We had a great session of PB Entrepreneurs on Wednesday last week, on the issue of failure to implement. And, my goodness me, what happened on the day really highlighted how the self-doubt of CEO's holds back change. For me it also highlighted why being in a group of peers, and provided with a chance to discuss difficult decisions, can be so useful in business.
Before I come to what happened on Wednesday, some reflections on doubt:
Doubt is not always bad - in fact you might even say that doubt is a useful state to have. Nothing in life is certain, and a combination of poor information, inexperience and overconfidence can be fatal!
Doubt prompts us to double check, to gather support and information before deciding. With it we prompt ourselves to question our motives and actions. All good things.
It may seem an odd thing to say, but I see doubt as a strategy - a state to be used where it is appropriate and for a clear purpose. Dr Martin Seligman, author of "Authentic Happiness" and founder of the US positive psychology movement, in his book "learned optimism" follows the same line. If the cost of failure is high, he notes, pessimism is a useful strategy to follow.
The key here is choosing confidence or doubt as appropriate, not being bowled along by an uncontrolled internal state. As you read, the question is, do you recognise when your decision making is hampered by a sense of self-doubt that is not appropriate for the circumstances. Even when it is the right approach to take, how often does it adversely affect decisions to act. What about for your team? Does it hold back change and getting that edge? Does it slow your team down? What can you do to overcome it? Do you rely on a sense of support from your group before you gain the self-confidence to act, or can you act regardless of others?
What are the quick solutions to the crippling inertia of doubt?
Here's one. My client rang me for advice, facing a major but tough decision. It had come up suddenly, challenged his whole business model, his risk, his people, the lot. Faced with the need to make a pretty big investment decision by the end of the week, we decided to put his issue to the PB Entrepreneur group as a case study.
In 20 minutes, he had presented his issue in enough detail for the group to get the gist of it. We then had 20 minutes of questions around the group, by the end of which the structure was pretty neatly drawn out on the whiteboard, with funding transactions, incomes and costs. There were also a heap of useful comments. Finally we called it to a halt with a last set of comments, no liability accepted, from each of the members - they were asked to give one "do", one "don't" and, based on the information presented, to comment on whether they would invest.
In business, mistakes set us back months, create huge frustration and may even cost us our livelihood. Doubt is natural, caution is common and the sensible seek the company of mentors, or challenging colleagues to help. But how often, when faced with a difficult decision, do you get your experienced team around you, and use a structured approach to address it with speed. Under a bit of pressure, I am always amazed at how much more focussed a team can be.
Who knows if he will make the right decision. The views of the group were mixed. But my client rang up filled with doubt, and by the end of the case study session had had the chance to talk it through with an experienced group of business leaders, and had to deal with a series of challenging questions. I have no doubt that as a result he was much better informed, and his confidence in his ability to decide had risen.
Self-doubt would not be the limiting factor.
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Friday, 29 October 2010
Failure to implement - the impact of structure
As I was getting up this morning I found my thoughts drifting back to 2006. I am not sure why, someting to do with leadership and gaining competitive advantage had been whirling around in my head, probably related to some current client work.
By 2006 at Price Bailey, we had restructured the leadership function and constitution, and the new Board had put together a great one page plan, and had definitely implemented some radical and much needed action. The business was on a new footing. However, the more positive side of our plans were not proving so easy to get going.
Is it easier in implementation to get rid of problems than it is to gain new advantages? Certainly seems so from most of the practical experiences I have had with clients over many years and in my own business. It's a bit like an accountants profit exercise...anyone can cut costs, but few can grow income. I am sure you get my drift here.
The key to this is structure change, and it is something that many strategic plans miss. As soon as you have agreement as to the new goals for an organisation, you must address the structure and assess how it will need to change.
Structure comes in two forms inside a business. There is the explicit structure; departments, roles, responsibilities, reporting lines, levels of authority, policies and procedures, etc.
Then there is the hidden structure; skills, teamworking and rapport, beliefs and confidence, communities and friendships, alliances, customer ownership. Hidden structure includes things that appear explicit but are not really written down anywhere, like meetings, informal management processes. Just look in that key database of any business, the outlook calendar, and you will see the glue that is preventing new activities in everyone's week!
