Adamson Advisory

Is Your Boat Spinning?

I will first give Bill Reeb due credit for the metaphor. Bill used a slide at a partner retreat that has stuck with me for a number of years. The slide showed a boat in the water in the middle of several islands. The boat was spinning because several people were rowing one direction, several were rowing the other direction and some didn’t have their paddles in the water at all. The boat had no chance of reaching any island.

Hopefully this doesn’t sound like your firm or partner group. But, unfortunately it is a pretty accurate depiction of a lot of accounting firms that I have known. The sad truth is that the choice of which island to paddle for is probably not the most important question. Actually, any island would be better than spinning in the boat.

The bigger issue is how do you get everyone to row the same direction or at least keep their paddles out of the water. You’ll get there slower if everyone isn’t rowing but at least you’ll get there.

If you think about your firm and the initiatives that you have undertaken in your practice where you have failed or achieved less than you wanted, how many people in the three groups in the boat did you have?

The moral of the story is that we spend a lot of time intellectually strategizing about a direction or initiative in our firms and far to little time talking about how we will each personally support it. Getting that buy in and personal commitment from your partners up front is critical.

Pick an island that you have a chance of reaching.

 

 

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