The Death of Miss Kim

It was quick – and relatively painless. Gone, in minutes, after 17 years of being a part of my life. Rarely had my husband reacted so quickly to a request. But at the mere hint that Miss Kim, the lilac tree near our front door should go he sprang into action. Perhaps it was the enticement of using the brute force of his tractor, a chain and lots of horsepower.

An avid gardener, I have an aversion to removing any living thing that has some degree of life to it. No matter how overgrown, scraggly, and ugly. Yet after the shock of loosing Miss Kim, I reveled in the openness of our entry way and looked forward to the growth my hydrangea would experience now that Miss Kim no longer blocked the sun. I felt a degree of lightness, of new possibilities. Sorry, Miss Kim, but I am not missing you at all!

Leaders, too, have similar aversions to killing things that have lost their vitality or purpose, but have been around for a long time. Much easier to design, develop, improve, implement. Much harder to decommission, discontinue, halt or stop doing what has always been done. Even if it doesn’t serve a purpose anymore – at least one that we can discern. I have yet find an organization that did not have practices, policies, processes, tools, meetings, and reports that could go the way of Miss Kim.

Challenge yourself. When you implement something new, be explicit about what goes away and diligent about insisting that it does die. Insist on examining the tasks that consume precious time, energy and resources in your organization. What things have outlived their usefulness? What things do you do that your customers don’t need or value?

Once you identify what needs to go away – take a lesson from my husband. Use the best tools at hand and take quick action. I suspect that the people you lead will cheer – at least once they get over the initial disruption. When was the last time you found ways to do less rather than more?