When Poison enters.

Have you every worked at a place where everyone worked well together and everything just clicked? You know, the left hand always knows what the right hand is doing. There are times that associates work together like a fine tuned machine. Like the way the pistons and the valves work in an engine or a healthy heart and the lungs work together. Everything running smooth, all parts doing what they're supposed to. The nice thing about a group of people who work well together is that one person will help another out without even being asked. Then, one day, poison steps in. Like dirt in the engine or smoke in the lungs. All of the sudden a machine that was clicking on all cylinders is not working at all. Some times we deal with this in our work place. Someone comes in to a workplace, a sales team or a territory that causes all kinds of problems. The sad thing is that management may not always recognize it. As a matter of fact, there are times when management is the last to know. Many times the other associates know the truth before management. Hence, the poison continues to fester and once everything settles and the poison is finally removed, there is a lot of work to be done. In the body, organs may need replace. In an engine you may need a new short block. In the work place you very well may need to resell your clients as to why they should stay with your product or may have to re earn your customers trust. My suggestion, listen to your employees, ask them if they can think of anyone who they would coin as poison. Maybe they can see someone who isn't poison yet but could be pushed to become poison. Then you can take the precautions so that this doesn't happen. Bottom line, listen and talk to your employees. Listen and talk to your customers. Chances are they know the poison way before you and, caught quick enough, you can stop it before it becomes a major problem.