Strategy

Peeling Onions – The Power of Why

Not long ago I was with an executive team. They had been working towards an exciting company vision for a while, but were concerned about their lack of progress. Yes, it was early days and their vision will take years to achieve, but the team was worried. “It feels like we’re just walking in circles… always moving, but never towards our goals.”

The solution wasn’t a knee jerk reaction like “don’t give up”, “work harder”, “advertise more”, or” lower prices”, but to simply ask why?

Here’s how we used the Five Whys? to get to the nub of the problem.

First, we started with their vision and asked why it wasn’t working… that led us back to their strategy and tactics. Again, why weren’t they working?

The team struggled a bit, but didn’t give up. Asking why is like peeling an onion.

Onion skin by Lord V, on Flickr

[Read more...]

Posted on March 27, 2009 in Strategy

5 simple ways to gauge if your strategy is working

Sometimes we think we have a strategy when we don’t. Here’s a list of five simple questions you can ask yourself to test whether or not you’ve got a strategy that is working.

© istockphoto / IvelinRadkov

How does you strategy guide your choices in today’s chaotic marketplace?
Great strategies direct our choices and decisions. If you find yourself flummoxed by the machinations of your marketplace, then it’s likely your strategy isn’t supporting your decision-making. It’s silent on something you need it to speak about. If you don’t know what to do right now, you don’t have a strategy!

Does your strategy clearly answer the questions of who, what, and how?
The who — which groups of customers will you target? The what — which offerings (products or services) you will deliver to your target customers? And the how — which methods of marketing, sales, and distribution will you use to deliver your offerings to your customers? The key is to focus on the best combination of the who, what, and how.

What metrics do you use to track whether your strategy is working?
Trailing indicators of performance, like sales and profit, aren’t particularly helpful in tracking your strategy. It can take months to see how a strategy influences sales and profit and then only dimly. To track strategy, use leading indicators that help you visualize how well your actions match your strategy. Every element of your strategy should have a metric to help you track it. Examples of leading indicators include weekly measurements of new qualified “target” prospects and dollars spent on development of “target” products versus other products. These leading indicators help build a connection between our strategic action and the outcomes we hope to achieve.

How aligned and engaged is your team in your strategy?
Most strategies are developed by the select few. It may seem faster and better that way, but the downside is that research shows that people are less aligned and engaged when they feel they aren’t listened to and when they don’t see how their work is influenced by the strategy. In addition, a strategy built just by executives or outsiders may be blind to dynamics that people on the front line see every day. If it feels like you’re herding cats, it may be time to bring the cats into the planning process.

What does your strategy tell you to stop doing?
We all waste time and energy on things that divert us from focusing on those activities that lead most directly to the outcomes we want. The most effective strategies are specific about what we will STOP doing. They identify the 20% of our efforts that generate 80% of our results and then help us put 80% of our effort there by stopping those things that make little difference.

If you find your answers to these questions coming up short, start by creating compelling alternatives to each of these questions with your team. You’ll be amazed at what can happen!

Posted on February 16, 2009 in Strategy

Do You Hear the Silence?

This past spring, I found myself in a climbing harness and inching slowly backwards down a “blind” repel in a narrow slot canyon in southern Utah. I had not repelled in over twenty years and was more than a little anxious. The first time we threw our rope bag over the edge of the repel we heard the “thwack” of the rope on the canyon wall and then an unexpected silence.

The Sound of Silence

My friend and expert guide knew that something was wrong. “I didn’t hear a thud,“ he said. “The rope’s not long enough.” Listening for the cues from the rope and the canyon let him know we needed more rope. Having a rope twenty feet too short would have meant an arduous and risky climb back up or a free fall to the canyon floor with at best a couple of broken bones. [Read more...]

Posted on August 28, 2008 in Action, Leadership, Strategy

Are You Situationally Aware?

US Air Force pilots flying the F-86 were up against the Soviet MiG-15 in air-to-air combat in the Korean War. By most measures, the MiG-15 was a superior aircraft—It was faster; it could fly higher; and it could turn more rapidly. Yet it was lacking in at least two ways:

The MiG-15 cockpit gave pilots less visibility than the F-86.
The MiG-15 flight controls were manual, while the F-86 were hydraulic.

Engineers designing aircraft assumed superior maneuverability would win. This assumption was thrown on its head in the Korean War as the F-86 won nine out of ten dogfights against the MiG-15.

When asked the reason for their overwhelming dominance, pilots credited their success to being able to observe the enemy’s current situation and anticipating his next move before the enemy could observe and anticipate his own.

Col. John Boyd, ace pilot and military strategist, argued that winning in air-to-air combat requires having:

Better situational awareness;
Using that information to make decisions more rapidly;
Taking action that changes the situation in ways the enemy cannot even observe or comprehend; and
Repeating this process over and over again.

For a skilled fighter pilot with exceptional situational awareness, this cycle might take just a second. For businesses with annual planning cycles, the process could take a year or even longer. Is this acceptable?

Upping the Tempo

High levels of situational awareness gives us the ability to operate at a quicker tempo than the enemy. Boyd said it this way:

“In order to win, we should operate at a faster tempo or rhythm than our adversaries… Such activity will make us appear unpredictable to our competitors.”

Accelerating the tempo we work at by improving situational awareness is something that Jack Welch understood at GE. He said: