Most people right now are trying to figure out: How do we bounce back from this economic crisis? I'm afraid it's not going to be that easy. I don't think there are going to be any easy solutions. I don't think there are going to be any 100 % solutions. Beware of easy 100 % solutions.

I think we are going to have to climb out of this economic crisis, one difficult partial solution at a time. This is a time for difficult partial solutions. Whatever role you're playing, wherever you are, you've got to take more responsibility for playing that role. Whatever you're doing, wherever you are, you're going to have to put in more time, more effort, and more energy. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, you've got to be honest with yourself. Be rigorous with yourself. And be honest and rigorous with others. You're going to have to have a lot of difficult conversations with people and you're going to have to make a lot of tough judgment calls.

How can you cut waste? How can you improve efficiency? Who are you going to fire? Who are you going to reward?

This is not a time when we can afford to be wasting resources. You've got to make the most of every resource. You've got to make the most of every moment. It's not going to be easy. It's going to be one difficult partial solution after another. This is a good time to be looking for cheap, quick, do-it-yourself improvements. This is the time to be looking at every step in every process in your business and looking for cheap, fast, do-it-yourself improvements.

What about your resource acquisition process? The vendors you deal with? What about your build and deliver process when it comes to services and products? What about your customer experience? What are the cheap, fast, do-it-yourself improvements you can implement right now?

BONUS MANAGEMENT TIP
STAFF THE WORK, NOT THE JOBS
Employers cannot go back to promising job security in exchange for loyalty because they need to stay lean and flexible, even while they are scrambling for access to the best talent. Organizations need to move away from the static long-term staffing model and move toward a more fluid model. In today's quickly changing marketplace, where employers can never predict what is just around the corner, the old-fashioned, stable, long-term employer-employee relationship just doesn't fit. The key to continued success for companies today is the ability to adapt rapidly to new circumstances---whether they are unexpected market opportunities or suddenly vanishing market opportunities. Depending on the circumstances, staffing may have to expand rapidly, or contract rapidly---or both at the same time. Certain skills may be required all of a sudden and others, just as suddenly, may be no longer necessary. In the new economy, staffing needs will be in constant flux. Employers must gear their staffing strategies around coping with this reality:
1. Shrink your core group of traditional employees.
2. Grow your fluid talent pool: Create a large reserve army, a proprietary talent database of former employees, temps, independent contractors, outside firms, part-timers, some-timers, flex-timers, telecommuters, and so on.
3. Develop solid working relationships with a wide range of vendors who can be counted upon for outsourcing.
4. Maintain an internal group of contributors who are not permanently assigned to any particular tasks/responsibilities, teams, locations, or schedules---who can be called upon and deployed to fill in staffing gaps wherever and whenever they occur.