by Peter A. Arthur-Smith
“Involvement and inclusion brings commitment; Hierarchy and directives dampen the human spirit”
SuperGuard’s real Green Light Day finally arrived. Harry, as strategic Co-Visionist, Christine as company advisor, its Strategist team, its Vanguard trial teams, and a sizeable group of SuperGuard’s team leaders and frontline-staff all turned up. Briefing bulletins had been circulating throughout the company over the prior two weeks. These primed everyone to be ready for giving this expansionary project a positive Green Light.
Harry, Christine and the Strategist team sat in a semi-circle facing the clusters of chairs and tables where everyone else sat waiting for the session to kick-off. Right on the bell, Harry gave a short overview of the Vanguard project to reaffirm everything his audience was aware of so far. Dan, SuperGuard’s Operationist, stepped forward to introduce his three Vanguard trial operating teams, along with their back-ups.
Melissa, Co-Visionist and Promotionist, announced that their first client-customer had just provisionally signed-up to move ahead. She also projected that others were likely to follow suit within the fairly near future. There was a spontaneous, excited cheer and applause from everyone present. Maureen, company Provisionist, affirmed that the required equipment and uniforms had arrived. (NOTE: All of these activities occurred while SuperGuard continued with its traditional, day-to-day security guard services.)
Following Harry’s helpful overview the floor was opened for questions and any suggestions. It was all part of the company’s important full-buy-in approach. Rachel, the firm’s Humanist, took bullet-point notes for future reference; especially their audience’s well informed questions and Strategist team answers. It was all part of “positive-listening;” a vital part of SuperGuard’s approach of “two-way communication” to avoid having to bureaucratize everything. With this two-way dialog, audience members bought further into the whole project and understood its expansionary nature. At that point, Roger, company Expansionist, went on to share how this was the opening phase of a multi-pronged strategy to facilitate onward company growth.
Fred, company Innovationist, then stepped forward to share how he had been shadowing the three “Pros” and “Cons” pairings to assist with their idea generation. These discussions had also included the three Vanguard trial teams; two covering client on-site activities and the other as its Operation’s Center monitoring team. “Pro” ideas reinforced the value of SuperGuard’s client focused attention, hi-tech equipment about to be used, and sheer professionalism that would always be on display.
When it came to turning the “Cons” into opportunities: The pairs shared how glitches would inevitably surface, although by up-scaling client attentiveness they would win the day. Also, that sometimes Vanguard team members would not be sufficiently prepared relative to client expectations; yet by countering with positive, constructive approaches they would win over their clients once more. Additionally, the Operation’s Center pair would inevitably occasionally miss key monitoring moments. However, by being prompt andhonest about such missteps, it would likely save their reputation – providing it didn’t happen too often.
Once these additional revelations were made, everyone agreed it was time for a ten minute coffee break. This gave attendees an extra opportunity to discuss progress among themselves. Harry then pulled everyone together once more for final thoughts and questions. These were relatively few because participants were eagerly poised to move right along. Do you think you would have felt the same way?
Harry then proceeded to explain how he and SuperGuard’s Strategist team would utilize the company’s Operational Streaming (OpS) technique to monitor progress. It covered three components: “Thinking About” six to twelve months ahead assuming Vanguard is a success. That would trigger thoughts about alternative client-types to be signed-up and how many additional Vanguard teams – and backups – ought to be educated via In-Team Discovery. Exact team member numbers would be known nearer the time. There was a fair amount of back-and-forth discussion about this point until people fully understood its implications.
The second Operational Streaming (OpS) component included “Position and Prepare” over the next 3-6 months to determine when recruitment of completely fresh Vanguard security team members should begin: OR should they draw from current company security guard ranks, or operation’s center staff before backfilling those positions. Also, what additional equipment and uniforms should they put on order? While briefing his audience on these OpS moves, Dan took the opportunity to ask guard audience members for their likely future interest in becoming elite guards. A good show of hands affirmed many elite guard possibilities.
Finally, the third leg of OpS included monitoring immediate Vanguard “Execution” on a daily-weekly basis over the next three months to assure quality client service. Initially there would be alternate-day Strategist team briefings – to eventually become weekly and then monthly sessions. These would be led by Dan and Melissa and team discussions would allow for outstanding issue resolution.
Beaming faces all-around showed that everyone was ready to give the Green Light to SuperGuard’s Vanguard service. Harry and Melissa gave the nod, followed by applause and everyone shaking hands with colleagues. They celebrated with a light, buffet-style lunch and then moved off to their usual roles. Vanguard would kick-off the following week with everyone glued for positive news. That ended Green Light Day!