Management Excellence Book Series Podcast: Strategic Speed
Filed under: Fresh Voices, Leadership, Leading Change, Management Education, Management Excellence Book Series, Management Innovation, Organizational Transformation, Performance, Strategy, Talent Management
Every year, a number of the large consulting firms publish surveys outlining the issues that keep global corporate leaders awake at night. Inevitably, the topic turns to strategy and more specifically to the headaches and challenges of executing strategy.
For those of us that have labored in the corporate world for a couple of decades, it comes as no surprise that translating ideas into programs and projects and then executing these programs accurately and quickly to seize market opportunities is darned difficult.
It also turns out that we’re not so good at it for a lot of reasons, most of which have to do with people.
It is this critical issue of improving strategy execution (speed and quality) by focusing on the people & leadership issues that bedevil so many programs, that the authors of: Strategic Speed-Mobilize People, Accelerate Execution, take on in this interesting, and research and helpful tool-filled new book. This is a practical, interesting and immediately useful book for anyone engaged in the work of creating and driving strategy and execution.
I had the good fortune to connect recently with Jocelyn Davis, one of the co-authors (along with Henry Frechette, Jr., and Edwin Boswell) of Strategic Speed, for an interview, where we discussed the high failure rate of strategies, the meaning of “strategic speed,” and a number of other issues important to anyone interested in improving strategy execution. Jocelyn’s insights into the book and the world of strategy and leadership were fascinating.
Enjoy the interview.
–
-In case you missed it, check out my recent interview with Bob Sutton on his new book, Good Boss, Bad Boss.
-Note from Art: the authors supplied my review copy of Strategic Speed.
The Career Enhancing Benefits of Message Mapping
Filed under: Career, Leadership, Management Education, Marketing, Marketing Yourself, Product Management, Professional Growth, Strategy, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
Critical communication situations demand crystal clarity.
With apologies for my abusive but personally amusing alliteration above, I’m banging the drum again on the need for all of us to carefully form and frame our messages before we open our mouths and trip on our tongues.
There are many critical communication situations that we face in our organizations and in public, and the moment that you open your mouth is not the time to begin thinking about how to best get your points across. And it’s certainly no time to start rambling like so many politicians or hapless business executives caught on the wrong end of a microphone without a plan. We all know the outcomes, ranging from empty blah blah blabbing to disturbing utterances that demand later apologies.
I use a simple but powerful tool called Message Mapping that is ideal for all of those critical communication situations, including:
- Developing and delivering a speech
- Presenting to executives
- Preparing and participating in a job interview
- Launching a new product
- Communicating a new strategy
- Announcing organizational changes
- Helping to get a group on the same page
- Preparing for an interview
- Delivering difficult news
- Anything else that you can think of…
A group of us learned this approach from a public relations professional years ago and went on to adapt it to serve our own needs in creating corporate and product messaging and helping to ensure that trade show and briefing teams were on the same page about new product launches. Ultimately, we’ve all used it to great effect in our personal professional lives for interview and other presentations.
Creating the Map-Simplicity and Complexity at the Same Time:
The approach is simple to explain, easy to visualize and darned challenging to master all at the same time.
Let’s start with the visual in my poorly constructed, but hopefully, illustrative picture here. In its’ simplest incarnation, the map is constructed on a single sheet of paper (landscape), with the core message placed at the center, no more than 4 key supporting points external to the core message and then supporting data or evidence adjacent to each supporting point. That’s the easy part.
The challenging issue is to distill your core message down to its bare-naked essence and get it right. If you are preparing for a job interview, the core message is your personal-professional value proposition, which for most of us, is something that takes a lot of teeth gnashing and revision work to capture and describe properly. If you are launching a new product, this is the core value proposition of your offering…the essence of why this is important and for whom and how it is uniquely different. And yes, this is captured in one or two sentences.
Once your core message or in this case your core value proposition is defined, you need to back that with points (examples, facts, experiences) that support this message. Once again, you face the task of distilling a lot of examples and supporting points down to the very few that most effectively support your case. And yes, I’m serious about limiting yourself to three or at most four supporting points that make the case for your core message. Any more than that, and you’ve not worked hard enough to sharpen your messaging.
The outer ring as I describe it is used for the facts and supporting points that back your logic. The constraint of a single page or flip-chart challenges you to summarize the critical points and to jettison extraneous anecdotal information.
