September 26

Bobbie was completely discombobulated on her drive to work that morning. Houston traffic was never good, even this far away from the permanent traffic jams around the loop and downtown, but today felt like even more of a mess than normal. And the questions buzzing around in her head were making it hard to concentrate. 

‘This isn’t helping,’ she thought to herself and turned on the radio to take her mind off things. She resented that some of her favorite college songs were now approaching the older end of the station’s music bracket. 

‘At least I’m not having to resort to the classic rock station like Alex,’ she consoled herself as she started singing along to one of her college roommate Tina’s favorites.  She hadn’t seen Tina in a while but, as she thought back to their last girl’s night out, Bobbie started smiling to herself, recalling part of their conversation….

—— 

Tina was a team leader at one of the big consulting firms in town now and they’d been catching up over dinner.  Instead of just consulting, Tina was now doing more project and team management which was giving her a whole new set of challenges. One thing that had stood out to Bobbie was her gripe about clients who couldn’t define what they wanted.

“B, these people are taking years off my life! They read something in HBR or The Economist and now they want this new shiny thing. Except they don’t really know what it is or what it’s supposed to do. It’s awful.”

“Awful?” Bobbie had replied, “Doesn’t that make it easier for you? Surely if they don’t know anything about the product, then they just take whatever you deliver.”

Tina laughed. “You’d think but it’s not like that. The problem is that they have an idea of what the thing should be but they can’t articulate it. Plus, because they often don’t understand what a product or tool is supposed to do, their idea is skewed. It’s like someone saying ‘build me my dream house’ but not explaining what that might look like. And then it turns out that when they said ‘house’, they meant ‘office’. You’ll never get them what they want because they don’t know what they want.“

Bobbie mulled this over for a moment and remembered the firm she had been at before XYZ Co.

“Actually,” she said, “I get where you’re coming from. We had a similar thing at my last firm. Do you remember that nightmare? When the management wanted a safety system but we could never get it right? I was too junior to be in all the meetings but the ones I was in, sounded like what you’re describing. We were building a safety system but it didn’t seem to be what management wanted.”

“Welcome to my world.” said Tina, raising her glass. 

“But, I think I’ve worked out a trick to fix it. Basically, I’ve started working backwards and it seems to be helping.”

“Backwards? What do you mean,” asked Bobbie. “Surely that’s even more difficult?”

“Well, not backwards exactly, but I start the discussion at the end. Instead of letting them explain what they want – say a strategy or a plan – I begin by asking them what they want to achieve. Basically, what’s their objective? And, weirdly, the higher-level we start, the easier it is. So even if I’m working at a regional or divisional level, if we work back from corporate, it makes the whole thing easier.”

“So I get what you’re doing,” said Bobbie, “But I don’t see how that helps deliver the result that they want.”

Tina learned forward a little. “Honestly, neither did I at first. I was working with Leslie, one of the partners. Scary good but also one of those scary ‘Devil Wears Prada’ corporate types.” 

They both shuddered a little. 

“Anyway,” Tina continued, “she used to start the conversation that way. ‘Tell me what this looks like at the end of the project? What’s the number one thing the business wants to achieve this year? Is this for compliance or to address a business challenge?’”

“I didn’t get it at first. But when I worked with other partners who just went straight into the delivery aspect, based on what the client said they wanted, I noticed that we didn’t hit the target as often. The client wasn’t happy with the result because it didn’t meet their needs.”

“Because you hadn’t defined those up front!” said Bobbie.

“Exactly. Leslie would always remind me to differentiate between what people want and what they need. So if you start at the end, then you can work backwards with the client and define what they need, explaining the product and process as you go. It definitely takes longer but it makes a huge difference.”

“The only downside for me,” said Tina, “Is that I’m not senior enough to get to pick and choose so I still get saddled with some of those ‘build me a house’ types’. But at least I know how to manage things when I get the chance to run projects my way.”

 Bobbie raised her glass, toasting her friend. “Good on you, girl! You’ll be one of those scary corporate types before we know it.” She winked at Tina who grimaced.

“Luckily,” Bobbie went on, “I don’t have to deal with all that consulting nonsense. Work’s all about the execution for me….”

– – – – 

‘Famous last words’, she thought to herself back in the office. She looked down at her yellow pad.

‘Start at the end’, she’d written in big letters and below it, ‘What does Xavier want the risk assessment for?’

‘Well,’ she thought, ‘let’s see if Tina’s right.’

She grabbed her notepad and headed over to Xavier’s office for the 08:00 meeting she’d asked Debbie for the night before.

She found Xavier ready at his desk, waiting for her questions. He was still excited about the project which was a good sign

“Ok, so I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and planning about the risk assessment but, before I dive into the details, I wanted to get a sense of the bigger picture. Can we start with the overall intent, Xav? What is it you want the risk assessment to do? What’s it actually for and how will XYZ Co use it? That’s going to help me deliver what you need.”

Xavier just sat there looking slightly uncomfortable. 

‘Darn it,’ Bobbie thought, ‘he hasn’t thought about that. He’s one of Toni’s ‘build a house’ guys.’

Suddenly, he leaned forward “Did you eat yet, Bobbie?” Xav didn’t wait for an answer. “I just realized that in my decrepitude I forgot to eat breakfast this morning. Let’s go grab something before I pass out at my desk.”

