Our new Center Director posed an interesting question last week to the management group to take back to their staff. I thought it was interesting so I’m posing the same question to you guys.
Here’s the scenario.
There’s a tree, 25 feet tall, filled with $342 million. How do you get the money out of the tree?
It’s been interesting to see the responses from the line staff. Some have naturally been goofy. Others have really put some thought into their responses. I won’t share the responses I’ve heard now; I want to hear some of your ideas.
The idea the Director is getting at is how do you develop a plan to accomplish a difficult task? Do you stress about, laugh it off, formulate a plan and work as a team? Do you assess your toolbox first or do you jump right in and wing it?
How would you get the money down?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Was that all you had to start with was that exact sentence? I can think of 20 different ways to do it, but I didn’t know if there were parameters… ?
@Ben Nope, that’s it; just that exact phrase. I know, it leaves a thousand ways to do it be he’s looking for the best/most creative way. I’ve heard some methods that impressed the heck out of me and some that made me wonder how these people make it to work in the morning.
Such an open-ended problem. One of the things I would want to consider is if this is a one-time only opportunity. Every time you pull a dollar from the tree, is that the last time you get that dollar?
Having said that, I would analyze where in the tree the money is and determine where there are dependencies – understanding if harvesting any money now precludes harvesting other money later. So I would want a team to do a good analysis of where the money is in the tree.
Without analysis, there is a brute force method or two. I would consider felling the tree and just gathering what I could once it got to the ground.
Or sending some really good climbers up to harvest in place.
Then of course, you could outsource, or just sell the tree to someone else for about $315 million.
@Tim G I love your plan Tim, thats along the same lines as what I was thinking. Outsourcing it and kicking back in a chair while someone else does it sounds like a good plan too
For $342M, I’d cut that sucker down and invest it. If money trees grow money, then money should grow money trees.
@Ben No kidding!
haha Ben, I like your response. But as for me, I wouldn’t’ cut it all down. I’ll just leave it there so it can grow even more money and just trim what I need =)
@Novice-HR Lets assume you need it all for an emergency, how would you get it?