One Thing You Should Do Now..

The state of the economy continues to dominate the headlines. But, now, instead of a storyline that says, "Why is the recovery so modest?" we've moved to, "Are we sure we have a recovery?"
The threat of falling back into a recession becomes more real every day, particularly with continued cutbacks in government spending.
Most employers are asking themselves, What should we do? Should we continue on with our plans, which, typically, were for modest expansion and hiring over the next year? Should we get a jump on cost-cutting in case there is a double-dip recession? Or should we do something entirely different?
What makes the current uncertainty so unnerving is that, in relative terms, we had been having a period when there was actually considerable consensus on what was happening: The economy was still lousy, but it had turned the corner and was slowly heading in the right direction.
We've had that consensus for a couple of years now. The story wasn't terrific, but it was actually one of the longest periods in recent memory where there appeared to be real certainty as to what was going on.
So what happens now? We sometimes hear that real leadership is about setting a course and sticking to it. Not! That's just stubbornness.
Sticking to the plan you have just because you have a plan is a recipe for being really, really wrong. We have to respond to changes in the world around us. The problem now is that we don't yet know what the changes are.
There is an argument for doing nothing, but that's not necessarily a good idea either, especially in the corporate world where answers and actions are expected. We have to respond.
Here's what to do. We're going to do scenario planning for human resources, but we're going to do so by engaging the senior leadership of the organization -- those responsible for strategy -- in doing it to aid their decisions as well as our own.
First, talk to whoever is in charge of setting strategy, goals, direction for the organization....