When you empower employees to get honest about your company’s flaws, they really commit. I’ve seen teams of six generate more than 30 weaknesses in 30 minutes — which is exactly what you need. Your competition doesn’t care about protocol or egos; they just want to render you obsolete.
One by one, ask each participant to reveal their sticky notes and categorize them as either a big or small threat, and whether they think the threat will be easy or hard to address. As a group, discuss what people perceive to be the company’s biggest threats and take a vote on the top three. A few pro tips: if most of your threats are clustered in one area, that’s a sign of a weakness in need of immediate attention. Conversely, you may actually be able to turn a few tactics generated in this exerciseyour competitors. So if you’ve clearly got a lock on manufacturing or technology, determine how to leverage that strength to grow your market share and edge out others.
Now, ask employees for ideas on how to prevent your top three threats from occurring. Could a smart acquisition expand your current customer base? Which logistical change would reduce your dependency on rail transport? What about committing resources to develop your own value-centric product line? In my experience, this phase of the exercise is truly electric: it’s when your company’s biggest threats are transformed into creative and innovative solutions. Additionally, collaboration on futuring exercises like this can boost employee morale and motivation in the face of uncertainty. Kill the Company also provides a productive framework for dispirited employees to vent about shortcomings — all while helping you address internal weaknesses and future-proof your business for 2023 and beyond.