Dave Naffziger's Blog

We’ve largely wrapped up development work at Judy’s Book and are just addressing a few bugs here and there. The wind-down has taken several weeks and I’ve been incredibly impressed by the focus and dedication that the development team has demonstrated finishing their work at a company that would cease to exist in the near future.

In soccer, the two minutes after a goal or around a half presented unique opportunities. Games were won or lost as teams either lost focus or intensified their efforts.

The same thing applies in business. How individuals (and organizations) conduct themselves during transitionary periods provides great insight into their character and values.

A sales guy at one company deleted his contacts from Salesforce, downloaded the company’s customer list and went to work for a competitor. We’ve all worked with people that handled their transitions so poorly that we won’t work with them again.

The same can be said about companies. The core of the company culture is exposed when management learns that an employee is thinking about leaving. I’ve seen employers that instantly escort the person from the building. This tells the rest of the company that employees aren’t trusted.

These transitionary periods set the tone for how others think of you. The lasting impression you leave on most of your superiors, peers and subordinates will often be from the last few weeks of interactions. As an employee and especially an employer make the most of transitions to maintain (strengthen) your relationships throughout the company.

One of our developers spent both Saturday and Sunday fixing bugs. Another logged in remotely and kept the build process running. Everyone else has been chipping in code to squash the last few bugs.

My respect (and pride) in our team has never been higher.