Exit (Escape?) Strategy (Employment FMEA) - Good and Bad Experiences

[Wes Bucey]

When I counsel businessmen and women seeking to open or expand a business, one of the things I put great emphasis on is the "exit strategy" as part of their business plan. Whether they exit

• to retire,
• to provide for their families if they expire,
• to rekindle the fire,

exiting is as important to a business plan as entering.

There are many successful "serial entrepreneurs" who get a big adrenalin rush from creating and bringing new businesses to a measure of success, but then they get bored with the normal trials and tribulations of maintaining such a business with only incremental change, improvement, and expansion.

Some get over that "itch" by going on major merger and acquisition binges, building wild conglomerations of multiple lines of business.

Others go on a different tack and shed the current business and start a new one.

In a curious analogy, finding and landing a new job carries a similar decision crisis with many folks.

In the worst possible scenario, of course, some folks get fired before they get settled.

In other scenarios, they discover the true work environment is diametrically opposite from what they had been led to believe and they need an escape hatch NOW!

For most, though, the situation causing the decision crisis comes somewhere down the road, after they've settled in and become comfortable with the job.

Think up your own list, but here's a quick one:

1. organization management changes
   (death, promotion, merger, acquisition)
2. competition makes the product or service obsolete
   (buggy whips in an automotive world)
3. family circumstances change
   (birth, death, marriage, divorce, illness)
4. employee learns new skills, but current organization has no place to use them (got a new MBA?)
5. grass looks greener in the next pasture

No matter what the trigger, the situation is still the same: the individual needs an exit strategy for the smoothest and most efficient transition possible.

Over the next week or so, we'll discuss both the triggers and the strategies.

In the meantime, tell us about a good or bad experience in exiting or escaping a work situation.

 

[Randy]

Re: Exit (Escape?) Strategy

In the meantime, tell us about a good or bad experience in exiting or escaping a work situation.

There we were and the helicopters we needed to get out were all shot up.....

I'll bet that's not the kind of work related escape you wanted.


My last real world "escape" started with my receiving a phone call and someone saying "what would we have to pay you to...." The next thing I knew I had been taught the secret handshake and clubhouse password for where I am now. I had actually been hoping for an "out" about 30 days after taking my last EHS management job and had started to look around and the tiimg of the call couldn't have been better. It has worked out fine with little heartburn during the process.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Re: Exit (Escape?) Strategy (Employment FMEA)

There we were and the helicopters we needed to get out were all shot up.....

I'll bet that's not the kind of work related escape you wanted.

Actually, it is! Obviously, whatever strategy your unit had for survival included an alternate escape route if the air evac was SNAFUed. It worked somewhat because you are here to tell the tale. It may not have been perfect if your unit suffered casualties and injuries that might have been avoided with the original air evac.

My last real world "escape" started with my receiving a phone call and someone saying "what would we have to pay you to...." The next thing I knew I had been taught the secret handshake and clubhouse password for where I am now. I had actually been hoping for an "out" about 30 days after taking my last EHS management job and had started to look around and the tiimg of the call couldn't have been better. It has worked out fine with little heartburn during the process.

Obviously, you didn't have a concrete strategy for exit or escape. It probably came as a surprise that the new work situation began to deteriorate for you so quickly.

My thesis here in this thread is that "stuff" happens and we should have some strategy for dealing with it if [and when] it does. Call it "Employment FMEA" (Failure Mode & Effects .) So we will be exploring Employment FMEA throughout this thread.

 

[Gert Sorensen]

Re: Exit (Escape?) Strategy (Employment FMEA)

Looks like an interesting subject. I will definitely be keeping an eye on this thread

 

[Howard Lee]

Re: Exit (Escape?) Strategy (Employment FMEA)

They came in and fired my boss four weeks ago. The next week one of my coworkers gave his two weeks notice, his last day was this past Friday. Things are interesting around here. My father once told me to never depend on anything lasting forever and always look for the next job, so I do.

Everyone is talking about how bad things are going around here and I think back to the morning in June 95 when I went to work and woke up in July and everything I knew, everything I believed in, and everything I depended on no longer existed. I tell the people around me that I have been around when things go bad and things are not nearly bad yet.

I always look for the next job out of habit. I have made an assessment of what I need and what I will accept. After my wife died three years ago I eliminated all of my debt except for one last student loan. I have enough cash on hand to grab and live on for a few weeks and enough savings to live on for well over a year. I am resourceful. When FUBAR happens again, if I am still alive, I will move on to the next thing.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Re: Exit (Escape?) Strategy (Employment FMEA)

Some folks will remember Howard's story in Quality Progress earlier this year. I'm not sure it is accessible to non-ASQ members at http://www.asq.org/data/subscriptions/qp/2007/0307/qp0307firstperson.pdf
but it IS inspiring and vividly demonstrates that folks CAN recover from disastrous events and survive, even thrive.

If it is NOT accessible, let me know and I will CONSPIRE with Howard to find a way for you to read it.

 

[CarolX]

Re: Exit (Escape?) Strategy (Employment FMEA)

Wes - it is not available unless you are a member.

 

[Howard Lee]

Re: Exit (Escape?) Strategy (Employment FMEA)

You twisted my arm Wes, here is a copy and being the author I can post it as long as I point out that it is now property of Quality Progress or ASQ or whoever. That's okay by me, I'm the one risen from the dead. Here's the link to the original thread: Article "Quality Control and Brain Damage", Quality Progress, March 2007 A copy of the file is in the sixth post.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Re: Exit (Escape?) Strategy (Employment FMEA)

You twisted my arm Wes, here is a copy and being the author I can post it as long as I point out that it is now property of Quality Progress or ASQ or whoever. That's okay by me, I'm the one risen from the dead. Here's the link to the original thread: http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=20812 A copy of the file is in the sixth post.

Thanks. I had forgotten you posted an original copy. Direct link is (http://elsmar.com/Forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=6554&d=1173444746)

 

[Wes Bucey]

Re: Exit (Escape?) Strategy (Employment FMEA)

Earlier, I talked about "serial entrepreneurs." A close analogy in the employment world would be consultants and contract workers - folks always ready to pick up and move to a new organization or location.

Obviously, a small proportion of these folks are marking time until the ideal permanent position comes along, but most of them enjoy the stress and tension of continually meeting new situations.

Even so, they still have some of the basics of an "exit strategy" as part of their arsenal:

1. resume always current
2. close eye on the general market, maintaining a list of "next places"
3. pay close attention to being "likable" to keep good references and maintain a reputation of easy to fit in and work with
4. constantly on the alert to learn new things to make themselves more marketable (and thus more valuable to current AND each new organization)
5. always alert to the "danger signals" to know when to jump ship

Maybe number 5 (alert to danger signals) is a good place to start. Almost invariably, folks who get terminated involuntarily say it came as a surprise. Actually, when we sit down and play back the weeks and months leading up to the termination, we find the signals were all there, but the victim was too complacent and just didn't recognize them for what they were.

Our next installment will be on danger signals and how to recognize them and make a decision whether to take action to stay or to leave.

In the meantime, let's hear about some of the signals you saw in time (or not) which led to your voluntary or involuntary exit.