Accounting Today - June 2011

Hal, heart attacks and change
tomorrow’snews

Meet Hal. Hal was a 54-year-old CPA who ate and drank a little too much and didn’t get to the gym as often as he should. He smoked about a pack of cigarettes a day, and conceded, “I’m not in the best shape, but hey! how demanding is an audit, really?” (And, Hal would add, his wife’s a great cook.)

Every year at his annual checkup, Hal’s doctor reminded him that he needed to lose a few pounds. And every year, Hal brushed him off.

Then one Monday morning, after Hal finished shaving, he dropped to his knees on the bathroom floor clutching his chest.

Hal was having a heart attack.

His wife called 911 and an ambulance rushed him to the hospital. Within an hour of his arrival in the emergency room, a team of surgeons was hunched over Hal, performing a triple bypass.

When Hal woke up, his wife and three children were at his bedside, looking bleary-eyed but relieved.

That did it. Seeing his family’s deep concern and love for him, Hal decided on the spot that he was going to start taking better care of himself. With the help of his doctor and his wife, he stopped smoking, started eating right, and began going to the gym.

Hal was a model patient.

For about a year.

Eventually, unhealthy habits began sneaking back into Hal’s life. More red meat. Fewer trips to the gym. A couple of cigarettes at night.

Hal is not unusual. In fact, according to Dr. Edward Miller, dean of the medical school and CEO of Johns Hopkins University: “If you look at people after coronary-artery bypass grafting, two years later, 90 percent of them have not changed their lifestyle.”

Making change stick can be difficult, even when it’s a matter of life or death

BY REBECCA RYAN

Rebecca Ryan is a consultant and regular Accounting Tomorrow contributor who helps firms attract, develop and keep their top talent. Reach her at rr@nextgenerationcon- sulting.com or (888) 922-9596 ext. 702.

ACCOUNTING’S HEART ATTACK

The Great Recession was to public accounting what Hal’s heart attack was to him: a huge wake-up call. Like Hal, many firms weren’t behaving in the most healthy, sustainable ways. Then, when the recession hit, firms had to drastically change their behaviors. I saw three approaches:

1. Firms played defense by laying off staff, taking markdowns on fees, and cutting overhead costs.

2. Firms went on the offensive, creating intense marketing and business development schemes.

3. Firms used a hybrid approach, playing offense and defense simultaneously — for instance, agreeing to a smaller fee from a key

Eventually,
unhealthy
habits began
sneaking
back.

client in exchange for a binding multi-year commitment.

The results have been real. Firms that took the Great Recession seriously and made the changes required to survive are not only still in business — many are running more profitably than they ever have.

The big-dollar question is: Will the changes stick?

It depends on three questions, all centered around your people. As John Kotter, a Harvard Business School professor who studies organizations in the midst of upheaval, says, “The central issue is never strategy, structure, culture or systems. The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people.”

THREE QUESTIONS FOR YOUR FIRM

To determine whether your firm will be able to maintain better business habits, ask yourself these three questions:

1. How do we frame the firm’s future?
Framing is a critical concept. When we
“frame” an issue in a certain way, we give it
context and assign importance to it.

In my first five months with Accounting Today, I’ve discovered a trend among many accounting professionals.

It’s not earth-shattering, but for someone with a network of “creative-type” friends whose tax days culminate in a pile of W-2s from various bars and receipts for items such as tubs of apple sauce and a kiddie pool (to be presented in tandem), my personal mental connection between number-crunchers and artists was limited to those few months of the year when H&R Block would start replacing Grass-roots Tavern as the popular check-in on mobile location app FourSquare.

I underestimated the deeper connection between number dexterity and creativity, that aspirational symmetry between left and right brain function.

As I started speaking with Accounting Today contributors, Accounting Tomorrow bloggers, and accountants, this manifested in the discussion of various extra-cubicle activities, hobbies and work-in-progress autobiographies.

People are inquisitive about my writing career, only to share stories about their own. I’ve seen creativity in viral videos, like those from the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs humorously referencing classic movies. At my first conference for the magazine, those of us in attendance were treated to a CPA’s stand-up comedy set during cocktail hour.

As someone who cheered when my college advisor told me I would never have to venture near a math lecture hall to attain my journalism degree, I’m constantly impressed with people who easily juggle data analysis and a turn of phrase, stroke of paintbrush or punch of the line.

I would love to hear more about the pursuits of Accounting Tomorrow readers outside of the office. E-mail us your videos, published writing, photography or personal blogs, and we will start spotlighting submissions on Facebook.