Using the Map:
Once the map is in place and appropriately tested, it becomes an invaluable personal or group tool. You’ve now got a tool to help you practice and deliver in the most difficult of situations. If constructed properly, your map drives your script and serves as an aid in answering questions. Proper use of the map involves making your case according to the flow and answering questions by referencing back to the supporting evidence…key supporting points and core message every time.
One point of caution: politicians are often observed abusing this tool by answering questions using their maps, with complete disregard for the question being asked. Don’t disrespect your audience this way.
The Bottom-Line for Now
I’ve worked for weeks with teams using this tool to form corporate and product messaging and days and weeks with individuals to help frame their own professional value propositions. I’ve also used this in minutes to prepare for interviews or executive updates. We frequently provided these maps to our trade show teams to ensure that everyone could answer the questions, “What do you guys do?” or “What’s new this year?” with something that actually meant something to someone, other than the inconsistent corporate gobbedly-gook that is often spewed in these settings.
Keep in mind that just because you own the finest woodworking tools doesn’t mean that you are capable of creating beautiful furniture. The message map is a tool that demands care and handling and then and only then, rewards you with rich and productive communication experiences.
Measure twice, cut once.
The Triple Threat to Good Decisions: Data, Time and Emotion
Filed under: Leadership, Leadership Skills, Making Decisions, Management Education, Middle Management, Performance, Professional Growth, Strategy, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
There are few situations more challenging to teams than dealing with a tough, emotionally-charged issue and decision-choice while facing significant time pressure and seemingly contradictory data.
If that type of situation sounds uncommon or unrealistic, consider that many firms and management teams make critical priority calls and strategic choices under just such circumstances. The decision to launch Challenger was a prime example, with all three factors playing a huge role in this tragic call. Countless corporate strategic misfires owe their outcome to this triple-threat of data, time and emotion.
While many situations don’t involve life-safety issues, this triple-threat is something that every manager should be critically sensitive to in their group and strategic decision-making.
Data, Bloody Data
Let’s start here first. We would like to believe that we are making data-driven, fact-based calls on key issues. Unfortunately, the data quality facts don’t back that opinion.
Our firms have invested small fortunes in powerful data warehousing, enterprise management and analytics software programs, yet report after report substantiates that the data in our systems is crap. It’s poor quality, obsolete and just plain wrong. (Visit The Data Warehouse Institute for more on this topic.)
Beyond the fatal data quality issues, we struggle with too much information and the very real and challenging issue of how to interpret the data. Given this challenge, it’s common for individuals and groups to engage in a game of data-roulette, including:
- Looking for the data that confirms our opinion and then seizing upon this confirmation evidence at the expense of potentially contradictory error.
- Sampling on the dependent variable instead of the independent variable. This common logic error has people looking at the wrong issue and improperly attributing cause and effect.
- Ignoring the data. Given the volume of data typically just a click away, it’s easy for individuals and groups to quickly become confused or overwhelmed or both. Another outcome of too much data is analysis paralysis.
Time after Time
Most timelines for business initiatives are contrived, yet many managers and groups allow artificial deadlines to impact the quality of their decisions. Certainly, we all know that time is money and that windows of opportunity can close, and yet, I wouldn’t let either of those clichés drive me to make a poor quality decision. I’ll accept that speed of decision-making is important, but only if it is counter-balanced with quality.
Watch Out When Emotions Rule the Day
My favorite, nausea inducing line of all is, “You’ve got to take off your (insert your functional hat) and put on your business hat.” That invitation to suspend logic, slice your IQ and commonsense in half and make a poor call is often a ploy to both manipulate and to quickly resolve an emotion-laden issue by imploring someone to suspend judgment.
We don’t’ make good decisions under emotional stress, and that goes for relationships and major life events as well as business situations. Our well documented and well-established fear of change, its’ close cousin, our propensity to pursue something that looks like the status quo, and our over-reliance on gut calls to reduce or avoid conflict and resolve time-pressures and data ambiguity issues all contribute to crappy decision-making.
7 Suggestions to Keep the Triple Headed Monster of Poor Decision-Making Locked Up
I pull no punches on this topic. As the leader, you are on the hook for teaching your team to make good decisions. Your firm depends upon it and your career depends upon it.
1. Strive for Crystal Clarity on the Issue! Frame the issue and carefully conduct a process- check to ensure that you are all looking at the same core issue and decision.
2. Hit the Brakes! If time-pressure takes over, it’s your job to hit the brakes! I’m not certain of attribution, but the phrase: “slow down and think carefully before you do something stupid” jumps to mind here.
