Seeing the Forest for the Trees

I have a horticultural background. In nature, you find ecosystems. In those ecosystems, you find that things that are not closely connected in time or space can affect each other. If you change one thing, you affect something else. The same is true in business.

I was asked to help coach a new executive at a troubled company. Six months earlier, he has implemented initiatives designed to cut costs. Sales began to decline. In an attempt to get ahead of the curve, he looked at ‘excess’ inventory and decided to cut there first. Two months pass. Production began to experience unexpected delays. Salesmen begin to make excuses. A couple of months later, corners were cut to meet quotas. Service calls ran higher and customers complained about delays. Sales dropped again. Each time they ‘fixed’ an issue with a ‘good decision,’ another issue popped up—each worse than the one before.

The executive was finding his management team’s responsibility and confidence were undermined. “There’s nothing we can do about it,” he heard his managers say. “The problem is too complicated for us.” He feared his system of management was unintentionally dedicated to mediocrity. This is when I was invited in.

As his executive leadership coach, I encouraged him to look at his business as an ecosystem and not individual parts. Six months ago, a snapshot view of the books led him to believe that excess inventory equaled waste. What he couldn’t see by studying that one line on the balance sheet was that his business depended on the surplus for on-time delivery, regardless of customer changes. In fact, this flexibility separated them from their competition. In a single decision, he had eliminated his company’s greatest competitive advantage.

Viewing his operation in a single moment in time, he never saw the whole picture. There was a fundamental mismatch between the reality of his business system and his one-piece-at-a-time way of thinking. By working together, he started to realize that the decisions he makes today often affect unrelated parts of his business months later. This was a game-changing moment for him.

Two things came to his attention and he addressed them with the whole system in mind. A new sales process was designed, recognizing its cyclical nature and understanding that the higher-than-normal-inventory numbers were unique to their business process. Over the next year, the company began to regain market share and broaden its clientele.

As an executive coach, I encourage all businesses I work with to take a broad systems view of their operation. Otherwise, how can they possibly see the moving parts with a frozen image? If you look only at the individual trees, you can easily miss what’s happening in the forest.

Frank Hopkins is a PCC Professional Coach  and certified by the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). He is a certified Master Practitioner (ELI-MP) of the iPEC proprietary assessment tool, the Energy Leadership Index and offers seminars on Energy Leadership. He maintains memberships in the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and the Institute of Coaching (ICPA).