Structure is like an iceberg - perhaps 10% of it is visible, written down, really how it is, above the surface. The real weight and content is normally all hidden away below the water line. To get things going in a new direction, you need to address what is under the water!
What we found was that while we had set out a new vision and leadership function within the firm, we hadn't changed the management structure or any of the old informal rules of the firm, so we had a hybrid of old PB with new PB grafted on, and they didn't really work together. The restructure process involved reshaping departments and roles and frankly all of the informal aspects to line up towards the new strategy. It took a year to get it in place and to get over the initial phase of re-alignment that everyone in the firm had to go through.
Once it was done, everyone's market focus was much clearer and the positive agenda (looking after our customers more consistently and appropriately and getting growth) really started to happen.
So the message from my breakfast today seems to be:
If you are struggling to get the change you have planned for ask yourself this question: is my business the right shape to deliver that to me? Take out your pencil and rubber, and draw up a structure that is best suited to deliver your strategy on the right. Draw out the existing structure on the left. The change you need is in the gaps between the two structures.
Don't get me wrong, that was not all that was needed. The years of work that have followed have been as full as the restructure year. But without that change, they could not have taken place in the way they have.
So watch out! You're shiny new structure will quickly develop a heap of new hidden weight. Keep things visible from now on. What are the key performance indicators and other forms of feedback you need to ensure that all that informal bonding is congruent with your new goals? And what can you do to influence the forming structure towards your goals? Immediate engagement with the new tasks and continuous improvement are crucial to getting as much alignment as you can.
I hope the coalition get to read this blog. Perhaps it was something on the Today Programme that set this off. Have a good weekend.
By 2006 at Price Bailey, we had restructured the leadership function and constitution, and the new Board had put together a great one page plan, and had definitely implemented some radical and much needed action. The business was on a new footing. However, the more positive side of our plans were not proving so easy to get going.
Is it easier in implementation to get rid of problems than it is to gain new advantages? Certainly seems so from most of the practical experiences I have had with clients over many years and in my own business. It's a bit like an accountants profit exercise...anyone can cut costs, but few can grow income. I am sure you get my drift here.
The key to this is structure change, and it is something that many strategic plans miss. As soon as you have agreement as to the new goals for an organisation, you must address the structure and assess how it will need to change.
Structure comes in two forms inside a business. There is the explicit structure; departments, roles, responsibilities, reporting lines, levels of authority, policies and procedures, etc.
Then there is the hidden structure; skills, teamworking and rapport, beliefs and confidence, communities and friendships, alliances, customer ownership. Hidden structure includes things that appear explicit but are not really written down anywhere, like meetings, informal management processes. Just look in that key database of any business, the outlook calendar, and you will see the glue that is preventing new activities in everyone's week!
Structure is like an iceberg - perhaps 10% of it is visible, written down, really how it is, above the surface. The real weight and content is normally all hidden away below the water line. To get things going in a new direction, you need to address what is under the water!
What we found was that while we had set out a new vision and leadership function within the firm, we hadn't changed the management structure or any of the old informal rules of the firm, so we had a hybrid of old PB with new PB grafted on, and they didn't really work together. The restructure process involved reshaping departments and roles and frankly all of the informal aspects to line up towards the new strategy. It took a year to get it in place and to get over the initial phase of re-alignment that everyone in the firm had to go through.
Once it was done, everyone's market focus was much clearer and the positive agenda (looking after our customers more consistently and appropriately and getting growth) really started to happen.
So the message from my breakfast today seems to be:
If you are struggling to get the change you have planned for ask yourself this question: is my business the right shape to deliver that to me? Take out your pencil and rubber, and draw up a structure that is best suited to deliver your strategy on the right. Draw out the existing structure on the left. The change you need is in the gaps between the two structures.
Don't get me wrong, that was not all that was needed. The years of work that have followed have been as full as the restructure year. But without that change, they could not have taken place in the way they have.
So watch out! You're shiny new structure will quickly develop a heap of new hidden weight. Keep things visible from now on. What are the key performance indicators and other forms of feedback you need to ensure that all that informal bonding is congruent with your new goals? And what can you do to influence the forming structure towards your goals? Immediate engagement with the new tasks and continuous improvement are crucial to getting as much alignment as you can.
I hope the coalition get to read this blog. Perhaps it was something on the Today Programme that set this off. Have a good weekend.
