Do you know why it is important to understand context?

Any business that has been active for a few years has many decisions taken by the management over the years to reach its current state. 

When consultants or third-party vendors (or even new team members) come in to work with the business, there are some areas where the new individual might think that an idea would change how things work.

Which is great. But if you stick to that idea and push it without using the context of all the decisions made before you arrived at the business, sometimes it hurts the company more than is advantageous. 

Imagine a business was very successful with sponsoring events in their local area, which created a lot of brand awareness and connections, resulting in revenue-generating opportunities in about six months.

A new consultant looks at the results from the last three months and cannot find any converted business due to any connections made during the events sponsored in the past three months. They immediately told the company to cease all sponsorships without having a conversation and understanding the context under which these sponsorships had started in the first place. 

In the short run, the business and the consultant can show the results in terms of savings from not sponsoring any new events for the next quarter or two. Still, in the long run, the business will face challenges with the lack of revenue-generating opportunities that would have come up due to the connections made during those events.

So, before you make business decisions as a new employee, consultant, or vendor, remember to understand the context and history behind a particular set of processes or decisions made by the company already.

#context #businesshistory #businessmanagement #morecontentisgood