How to make company initiatives matter

Why every company wants to launch an initiative—and how you can make it matter

It starts when something goes wrong, or not well enough, or when your top executives decide it’s time for change (and change, as we all know by now, is the only constant).

That’s when someone in the executive suite opens the top-secret Book of Bosses and turns to Chapter 4: “When in doubt, launch an initiative.”

An initiative happens when someone decides the organization needs to:

• Make more money (there’s a shocker)

• Change the way it does business (frequently)

• Adapt to changes in the marketplace (always)

• Operate more efficiently (read: cut costs, which usually means people)

All of these issues might be quite valid, by the way. Every organization strives to be innovative and flexible and dynamic, ready to take on whatever the marketplace throws its way.

But then the Book of Bosses takes a hard right down Idiotic Alley. It outlines, in exquisite detail, what the bosses must do to capture the hearts and minds of employees. If you truly want to inspire the troops and motivate them to greatness, then you have one option only: