, improve engagement and build excitement about the months ahead. During the session we discussed several distinct areas, the most critical of which are below:

1. Where does the organization stand relative to it’s strategic objectives? What successes have been achieved; what challenges have been overcome?

2. What changes in the companies customers, competition or suppliers are expected to occur during the next several months? How will these changes impact the business and employees?

3. What initiatives are being considered for the next six months? What impact will they have on the employees? What support is required?

4. What are the greatest successes of the business during the past six months? How have the employees contributed to those successes?

As you can imagine, employees were very receptive to the session, providing valuable feedback that might otherwise not have been considered. Indirectly employees were also motivated by the senior leaderships desire to improve communications.

What are you doing to shift your employees focus from vacation to velocity? How are your employees contributing to achieving your strategic objectives? Remember that engagement is built on communications, good bad or otherwise. So try holding an informal session with employees and watch engagement and motivation improve.

© Shawn Casemore 2013. All rights reserved.