I know there are challenges in explaining the 7 Stages of Growth and ultimately getting a CEO on board with the concept of the Stages of Growth X-Ray.
Here are two objections you might hear and how you might counter each one.
Q: CEOs are hesitant to set aside 2 full days for any kind of training. How do you explain the value of a company taking its core leadership team away from work for two days?
If you have taken a CEO through the 27 Challenges exercise, to help them sort out what they feel their top challenges are, the next step is to ask them if they feel their managers or key employees would list the same challenges.
When a CEO understands how difficult it is to get everyone aligned behind the same issues, why their managers or key employees have their own agendas, and how hard it is to actually put a name to a problem, the value of the X-Ray starts to become clearer.
When you explain that the process allows each person to be heard, allows each person a chance to state what they feel the real issues are, and the CEO sees how valuable it is for that dialogue to happen, the two-day process doesn’t seem out of the question.
Alignment is the first step in the X-Ray process and once there is alignment behind key issues, you have engagement. Each person has a chance to explain their perspective and rich conversations happen.
With engagement comes implementation.
When you explain that the online assessments provide everyone with the ability to explain how they see the growth challenges and as a group, during that two day process, conversations become the clarity the organization needs to move forward, that they will agree upon the top five goals or initiatives that the company needs to focus on, the process sells itself.
Q: There are people attending the X-Ray who might not know anything about how the business is run. How do you handle people who don’t know how to answer the statements in those assessments?
All the better. The purpose of the X-Ray is to help create a language about business issues that takes the mystery out of running a company.
While the program is designed for CEOs and key employees or managers, depending upon the stage of growth, there is still value in having people involved who may not be in a decision making position.
I have run many X-Rays with new employees (a recent X-Ray involved two new employees who had only been at the company a week) and the comments after the process included statements like ‘I don’t think I could have received a better understanding of the company and how it works then what I learned during the X-Ray.’
You will get some people giving all zeros as they complete the non-negotiable rules. You’ll get others that give all 100s. It’s not about the scores. It’s about the dialogue that occurs when you read the statements and find out how people perceive how well the company is doing. If someone says ‘I don’t know what cash flow is’ then the opportunity exists to educate someone on the importance of the difference between cash and revenue.
Every conversation advances each person’s knowledge of how the business runs. That can only bring good things to any company.
Your success. My passion.
Laurie Taylor, FlashPoint!
