What you see isn’t always reality…

We met a man one day in the garden outside of MD Anderson in Houston.  I had just been released from my first surgery and needed a walk outside.  This man was by himself and followed at a safe distance stopping to look at the trees, flowers, squirrels, etc.  and after a while we engaged in a conversation.  This man looked very healthy, had a stable gait, and a normal complexion (not always found with cancer patients).  He had spent the morning with his doctors and learned his cancer had spread to multiple parts of his body and had very few months to live.  He had been walking throughout the hospital watching patients as he thought of his diagnosis and came to the conclusion that because he did not look ill or feel ill, he really did not need to be there at the hospital for care.  There were many more people that looked more ill than he was.  You could see it in all of them – they looked ill – he did not.  The truth was he was much more worse off than many.  Just because you do not look or feel ill does not mean you are well.

In business transformation, we learn the same thing.  I had the opportunity to lead the sourcing and procurement transformation of a global industrial products company with about 97 separate business operations.  It was visibly obvious that some companies were not well (ill?).  For example first shift manufacturing operations at three plants in Europe were at a stand still – eerily quiet.  Plant managers were proud in the fact that when a order did come in, they could product the product quickly and with a very high level of quality. Another company had acquired a major business where government contracts were over 1/3 of their business.  The company was performing quite well.  What was not discovered in the due diligence of the acquisition was that the military contracts expired in less than two years.  In cancer terms this meant this business had less than two years to live.

One set of companies looked healthy, but had symptoms they were ill.  The course of treatment was a standard protocol for improvement and dealt with easily.  The second company looked healthy with no obvious symptoms, but had a sort time to live and required a different protocol for health.

People have different perspectives to diagnose the same business symptoms.  The lines between reality and perception are blurry at best.  As I continue my journey, I have learned (re-learned?) a few things for my personal and professional well being:

• Slow down; walk slower, smell the flowers, watch the squirrels (now there’s a business context for you! HA!).
• Listen – really listen; You don’t have to talk or respond every time; learn from what others have to say.
• Take care of yourself; listen to your mind, body, and soul – it tells you a lot.
• MOST IMPORTANT: pay attention to your loved ones.  You may have cancer.  And, yes, it is quite physically and emotionally difficult.  But what the doctors and hospitals do not focus on is that our family, loved ones, partner, support group, have no clue how to help you – but they want to.  Nobody wants to see you go through pain.  Just remember, they have their own pain, too.