3. Hit the Brakes, Part 2: Too many managers are fearful of raising their hands and saying, “hold it.” As a leader, foster a culture where people don’t get knee-capped for pulling the chain to stop the production line, and as a professional, develop a spine.
4. Just the Facts! Spend time assessing what you know, and very importantly, defining what you still need to know to make a decision. This last part….”what we need to know,” is often skipped.
5. Turn Data Into Information and Knowledge. Monitor data integrity and quality, and work with your group to carefully wrap it in meaning. This step is the source of many of the errors described above, so note your assumptions, watch out for framing and confirming evidence errors. Consider involving objective 3rd parties to help look at and interpret the data and data needs.
6. Recall Drucker’s Saying: “Every Decision is a Risk-Taking Judgment.” Teach your team to think through and prioritize on risks. Use face-to-face and anonymous input to ensure that risks are identified without the bias of social interaction.
7. Vent the Emotions and Then Move On: De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats does this brilliantly. Use his process, or, at least create an opportunity for everyone to vent and then challenge them to focus on facts, risks, opportunities and ideas. (Frankly, Six Thinking Hats process is a tool that has the potential to improve discussion and decision quality. Consider identifying an experienced facilitator to help you with this process.)
The Bottom-Line for Now:
Time pressures, emotional factors and data issues are at the root of many poor life and business decisions. High performance teams and effective leaders recognize these factors, talk openly about them when they start to encroach, and work hard at locking them back in their cage when quality of judgment is in danger. It’s time to slay this triple-threat to effective decision-making in your environment.
6 Steps for Avoiding Groupthink on Your Team
Filed under: Leadership, Leadership Skills, Making Decisions, Management Education, Performance, Project Management, Strategy
Groupthink is one of the nefarious decision-making missteps of teams, and a trap that many smart people and groups have fallen victim to throughout history.
From the classic example cited in nearly every discussion on decision-making, the Kennedy administration’s Bay of Pigs fiasco, to Ford’s launch of the Edsel, to Neviille Chamberlin’s inner circle that believed peace with Hitler was at hand, Groupthink has earned a prominent place in our culture.
And while you might not be planning an invasion or negotiation with evil dictators or planning on launching an ugly automobile, chances are that Groupthink has show up from time to time in your professional world.
Groupthink at Work in the Workplace:
The essence of this decision-making trap is the irrational pursuit of consensus above all other priorities. Along the way, those that study group dynamics have identified a number of technical characteristics of Groupthink, including:suppression of reality testing, censorship of doubts, ignoring outside information, overconfidence and an emerging attitude of invulnerability. While some of these terms have a distinct technical ring to them, they are descriptive enough to suggest a closed, insular and out-of-touch with reality team culture.
I see Groupthink at work regularly on management teams that have convinced themselves that their strategy is the only way forward. They spend months defining a universe that fits their collective frame of reference, and then they build plans to operate in that universe. While the plans are often elegant, the team’s construct on the external world and clients becomes as much fiction as fact, guaranteeing failure. After a long period of time invested in framing this strategy, Groupthink’s cousin, Escalation of Commitment, joins the party and together, they work to block out evidence to the contrary and prevent the team from recognizing the need to restart.
Functional groups are prone to a kind of Groupthink, when the organization’s culture and structure emphasizes rigid boundaries and strong penalties for stepping on turf and toes that are not your own. The isolated group begins to define the internal and external world from its own viewpoint, and almost as a survival strategy, it shuts out external opinion and blocks ideas that are potentially threatening to their view and their silo boundaries.
And perhaps more commonplace, project groups of all types work to believe that achieving consensus is the only way to move forward on an issue. Often, if you peel a layer back on the push towards consensus, it’s driven in large part out of an irrational concern for the feelings of others. “We want people to feel invested,” or, “I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.” If this were the holiday season, I would offer a distinct, “Humbug!” The pursuit of consensus gives rise to the tyranny of mediocrity. Or worse.
6 Steps to Avoid Groupthink on Teams:
1. Anticipate Groupthink in your Risk Plan. While it might sound like planning to fail, ignoring the potential for Groupthink is a failure to plan for a very real risk. And like any risk plan, there must be processes for monitoring and mitigating emerging Groupthink.
2. Size counts. Limit the typical team size to less than 10 and ensure that there are well-defined boundaries for inclusion. Porous team boundaries and widespread casual involvement on teams breeds dysfunction, including pressure towards consensus for the wrong reasons.
