Take the case of one President of a regional services firm. After several years in business, he decided to shift his business plan to grow his company in a creative new way.

Quick to move forward, he engaged what he thought were all the right resources, and had all the right conversations to devise and execute his plan. But in the process of all this activity, he noticed something odd occurring to his company's bottom line. It was shrinking! What was happening?

Perhaps you'd think the answer was obvious. If he was focusing on activities other than immediate revenue, of course that would affect the bottom line. But he was still doing his job. What he did realize is that his employees weren't focusing on the business at hand. Instead, they had become distracted, anticipating the changes that were coming.

Recognizing the impact this had on his business, he was quick to evaluate what he might have done to contribute to the problem. And what he realized is that as he planned this initiative, he shared his ideas with key employees and kept them abreast of his progress. And although he saw them as his unofficial “sounding board”, the unintended consequence was that they developed a ‘wait and see' attitude, assuming that the methods they were using today would soon change. Therefore they perceived today's efforts as potentially wasted.

Productivity's Enemy

This is not unusual. I saw this dynamic a lot in my banking career. During a merger, new initiative or change in leadership, employees become internally focused and pay less attention to customers and clients. Uncertainty kills productivity.

By his own admission, this executive recognized he should not have involved his employees in these early stage discussions, and could have instead waited until the plan was complete and there was something ready to execute. He came to realize that he should have utilized an outside third party to strategize and troubleshoot his ideas, thereby avoiding the negative impact this had on his company.

The Rest of the Story

As it turns out, after completing his analysis of the new business plan he decided not to pursue the new strategy based on the economics. There's nothing wrong with that – spending time to explore and evaluate new options is part of management's role. Unfortunately, by involving his employees they became distracted unnecessarily, and at a measurable cost to the company.

The bottom line: recognize the impact that perceived uncertainty can have on your workforce; and never underestimate the value of utilizing an outside sounding board. It keeps everyone on task, helps you gain clarity and can actually save you lots of time and money.