May 26, 2022 | Change, Innovation, Leadership
Opportunities abound, and are hard to ignore.
They emerge to consume resources, distract attention, divert investment, obscure the focus on strategy, and generally disrupt operations.
How do you ignore, or better still, systematically, and quickly assess them, learn, and then execute or walk away?
- Relentless focus on the long-term objective, and the framework that is the strategic plan and supporting operational plans that will deliver that objective.
- Consistency between the long-term objectives and the activities that are shorter term, tactical choices.
- Have a bias for action, coupled with the discipline that any action needs to move the enterprise towards that long term goal.
- Never underestimate the power of the status quo to water down and divert the bias for strategically oriented action.
- You need the right people, those that will measure every decision against the agreed strategic objectives. This is not to remove any opportunity to divert from the strategy, it just requires more short-term agility to take advantage of tactical situations as they occur.
- Make sure you have all the facts and are working from first principles.
Strategy is all about making choices, and making a choice for option A precludes also choosing option B. This cascading of choices becomes a Bayesian decision tree as the choices cascade through the organisation from the top to the points of tactical implementation.
May 11, 2022 | Leadership, Management, Marketing
There is an enormous difference between knowing the name of something, and truly understanding it.
Most move through school, university, and life by skimming, remembering bits about which questions are asked, and judiciously using jargon to get away with it.
Few take the time, and make the effort to truly understand.
The test is to explain that complex idea to a 12-year-old in such a way that they understand it. When you cannot do that, it is not the 12-year old’s fault, it is yours. You do not understand it fully enough to be able in simple words, metaphors, and similes to communicate the essential nature of the thing.
This is what I see from most calling themselves marketers.
Many marketers, particularly the younger ones, come up against a problem, and before doing any reasonable analysis, jump straight to some sort of digital conclusion that is often grossly sub-optimal.
Marketing is part science, part art.
It is a difficult balance, made more difficult by the simple fact that the art part of the equation only comes with experience, built upon the foundation of the science.
‘Anyone can make a subject complicated, but only someone who truly understands it can make it simple’. Richard Feynman
May 2, 2022 | Communication, Customers
The BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) has become an essential tool in the negotiation toolbox, yet many leave it in the box.
It is, in effect, your ‘walk-away’ point.
However, before you walk away, there are always alternatives that can be considered. Identifying these alternatives that make the ‘pie bigger’ is often a challenge only overcome after considerable work, but having done this preparation before entering the negotiation starts will always be useful.
Understanding your own BATNA is essential, but it is just as important to understand as best you can, the BATNA of the other party, or parties.
What do they value that you can deliver?
What are their ‘non-negotiables?
Will the decision maker be at the table?
How can you make the pie bigger for them at little cost to you?
There is a myriad of questions you can ask yourself that will give you a better feel for your relative position, simply by thinking about them, and assembling some information that may otherwise have been overlooked.
In a negotiation, we tend to automatically set ourselves for some sort of compromise. We assume that the net effect of the balance of wins and losses for both parties in the compromise will be the most satisfactory outcome for all.
Often it is not.
Prospect theory, first articulated by Daniel Kahneman points out that the pain we feel for a loss is much greater than the joy we feel for a gain. If we are given $50, we just say thanks, and are happy. If we are given $100, then $50 is immediately taken back, we feel pain. The outcome of both is the same, we are $50 ahead, but the balance of pain and joy is completely different.
This applies in a negotiation when trying to balance gains and losses for an acceptable outcome. At a rational level we can reach an agreement on the net outcome, but at an emotional level, a compromise generally does not allow for the impact of prospect theory on the perception of an individual of the net value delivered.
It will pay you to consider deeply how the impact of this disparity between gains and losses will be felt.
Negotiation is all about the recognition, articulation, and exchange of value.
The challenge is we all see value differently. Being able to recognise the value as the other parties in a negotiation see it will deliver hugely valuable insights to be leveraged.
In other words, understand the psychological BATNA of the other party as well as you can.
Header cartoon credit. Scott Adams and Dogbert perfect negotiation tactics.
Apr 18, 2022 | Governance, Leadership
Words are important, crucial to the effective communication and intent of an idea being articulated. Without the right words, well delivered, the idea will not have any oxygen, so be still-born.
This notion is applicable to every type of situation, from the casual conversation at a social gathering, to the articulation of major strategic choices.
