Rick got in a confrontation with Al over offering processors the option to work from home 2-3 days a week. Al insisted it was necessary to retain young workers. Rick felt they were losing control and productivity would suffer. Rick is in his 60s, Al in his 40s, the processors in their 20s – different stages of their lives, different generational approaches to work. Quite a stew. At one point Rick threw up his hands; “do what you need to do” and stomped off. They’ve been great partners in building their business, and have rarely gotten so heated about an issue, but there have been increasing tensions as they’ve grown from just 5 people to 30.
While both partners were inclined to paper over the peace, the remaining two people on their leadership team insisted that they bring the issue into the next leadership team meeting. There they dove into the issue of people working from home, using the IDS™ tool we teach in EOS®. During the Identify part of the process, it became clear that the confrontation was rooted in an increasing discomfort for Rick with the way younger workers were fighting to balance their lives with work. To Rick they didn’t feel committed to the company he had worked so hard to build, to them, he was a curmudgeon and a workaholic. Al’s time and energy was being increasingly drained by trying to be the peace-maker.
It was an eye-opening Discussion (the D in IDS™) for everyone on the leadership team. More importantly, a simple Solution (the S!) emerged. Jon, who as the holder of the Finance/Administration seat worked on most people policies, took on the to do item of researching work-at-home policies that had been effective in other companies. Rick decided he would do some research on his own to try to better understand the millennial generation at work.
Every team has it’s tough spots, and in the context of business its easy to think of communication as a “soft” something that we don’t have time to focus on because we need to get on with the “real work.” The leadership team recognized a brewing problem between their founders and had the courage to call them out. Several clients have had these kind of intergenerational communication issues this month (sometimes I think they get together and create a monthly theme for me!). The system of tools we call EOS® gave them the way to navigate touchy conversations in an open, honest, business-focused way. This was especially helpful where the leadership team includes family members!
