The Windy City Theater case was a scenario where a problem needed to be solved and the people responsible had varying views and ulterior motives. Our group was the only one out of four that chose to not move forward with a Matinee, and afterward, we all looked at each other and wondered if we had failed. The Advertising and Operations managers refused to accept us moving forward, due to logistics and time. After determining there would be a $20k profit, we were moving towards an alliance of the Finance Mgr., Marketing Mgr., and Me against the Ops and Advertising Mgr. Rich Ross played his part so well that it felt like we were bulldozing him, the Advertising Mgr. and K, the Operations Mgr., and we really were forcing them to accept our terms.
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This discussion sent me back to a time when a project I inherited was failing. It was a technology project with $22M in sunk cost and the overall reception from Target stores and leaders was lackluster. In every area it was to outperform and simplify store team member’s processes, it was well below expectations. The business case data and the actual test results did not come close to matching. I decided to dig in to find out why it was failing when all the estimates showed that performance should be exceptional. I asked the team that developed the business case how the estimates were created and where I can find more information. I assumed there was a spectrum of stores that was included: high volume and low volume sales stores at least. The analyst shared that the business case was based on one high volume store. I had to pause and ensure I heard that answer correctly. I said, “One store?” He said, “Yes.” “Why only one store?” I said. He replied, “Because it took so much time to analyze one store and we didn’t have enough time to review others.” I shared this information with my leader, and to my surprise, he didn’t waiver. He said that we will continue with the rollout of the program and, “this is what our leaders want.” I didn’t understand fully but continued to try to make the new process a success. My leader left the company and a new experienced leader …show more content…
Engaging in interpersonal risk-taking without fear of being blamed is unrealistic in the roles I’ve been in. When millions of dollars are at stake, failure would cost my leaders their job. I’ve found that the level of risk taken on proposals is often too low. Yet, in the retail climate the stakes are high and more risks need to be taken. I was a part of a $120M project at Target earlier this year. The leaders were so risk averse that many of the key deliverables were not owned by one leader, they were often shared. When multiple decision-makers are needed it takes additional time to reach consensus. Rather than getting direction from one leader, it takes time to meet with each leader individually and connect their responses. I now realize that the ownership was shared because they didn’t want to be solely responsible. They felt they had to share the risk. Another concept I find essential but rarely explored is debriefing. I have found that most often many priorities are completed simultaneously and when one is finished, the attention refocuses on what is remaining, other projects. It’s unfortunate that lessons learned weren’t shared while I was at Target. When the data breach occurred and the announcement of Target Canada there was no communication on what we learned and how we will ensure the future is different. The details were never shared and all were expected to
This discussion sent me back to a time when a project I inherited was failing. It was a technology project with $22M in sunk cost and the overall reception from Target stores and leaders was lackluster. In every area it was to outperform and simplify store team member’s processes, it was well below expectations. The business case data and the actual test results did not come close to matching. I decided to dig in to find out why it was failing when all the estimates showed that performance should be exceptional. I asked the team that developed the business case how the estimates were created and where I can find more information. I assumed there was a spectrum of stores that was included: high volume and low volume sales stores at least. The analyst shared that the business case was based on one high volume store. I had to pause and ensure I heard that answer correctly. I said, “One store?” He said, “Yes.” “Why only one store?” I said. He replied, “Because it took so much time to analyze one store and we didn’t have enough time to review others.” I shared this information with my leader, and to my surprise, he didn’t waiver. He said that we will continue with the rollout of the program and, “this is what our leaders want.” I didn’t understand fully but continued to try to make the new process a success. My leader left the company and a new experienced leader …show more content…
Engaging in interpersonal risk-taking without fear of being blamed is unrealistic in the roles I’ve been in. When millions of dollars are at stake, failure would cost my leaders their job. I’ve found that the level of risk taken on proposals is often too low. Yet, in the retail climate the stakes are high and more risks need to be taken. I was a part of a $120M project at Target earlier this year. The leaders were so risk averse that many of the key deliverables were not owned by one leader, they were often shared. When multiple decision-makers are needed it takes additional time to reach consensus. Rather than getting direction from one leader, it takes time to meet with each leader individually and connect their responses. I now realize that the ownership was shared because they didn’t want to be solely responsible. They felt they had to share the risk. Another concept I find essential but rarely explored is debriefing. I have found that most often many priorities are completed simultaneously and when one is finished, the attention refocuses on what is remaining, other projects. It’s unfortunate that lessons learned weren’t shared while I was at Target. When the data breach occurred and the announcement of Target Canada there was no communication on what we learned and how we will ensure the future is different. The details were never shared and all were expected to