Pain Thresholds Through Team Mapping

Abridged from 2023 ACCA Conference Teaching (see image below)

Abridged from 2023 International Roundtable Conference Teaching

When it all became clear we had a problem, I was grateful that there was still time to make corrections before a catastrophic loss occurred. It took many hours to work through, but after completing a team mapping exercise with our leadership, no one could question what was at risk, or unfair. This exercise is simple in purpose, complex in discernment, and painful in honest evaluation. But if you're willing to endure the confrontational revelations, read on.

We have just 27 FT employees and some positions have multiple team members. Having studied the actual cost of losing, and replacing a technician to the tune of $40,000 we knew we needed to be proactive about avoiding the costly mistake of not being prepared for changes in our human resources. Often, companies struggle to be proactive in their approach to developing a strategic and stable plan for these unfortunate moments when good employees are gone. Here's how we went about resolving our hysteria and avoiding chaos. It started with the following goals:

- Create a linear view of barriers to entry for every position in the company.

- Discover different perspectives on the value of each position

- Define the “impact” positions most at risk of failure or chaos from loss

- Establish a path for sustainability and security in hiring and retention

1. The barriers to entry are best defined by asking the following question: what would it take to satisfy the requirements of this position? Or, how difficult would it be to hire someone who is thoroughly capable of performing (with excellence) the tasks associated? In our company the owner was positioned to the far right, indicating it would be most difficult (highest barrier to entry) to enter that position. Our starting role was installation helpers, which proved to have the least barriers to being hired.

2. Once every role was identified and linearly outlined, we began the much more difficult task of defining which role, if suddenly lost, would create the greatest potential catastrophic impact. Most of the time there is NOT agreement around this process initially, as each team member tends to evaluate the question based on the impact it will have on them first. Ownership may suggest that administrators or bookkeepers may have the greatest impact if lost. Service managers often suggest a dispatcher as the highest in potential chaos. It takes time and room for many perspectives and transparent dialogue in a way that brings an entire team into agreement about these values. Eventually, you'll start to see a clear, perhaps frightening, picture of your team and can set a new measurement: your pain threshold.

3. Somewhere within your moving pieces that now reveal risk and loss potential, the next step is defining where the limit is for the organization to remain healthy when a loss occurs. What is the threshold at which stability and profitability are immediately jeopardized? Highlight all the positions which fall ABOVE this threshold, then create a quadrant that indicates where contingency plans need to be in place. Any good company understands that it flexes and adjusts over time, therefore some roles will fall out of this quadrant, and others may rise into it. The important task is establishing a plan of stability (typically by having clear PIPs) for every role that lingers in that area of maximum potential catastrophic impact.

4. Use every tool at your disposal to proactively create contingency plans. Cross-train as many existing team members, who will generally save over %75 of the cost of onboarding a new team member, and utilize their personal improvement plans to show potential career paths beyond their present role.

If you're uncertain of how to take the next steps to implement or develop a comprehensive and strategic plan, schedule a free consultation to discuss moving forward.