Getting Your Partners “On Board” the Plane
Where are the pilots? “Attention ladies and gentlemen. We are fully boarded and your flight attendants are ready to go. Unfortunately, we’re still waiting for our pilots. It should only be a few more minutes until they get here and we can take off.”
This was the way I started a blog post awhile back. It was written the day after I was on a plane, ready to go, and ended up waiting over an hour for our pilots, who were late connecting from another flight. With the time required to go through pre-flight checklists and routines, along with runway taxi delays, we were roughly two hours behind schedule.
There’s always a silver lining, though. That silver lining is in the observation that this event had a lot of similarities to what I see playing out every day in many CPA firms. And it may serve as a guide to explain how we can overcome these types of delays.
Without the pilots, we’re stuck on the ground. Our flight attendants did a fantastic job getting all of the passengers boarded on the plane and ready to go. All of the passengers were in their assigned seats and ready for takeoff. The only problem was that we didn’t have the two pilots needed to fly the plane.
All of the passengers had a common goal – arrive at our mutual destination safely and timely. But in order for that to happen, we were missing two critical people in the process. Those two critical people had the same goal as the rest of us – arrive at our mutual destination safely and timely. Despite the fact that we had the same goals, we weren’t arriving at our destination in a timely manner. We needed those two pilots in their seats to fly the plane.
Is your firm “grounded”? Think about how many times you have observed the following in your firm: Changes and modifications happen to your firm’s process. A new software program is implemented, there is a change in workflow, or there is a different way of handling data. Everyone goes through training, learns the new program or process, and is ready to hit the ground running.. The only problem is that you have some partner level leadership “not on board” with following the process. And this derails the effectiveness of the implementation.
Without those key individuals on board, your firm is not arriving at its mutually desired destination. You’re essentially grounded. It may feel like you’re spinning your wheels when managers, staff, and some on board partners are trying really hard to take off, only to be held back by key pilots not on board. This is obviously not effective for your firm, or for your clients.
Who are the pilots in your firm? Part of the “Lean” process improvement approach is working to get all of the pilots on board the aircraft in a timely manner. It doesn’t matter what past precedent has been in your firm. At some point in the past, every firm has had partners who were resistant to change. Generally, this happens because process improvement wasn’t implemented in a way that built “buy-in” from the beginning and middle-out. It wasn’t implemented with a methodical approach to building a case for targeted improvements to the process. And it didn’t utilize a cross-functional team of experts who are looking at the big picture of the process, along with everyone’s mutual objectives of “where are we trying to go?”
The fact that key individuals were once not onboard needs to be put behind us. I see a number of frustrated people in this profession that are lacking consistency in their firms. There is lack of consistency in preferences, an absence of teamwork, and the sentiment of working harder with no end in sight.
There are a myriad of opportunities for firms. There is a better way. Let’s work together to identify where we mutually want to be and make sure our pilots are in their right seats in the cockpit when we’re ready to take off. I don’t want to be late.
About the author
Dustin Hostetler is President of Flowtivity, LLC, www.flowtivity.com. He works with CPA firms to implement Lean Six Sigma process improvement principles into their processes and culture, through training, facilitation and coaching. He can be reached at dustin@flowtivity.com or 614-288-6426.