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He said, “You know how we have to protect the foundation. Sometime we have to be aggressive.” I was talking to a friend I used to work with. He worked on a team that had an us vs. them mentality. It created issues sometimes.
They didn’t always ask the questions they needed answered when they’re customers approached them with a project. Then their customer would surprise them with a last minute requirement … one that might have been revealed with the questions that didn’t get asked earlier. They would getting into a battle about what could be done and what couldn’t be done. It became a recurring turf war.
The customer saw the team as being difficult to work with and avoided engaging them … until they needed something bad enough. The team saw the customer as being difficult to work with and avoided engaging them … until they needed something bad enough.
The only time they’d work together was when things were bad. They associated each other with pain. We all avoid pain.
Are you making it painful to do business? Are you telling your customers about processes and forms? Are you approaching your vendors and service providers with last minute requests?
Pain has a price. How much is that pain costing you? Lost customers? Lost revenue opportunities? Have you made it less painful to outsource your job than it is to deal with you.
How much are you willing to pay to be a pain? Is it worth it?