3. Invite external perspectives at various stages of the process. Of course, you’ve got to have the procedures in place to both protect external viewpoints and to find ways to incorporate them into the group’s thinking and plans.
4. Lengthen the discussion phase…use structured discussion to focus on vetting the issues. Delay a rush to judgment. I encourage groups to incorporate non-typical discussion processes such as Six Hats Thinking to dramatically improve discussion quality.
5. Develop a second solution. I referenced this approach in Practical Lessons in Leadership. Challenge your team to assume that management will reject their first solution. Develop an alternative and very different second solution and be prepared to defend it.
6. Invite the Devil’s Advocate to the party. While a designated Devil’s Advocate is a contrived role and everyone knows it, at least someone will be throwing rocks at the groups beautiful picture. Rules on respecting and vetting the DA’s perspective are critical to benefitting from this approach.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
Forewarned is forearmed. Decision-making is tough enough, and it grows in complexity when there are groups involved. Don’t naively assume that your group of smart people is immune to the many pitfalls and missteps that dot the path towards a decision. Groupthink is like the common cold, and while there may not be a cure, there sure are some preventative measures that can help keep it at bay.
Summer Shorts for June 18 from Management Excellence
Filed under: Career, Professional Growth, Strategy, Talent Management, Values, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
Resources, great reads and sound bites for your summer weekends
Blink and the week is gone. I’m still not clear how Friday happened so quickly again, but here we are, and here I am with a few suggestions for your weekend professional development time.
Values: These Posts go Great Together (If I do say so myself.)
I truly enjoyed reading Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s “Ten Essentials for Getting Value from Values.” If Ms. Kanter’s article is the main course, try my own recent, “Leading to the Values” as the appetizer. There’s never been a better time to work on making values and value-based leadership relevant in our organizations.
Leadership Fatigue and A Summer of Ideas:
OK, there’s a catch on these articles. The latest edition of the Management Excellence Newsletter was published earlier this week, and the only way to get , “Coping with Leadership Fatigue” and “A Summer of Ideas,” is to subscribe (sign-up form at Management Excellence or Building Better Leaders, far right column). I’ll be happy to monitor any new subscriptions and forward a copy. The newsletter is purely opt-in and all e-mail addresses are protected with my life! Expect a new issue of subscriber only content every 20 days.
My Can’t Wait to Read List:
My stack of great content that I cannot wait to read is growing, and it’s time to get on with it. The current list includes:
Inner Excellence-Achieve Extraordinary Business Success Through Mental Toughness, by Jim Murphy.
Strategic Speed-Mobilize People, Accelerate Execution by Jocelyn Davis, Henry Frechette and Edwin Boswell.
And
12 Steps to Power Presence: How to Exert Your Authority to Lead, by John Baldoni
What’s on your “Can’t wait to read list?”
Speaking of Reading, My Favorite Book Reviewer is Wally Bock
With the disclosure that I consider Wally a friend and valued colleague (a wonderful connection developed through social media), this polished and smart professional is the best book reviewer out there. He spends a disproportionate amount of my book budget with his compelling reviews. Check out the reviews and stay for the great blog.
This Week’s Daily Leadership Tips at Building Better Leaders:
–
Enjoy your weekends. Back Monday with a fresh cup of Leadership Caffeine!
My Book
The desktop reference to leadership success whether you are starting out or starting over.
Art Petty
Welcome to Management Excellence where the focus is on building better leaders and creating high performance organizations.Building Better Leaders
Art Petty's Building Better Leaders programs in Leadership, Management and Developing as a Senior Contributor offer powerful and practical guidance for motivated professionals.
All programs available on-site in group format and select programs available in a distance learning PLUS personalized mentoring format.
Visit Building Better Leaders to find a program to help you or your team move forward. And don't forget to subscribe to the Building Better Leaders Leadership Tip of the Day.
Management Excellence Tools
Download the Management Excellence Guide to Effective Trade Show Marketing. What's Your Strategy & Execution (STREX) Quotient? Download and use the survey to help you gauge your organization's Strategy & Execution effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.e-book-Leadership and the Project Manager - Developing the Skills that Fuel High Performance Download the pdf or go to the e-book pages on this site and contribute to the conversation
Blog Subscriptions
Connect With Me On
E-Newsletter Mailing List
Join my e-newsletter mailing list and receive the latest in best-practices content for leadership, sales & marketing and strategy.