Читать книгу The Red Pill Executive - Tony Gruebl - Страница 19

One of our authors, Tony Gruebl, started out in Business Intelligence, a difficult field since data always bring up more questions. Even after the best delivery, the customer always wanted more information and was never completely satisfied. The quest for information is unending.

Using the most applauded project management training available, Tony climbed the ranks in the industry. Years later, he did a long-term review of his customers, businesses he had served in good faith with the best intentions and thousands of hours of hard work. What he found was a field of carnage. Many of his customers didn’t use their software at all. Many were so frustrated with implementation, they wouldn’t use the firm again. One was suing the company.

Dismayed, Tony realized he had been dying on the beach again and again and didn’t know it. If he hadn’t looked back, he would have never known it.

When Tony launched Think Systems, Inc. (simply called “Think”), he tried a different tactic and went into intensive training to learn another ideology about project management. He learned 5/9 improvement, root cause analysis, and how to make a difference. He mastered important concepts, but at the end of the day that approach still didn’t move the needle.

Our greatest asset at that time was putting away our own assumptions and opening our mindset. That was tough, but we could not settle for mediocrity. We took the red pill and opened to a new perspective—taking 100% ownership, no matter what the obstacles or circumstances. That meant brutal honesty, even if it meant getting fired from a particular endeavor.

We learned how to deliver bad news to the sponsor in a way that’s empathetic to their needs, so the conversation builds trust into the relationship. Over the years, our process improved until we reached a success rate of 95%. However, even with that rate of success, some sponsors were so enmeshed in company culture and so used to their dismal results that they weren’t interested in red pills, even in a crisis.