I confess to being a fan of really, really good “B” movies. What is a good, bad movie? It’s one that knows it’s a bad movie, and lets the audience know that it knows. I haven’t seen it, but Piranha 3D notched the http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ review scale at 82%. That is like “Godfather” level ratings. That’s not because it’s a great film, but because it knows that it isn’t.
One of my favorites is “Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension.” Just imagine Christopher Lloyd, Peter Weller, Jeff Goldblum, John Lithgow and Ellen Barkin camping it up with corny lines and ridiculous scenes. No plot synopsis is necessary. That would miss the point.
In one scene Lithgow is leading cheers for a bunch of aliens (don’t ask.) He shouts from a raised platform:
“Where are we gonna go?”
“Planet Ten!” They all scream.
When are we gonna get there?”
“Real soon!”
The funny thing is that he has been leading these aliens for three quarters of a century, and you just know that “Real soon!” has been the strategy from the beginning.
Many small business owners are using the Buckaroo Banzai strategy with their employees right now. When is this recession going to end? (Real soon.) When are we going to hire more people to help us? (Real soon.) When will we start getting raises again? (Real soon.)
I just read another article about the breadth and depth of the debt problem. If you read my last post, you know that it hasn’t nearly worked through the system yet. On my bad days I see doom and gloom, but even on my good days I can’t imagine returning to the loose money and Chinese-financed boom of the early 20-oughts. The numbers are just too draconian to be ignored. Our economy still has the bulk of the price yet to pay for the bubble, and stimulus money has just delayed the inevitable, not made it disappear.
Start now letting your employees know the truth. Their concept of real soon isn’t the same as yours. Consider practicing some limited open-book management, if you don’t already. Give them some metrics, the numbers you’d have to reach to begin hiring or expansion. If you’ve absorbed losses, tell them what has to be recovered before there will be earnings to spend again.
In the last quarter, more people left their jobs voluntarily than were terminated or laid off. Employees are moving because they have shorter time frames than owners, and no experience in riding out a prolonged downturn. They think that the problems or tightened belts are only in their companies, not in the ones down the street.
If you want to keep your best people on board both physically and mentally, it will take honest communication. Not doom and gloom speeches, but not “Real soon” either.