The B.A.M. Plan

by Dr. Ginger Bratzel

 [The B.A.M. Plan]

Life happens. 

There are small inconveniences that can derail your best effort and then…

 There are full-out emergencies that rock your world.

• Key employee out sick for a week (or longer!)
• The building busts a water pipe
• Mother nature comes unhinged with an ice storm that turns your town into the North Pole

The secret to shifting control when things seem out of control is a simple acronym.

B.A.M.

You need the “Bare A$$ Minimum” to ensure your success, in any situation. The best way I have to illustrate the power of this concept is with a personal story.

I make no apologies for where I live in the middle of the US (also called tornado alley) in Oklahoma City. Great people but we have our fair share of severe weather. Being prepared is very critical in these situations. So to make sure our local kids are prepared and empowered to have control over things they don’t have control over, there is something called the Pillowcase Project.

It’s a program from the American Red Cross through elementary schools.   The Red Cross gives out a pillowcase that is imprinted with a list of bare minimum items that they should have ready, in case of emergency situation. 

It’s a checklist, right on the pillowcase. Simple items like a toothbrush, toothpaste, a bar soap, a comforting stuffed animal, and a working flashlight. Everything goes in that pillowcase and they kids keep it stored underneath their beds.   If something happens, they grab their pillowcase and seek shelter in the family’s designated place.  

The kids have an active role in creating their own safety. This removes the sense of helplessness by replacing fear and overwhelm with knowledge and power to being problem solvers.

And the same is true for businesses.

For you, it’s the ‘Bare A$$ Minimum’ you need to perform a key task, run a necessary department, or complete a critical project.   This is so you don’t skip a beat regardless of what’s going on around you.

And when I talk about needing your BAM plan,  I’m not necessarily talking about a natural disaster situation.   This is more about the ‘disasters’ that happen every day.

• What happens if a key employee out what happens at the backup doesn’t work on your computer? What happens if the office manager is out on extended illness and you don’t know what kind of money is coming in?
• Wonder if your head assistants are out and nobody knows when supplies are coming in?

Part of the plan is making sure other people in the office are minimally crossed train to step in, as needed.  And that they have access to that job’s BAM responsibilities and procedures which are documented ready to go into play.

When you have a functioning BAM system, someone with a small amount of common sense can look at the instructions and go to work on that key task to keep you afloat.

This is something we go through with our own team, as well as my clients and their teams.  We build the barest minimum for every department and key position…including the owner of the company.

• So what would happen if something happened to the owner? Would the spouse know what to do? Do they have a list of people’s phone numbers who are emergency contacts to handle the business?

Every business needs it so you can keep functioning at a high capacity. It doesn’t take much to derail success, so a little preparation goes a long way.

Your assignment is to create your B.A.M. Plan:

1. Identify the key departments that are critical for operations. (This is where you need to filter and get realistic.  Just like you can’t take your entire house out the door when a fire is coming, the same selectiveness is critical here.   So for your business, what is the most needed to keep you going.)
2. Go to the head person in that department and have them list the key tasks that have to happen in that department to keep the business chugging along.
3. And then take each of those tasks and document all the steps, resources, and details someone would need to step in and perform those tasks.
4. Lastly, test your BAM before you need it. You take your fresh BAM instruction manual and give it to somebody else who doesn’t work in that department or in that area of the office.  Hand it to them. Could they implement and understand everything in it?

If so, you have a complete BAM.  If not, this is the time you want to find out you needed to add some additional details.