Thought Patrol Podcast

Today we're talking about trends, those things that will define our future operating environment. Dick Clark said, “I don't set trends. I just find out what they are and exploit them.” in that little phrase is all the wisdom you need to align your organisation to the inevitability of a changing environment.

When you don't align to trends you are always, catching up and never getting ahead. Always in the crowd, and never ahead on your own, enjoying the freedom of demand with low competition, and the economic rents that engenders. Quite simply your organisation becomes reactive rather than proactive.

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When we're talking about the need to appraise from a strategic perspective, one of the most important components is understanding opportunity. What are the opportunities, are they good are they not so good?

I love this quote from Thomas Edison, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Unfortunately, it is very true. If we are to look at opportunities, there is usually hard work involved. We often must try and fail, to learn where those opportunities are. Whilst occasionally they do drop into our laps, it is a very rare phenomenon, unfortunately. 

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When we want to appraise from a strategic perspective, one of the key elements to consider is our capability. Whilst I believe we should always begin with the ‘end in mind’, I think it is wise to also look at what are we good at now, what do we have in place, where is our area of expertise, what are we known for. In short, what is our capability currently or core competencies? Whilst we may have to adjust and grow and change our capabilities, knowing our starting point is important in appraising strategically.

“Success means at least you are finding full potential to who you are in terms of your intelligence, your capability and competence: you are finding full expression to who you are." This is important, according to Jaggi Vasudev. Whilst he was referring to an individual, I believe it also holds true for the organisation.

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Our reference point today is the ability to appraise strategically. Strategy doesn't live in isolation from a ‘reason for being’. Today, we’re talking about purpose, but from a strategic perspective. Strategy almost by definition must be aligned to the organisation's purpose. I think there's something innate in us that needs to have a sense of purpose, we need to be part of something that's larger than ourselves, to be fully activated.

Robert Byrne, said, “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” I like that. There is a sense of potential being released, when we find a sense of purpose and direction. When organisation's lack clear purpose, a few things happen. A lack of purpose can lower motivation, as people ask themselves, “why am I here?”, “what's the point?”. Clear purpose can be a clarion call, engender alignment, cooperation and be a great motivator. VIEW MORE HERE

We live in an imperfect world, as you may have observed. Whilst we think we can fully control our environment; control is ultimately an illusion. Things change, so we must adapt and be agile, and not lock ourselves into strategies without considering their progress. 

All strategic milestones need to be reviewed on a regular basis. In our Stragile Method the 12 month milestones are reviewed every 90 days. I like 90 days. It's long enough to get something done and short enough to create a sense of urgency.

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Let's take a moment to talk about ownership not ownership of a company but ownership of milestones. You’ve begun to activate your strategic map. You've identified the actions you need to take for future success. You’ve clearly articulated those with simple, measurable, demonstrable milestones. Nice work!

Your next step is to ensure that total responsibility for the delivery of a milestone lies with a single individual. One person. Your role as a leader of the team is to ensure that the capabilities of the milestone owner, mirror the needs in the milestone. For example, a people related milestone should obviously sit with someone in Human Resources.

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There are three phases to Strategic Mapping, Appraise, Align and Activate. Let’s talk about activate. This is where the rubber hits the road, by taking action. The talking’s over it’s time to do something. Unfortunately, I’ve seen so many well-meaning strategy sessions deteriorate into ineffective talkfests. Ultimately it is only action that will move you forward. 

The other constraint I’ve observed is a desire to have the perfect way forward before action is taken. In a fast-moving environment you will never have a perfect solution, because you have imperfect clarity.  

The answer is to create momentum and have a process and culture that allows for review and response. At the core of that is clear and simple milestones. Mike Huckabee said, “It's when ordinary people rise above the expectations and seize the opportunity that milestones truly are reached.” VIEW MORE HERE

In the last two videos we talked about Productivity and Clarity, two of our drivers of growth. Our third driver is Scalability; the ability to grow fast. You can have clarity of direction and a productive workplace, but if you are constrained in other ways, if you don't understand your pressure points, or resources are not allocated correctly, we will still fail to grow.

This can be very frustrating, with growth restricted and constrained, and your organisation limited and impeded. But if you have Clarity and Productivity and you add in the pragmatic Scalability to the mix, hold on, you'll have the proverbial tiger by the tail. Leadership in this area is often forgotten but as Martin L. Abbott quite rightly observed, “If you can’t lead, you can’t scale.”

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Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winner in economics, once wrote: "Productivity is not everything, but in the long run, it is almost everything”. There has been a lot of talk about productivity, perhaps the lack of it. Despite technological advances, productivity growth is declining, almost static. 

You know when you have productivity as things just get done. Momentum is a wonderful thing, productivity drives momentum. When you don't have productivity, your organisation is disorganised and ineffective. Lots of busy people, but not much progress, is a sign of a lack of productivity. It may not always feel like that, but when you've experienced pure productivity, nothing else will suffice.

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If you want growth on scale, and who doesn't, then you only need three things. Clarity, Productivity, and Scalability. Starting point of this transformation is Clarity.  Robin Sharma said that "Clarity precedes success." There's a lot of insight in that simple sentence.

Without Clarity there is confusion and complication. Organisations that lack clarity have competing priorities; are focusing sometimes on good things, but not on the great things that really drive success. Without Clarity, there is an increase in complexity; people are confused with what they should focus on, priorities are clouded, and teams become inefficient and ineffective. Bobb Biehl said it best when he said, "Without focusing and getting to Clarity you cannot lead. You cannot motivate. You cannot plan. You cannot communicate." 

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