Transitions: A New Business Model

Working as a leader in a public sector system - a system that is highly scrutinized, no less - has had its benefits.  One of those benefits is fine tuning some skills that can only come from opportunities made of sweating brows, churned stomachs, wringing hands.  Maintaining good ego strength on days where there is no love to be found?  I've got that covered.  Entering a room filled with an angry mob and turning the energy around?  No problem.  Solving two, three, even four problems with one solution? I'm a master at it.  Smiling on the outside when I feel murderous rage on the inside?  Believe it or not, most days I've got that one tucked away somewhere, too.

The one skill I may have fine tuned the most, however, is that of delivering bad news.  I've thought about this skill quite a lot in the last few days because it's everyone least favorite time of year - contract time. That's right, it's the time of year when agencies in our system learn their fate.  Will their business thrive or die?  Is it their time to shine, or is their day in the sun drawing to a close?  As a department, we have to deliver news to eager executives, and some of it is just no fun to deliver.  But that's business, and if we are making and executing hard decisions, it also means we are being good stewards of the tax payers.  It truly is all in a day's work.

So when you've built a career on the sad misfortune of expressing bad news, it would make sense to build further upon that skill.  Right?  So I present to you, the new business I am developing.  Please know, I invite your feedback for its worthiness and its possible applications.  It is my proud honor to share with you:  Transitions.

Welcome to Transitions.  Transitions is a business model built on doing your dirty work.  No, we aren't a maid service.  We don't come with Haz-Mat suits and we don't do biohazard clean-ups.  Rather, we do your dirty work...of delivering bad news.

Have an under-performing employee who is sadly pathetic but needs to go?  Afraid to fire them because you know they have a slew of hungry children at home?  No problem.  Transitions will compassionately but decisively let them know they need to pack up their desk and move around.  We will stay on-site until they've assuredly left the building.

Need to back out of business with your partner who was also the best man in your first wedding? We've got it covered.  Your professional Transitions Team will pull the sad sack aside and let him know what's what - and we'll even deliver the papers your lawyer drew up for him, too.

Is it time to end that relationship that is literally on its last leg?  With just a quick phone call from you, you can arrange to have the Transitions van pull up to the house, ring the door bell, and let your future ex-girlfriend know "it's not you, it's me (which, in fact, is really you)."  For a small up-charge, we will even stick around to gather up your favorite hoodie, your Fleetwood Mac album, and your iPhone charger.

So there you have it:  Transitions.  "Let somebody else do the talking, while you do the walking."

I think I could really be onto something here.