Value in Retail: Added or Eroded?
Speaking of behavior, not only do we need to examine our behavior but the entire team’s dynamic needs to be looked at. One of the more common issues I have run into in retail is the double bind. A double bind is when an individual is caught between two other people that have conflicting agendas. This dynamic plays out in all aspects of our lives. An example that happens often in family life is when a child is told yes by one parent and no by another. The child is caught between a “rock and a hard place”. Something has to give and it may be the child’s mental psyche if we are not careful. Employees become caught in this type of a situation all too often. A firm that just went through a GAP analysis showed that middle management wanted its supervisors to visit six locations per day. At the same time, corporate operations produced a store visit book with financials, inspections and other data to structure the supervisors visit. The hitch? A visit using the visitation book required the supervisor to spend two to three hours at the location. There was no way any supervisor was going to visit six locations and maintain any quality control. Management immediately became aware of the situation but unfortunately neither faction would give. To this day, the company has not resolved the conflict and revenues continue to suffer.
So, how do we get around that? The pat answer has always been to get management buy in before a program is implemented. Nice in theory but many times it does not happen. Change is never easy to deal with. That is a whole different topic for discussion at a later date.
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