There is a sequence that seems to be successful when making everything from a cold call to a full-blown strategic proposal. I have observed this sequence being successful over many years in many situations.
- Identify the big change that creates the opportunity you are intending to address.
- Demonstrate how the change will create winners and losers. Nobody wants to be on the losing side
- Envision the promised outcome post the project implementation
- Introduce the positive features of the idea as the catalyst to overcome the obstacles and deliver on the promise
- Present the hypothesis/evidence that delivery on the promise will follow naturally from effective implementation.
In addition, there are two ‘secrets’ to the delivery that while obvious, most seem to miss.
The first is in the manner of the delivery.
A flat, wooden delivery and the words will carry limited weight, will not elicit any emotion in the listener. By contrast, words delivered with passion, and obvious commitment to the outcome will be met with a more emotional response, which will either engage or turn off the listener.
The second is in the choice of words.
There are always many ways to articulate a message. Therefore, choosing the right words, the ones that build the attention and emotional response in the audience is fundamental.
Read the words of the great speeches, without conjuring up the mental image of the original speaker, and some of the power is lost. Churchill’s ‘we will never surrender’ speech, Martin Luther kings ‘I have a dream’ speech are great examples. Now read them again with the image in your mind, and the power returns.
One further thing that can make magic, is the power of the moment.
Churchill, newly installed as Britain’s PM as France surrendered, facing a catastrophic defeat, and King in front of 250,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln memorial in 1963. In the moment, King changed the text he had written adding the immortal words: “I have a dream’ to the list of changes he wished to see for his fellow Americans. Both used the moment to conjure emotional magic from the ether with words and passion.
Compare those to Albo’s 5-point plans, and Scomo’s blizzard of pithy sound bites, and know why we are so desperate for some genuine leadership.
Header credit: Courtesy ‘First dog on the moon’ cartoon frame.
Apr 8, 2022 | Leadership, Management
Culture as defined by Michael Porter is ‘The way we do things around here.’ Those words imply ‘Local.’ Immediate. In the vicinity.
I have seen differing cultures exist in the one business in separate locations. When most commentators refer to ‘Corporate culture’ it implies that it is across the whole enterprise, and often it is. However, local leadership, established practices and the history of that particular unit can also result in a culture that bears no relationship to the corporate version beyond the fine words on the foyer wall.
So, what are the building blocks of a successful culture?
It seems to me that you have four headline characteristics, many with behaviours that grouped together make up the headline.
Respectful.
Respect is a very general word, open to different definitions in differing contexts. In this context, to me it means that every stakeholder has the right to be given, and be expected to give, respect to others. To be given consideration, have common courtesy extended, and be treated with dignity, irrespective of the role in the organisation they occupy. The part time casual cleaner has as much right to be respected for the job they do as does the CEO.
Inclusive.
Enterprises are similar to natural eco-systems. They thrive on diversity, and conversely, underperform as a monoculture.
This means that all sorts of diversity is welcomed and absorbed into the enterprise, each playing a role in building a robust and resilient system. It has little to do with the current blathering about gender equality, although that is a part of it. Diversity is encouraged by the presence of ideas that emerge from diverse backgrounds, life experiences, education in its broadest sense, acceptance of difference. These differences may be racial, sexual, physical, and every other ‘difference’ you will find in a population. Including them in an enterprise provides the opportunity for superior outcomes.
Ethical.
Ethical behaviour implies honesty, integrity, and accountability coupled with regulatory compliance, as well as the acknowledgement of the place ‘common sense’ should have. I considered using the word ‘Integrity’ to describe the characteristics of successful cultures I have seen, and it still holds that personal integrity must be present, but that is the point, integrity is a more personal word than ‘ethical.’
Safe.
By ‘safe’ I do not mean just physically safe, as in not being assaulted at work. ‘Safety’ is a much wider concept than that when applied to an enterprise. It means an individual is psychologically safe to be themselves, to express an opinion, and not be one of the crowd. This requires an expectation of transparency, accountability, up, down, and across an enterprise.
To be safe, you are also safe from bullying, the political ‘backstabbing’ that often occurs, and ruthless competition that has flexible boundaries not always equally evident to all.
The size of the organisation does not matter. Whenever you have more than one person present on a continuing basis, there will be modes of behaviour that can be called ‘Culture’.
Should you be inclined, you could take the converse of these points, and when you see them, they represent the symptoms of a failing culture.