He got up, grabbed a few things from his desk and headed out the door.

“Debbie, I need to go eat and Bobbie’s going to make sure I don’t pass out at the wheel. We’ll be back by 10:00.”

Bobbie heard Debbie remind Xavier about a 10:30 call he had as she hurried after him, catching up as he got into his truck.

“Don’t worry,” he grinned at her as they pulled out of the parking lot, “I’m not that addled. I think I can get us to breakfast safely.”

Shortly afterwards, they were seated in a nearby diner she always saw on her way into work but had never visited. Xavier, on the other hand, seemed to be a regular and had been shown to a booth in the back where coffee and toast had started to arrive without much in the way of conversation.

“Well,” Xavier began, “the cat’s out of the bag.” He waved his arm around the diner. “This is the best breakfast in Houston, Bobbie. I don’t normally take folks from work so I can eat in peace. But,” he went on, “I occasionally make exceptions, particularly when I want to have a conversation without everyone walking by my office eavesdropping.”

“So, ‘What is it I want the risk assessment to do? What’s it actually for and how will XYZ Co use it?’ Big questions, Bobbie, big questions indeed.”

He took a sip of his coffee and smiled.

“But good questions. No point asking someone to book me a trip without me telling them the destination. So here’s the deal.”

Xavier leaned in and started to explain the situation and Bobbie started to take notes, lots of notes.

The short version, as Xavier put it, was that he was thinking that it might be time for him to step away from the business but he wanted to leave things in good shape. And part of that was to put a few things in place before he left to give the management committee a couple of options. 

As soon as he mentioned the management committee, Bobbie could imagine the difficulties. Xavier’s two children, Yvonne and Zack, were part of the XYZ  Co Senior Leadership Team or SLT. Although they were both competent, they each had different views about where the company should be going. And sibling rivalry was something that you just didn’t grow out of.

Although he didn’t say as much, Xavier seemed to be taking all of this into account in his planning. His overall intent was to make sure the business continued after he left which seemed to open up two options. The first was for some combination of the existing management team to continue to run the business essentially ‘as is’. The second was for the business to look for a conglomerate that might buy it in as a specialist division. That would leave XYZ Co as a semi-autonomous business with the backing of a large firm although a lot of the non day-to-day decisions would end up with the parent.

“Here’s the thing, Bobbie,” Xavier said, putting down his coffee, “I know which option I want, but the emphasis there is on the ‘I’. And the plan is for me to step aside so it’s not about what I want. However,” he paused for a moment, “I’ve also seen companies like XYZ fall apart within months of the founder leaving.”

Bobbie nodded. You didn’t have to work in Houston – or the oilfield at all for that matter – to see the ‘mom-and-pop’ shops disappear as soon as the founding mom-and-pop left. Very few survived when control passed over to the next generation. And that was assuming that the next generation even wanted to take over.

“So I want to give the management committee a couple of options to work on. If I give them free-rein it’s going to be a goat-rope.” Xavier continued. 

“And if they can’t make up their minds?” Bobbie asked.

“Well,’ Xavier continued, “then I guess it’s up to the shareholders to get involved but that’s a bit of a last resort.”

“Uh, the shareholders…?” asked Bobbie. “I thought we were private.”

“We are, but XYZ isn’t just my company. Do you think Debbie’s been here since day one because we had a great 401K back then?”  Xavier laughed and slapped the table.

“Bobbie, we had nothing. Nothing! It was just me and Jim with an old military surplus jeep and a welding set. We’d just left the Army and…” he trailed off. 

“Well, that’s a story for another day. Anyway, the thing is that it was just a few of us to start with. Jim and I were the welders. Debbie was my wife Lizzie’s best friend. She agreed to help us with the invoicing part-time but that ended up being full-time. The thing was that we couldn’t even pay minimum wage so we proposed that she stay on a part-time salary but she got equity. If we succeed, we all succeed. If we fail, at least she got paid for half her time.”

He paused. “I’m telling stories. Sorry.” 

“The point is,” he continued, “we also have shareholders so if the management committee can’t agree, then we kick it up to the next level.”

He paused to sip his coffee, looking thoughtful.

“I’d prefer we didn’t have to go down that route, which is why I want to give the management committee some well-thought out options. And a big part of that is your project, Bobbie. It’s going to be a big help with our operational decision-making plus we will need it when – sorry, if – we speak to anyone outside.”

Suddenly, Xavier looked at his watch.

“Uh oh, it’s 09:50 and Debbie will skin me alive if I miss this 10:30. Let’s head out. He dropped a couple of $20 bills onto the table and waved to the server as they headed out the door.

While they drove back to the office Bobbie leafed through her notes. There was a lot to process. Xavier broke her concentration just as they pulled into the parking lot.

“Just remember, Bobbie, some of this is a bit sensitive. For right now anyway.” She nodded as they walked towards the office. “Just remember the big thing from this morning.”

She thought for a moment – they had covered a lot in their conversation – but he cut in before she could answer.

Xavier looked around with exaggerated caution then leaned in.

“Don’t give away my secret breakfast spot.” He whispered conspiratorially and winked before heading upstairs.

Bobbie smiled and turned towards her own part of the building. She had the answers to her questions and a whole lot more. Now she just had to work out how to put it all to use.