Two things about me and the holidays:
All holiday decorations at home get put away on the morning of the 26th, and
My favorite holiday movie is Die Hard.
So it is no wonder that I was excited to hear about the book Kill The Company. The book and team exercise focuses on changing the leader's perspective to generate ideas on how to ruin your own organization. While I might be considered a Scrooge to ask a team to think about what it would take to ruin their organization, I typically see more engagement from leaders and teams when they have this discussion. Why? Because asking this question can:
Place you and others in the chair of a competitor. By taking on a different perspective or view of your company, you're able to activate the ability to think of your organization in a different light.
Give you and others permission to find your organization's weaknesses. Asking critical team members (and those who may be quieter about pointing out issues) to point out areas of vulnerability gives them the ability to share concerns in a constructive way.
Identify the biggest issues. Once everyone has shared their own ideas, the team collectively works together to highlight the top priorities and risks of the organization.
Generate solutions and opportunities. The goal isn't to stop at just listing what is going wrong. Once you know where you are vulnerable, the team then works together to generate ideas to strengthen your company.
So this holiday season, give the gift of permission to your team to Kill The Company by asking them to take on a new perspective, give them permission to call out issues, and work together to generate new ideas for the New Year.