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Failure to Implement - A Fatal Disease
Failure to Implement, as Paul Dunn of the Results company used to say, "Is a fatal disease." Even now some of the best consulting businesses in the world promote around getting ideas off the paper and into life. It's crucial to competitive advantage, and firms that implement better have the edge over those that get stuck.
(Un)Inspired by a three clients I thought I would share some thoughts with you on this disease, that illustrate different aspects of the problem.
Client one; "no alignment"
A great example of a common cause of failure to implement needed change; this client had to start to change because of the desperate results they were facing. The challenges of failure forced them to take action, and the actions were good enough to get them back to a baseline.
They have however, so far been unable to address the root cause of their failure to thrive, which is a lack of unity of purpose among the key shareholders. Unless this is addressed they will struggle to hit their potential as too much energy is spent in argument and disagreement, and energy for customers is low! The MD realises this, and is finally ready to challenge his colleagues fairly on the point.
There will be some hard times, and there are plenty of choices ahead, but there will be a great release of energy through some hard truths being spoken. If they resolve the issues honestly, there is a chance to re-channel these energies into competing with competitors rather than each other.
Client two: "no confidence or experience"
The leadership of this very entrepreneurial client, in common with many, has limited experience of what can be achieved by the different professionals in more successful businesses. In this case, they are great technically but had not understood sales. For years the CEO resisted the very idea of sales. He would counter that it was not really possible for a non-technical sales person understand the product benefits.
He just could not, in his mind, justify the investment in professional sales, and no amount of ROI planning would gainsay the risk aversion.
Was the bigger risk not getting sales help, or paying for it and getting it wrong?
Eventually he bit the bullet, and within six months was at first surprised and the delighted to hear his salesman politely request that he stop coming to meetings, so that the sales guy could operate more freely (and successfully!) Growth took off.
What we believe about the world is based on what we have experienced. The truth is that most of us have experienced so little, and some of our unchallenged beliefs will hold us back.
Client three: too much talk, no action
The final client had identified clearly the opportunity to grow, and the competitive threat to the business if they did not grow. To get growth required some big decisions, which they felt they had made. And yet still nothing happened.
Rather amazingly, the problem appeared to be not knowing how to act. All of there energy was put into researching options, analysing and justifying marketing opportunities. No energy or projects were directed into customer and new business development activities.
In this case the balance of the team was at fault, as well as their experience, led by thinkers with little concept of how to act on the very good and detailed thoughts.
I am sure you can think of many more cases to add to these. The few businesses I know that can identify competitive advantage and move quickly to take the ground are normally winners. The rest are average or lucky!
(Un)Inspired by a three clients I thought I would share some thoughts with you on this disease, that illustrate different aspects of the problem.
Client one; "no alignment"
A great example of a common cause of failure to implement needed change; this client had to start to change because of the desperate results they were facing. The challenges of failure forced them to take action, and the actions were good enough to get them back to a baseline.
They have however, so far been unable to address the root cause of their failure to thrive, which is a lack of unity of purpose among the key shareholders. Unless this is addressed they will struggle to hit their potential as too much energy is spent in argument and disagreement, and energy for customers is low! The MD realises this, and is finally ready to challenge his colleagues fairly on the point.
There will be some hard times, and there are plenty of choices ahead, but there will be a great release of energy through some hard truths being spoken. If they resolve the issues honestly, there is a chance to re-channel these energies into competing with competitors rather than each other.
Client two: "no confidence or experience"
The leadership of this very entrepreneurial client, in common with many, has limited experience of what can be achieved by the different professionals in more successful businesses. In this case, they are great technically but had not understood sales. For years the CEO resisted the very idea of sales. He would counter that it was not really possible for a non-technical sales person understand the product benefits.
He just could not, in his mind, justify the investment in professional sales, and no amount of ROI planning would gainsay the risk aversion.
Was the bigger risk not getting sales help, or paying for it and getting it wrong?
Eventually he bit the bullet, and within six months was at first surprised and the delighted to hear his salesman politely request that he stop coming to meetings, so that the sales guy could operate more freely (and successfully!) Growth took off.
What we believe about the world is based on what we have experienced. The truth is that most of us have experienced so little, and some of our unchallenged beliefs will hold us back.
Client three: too much talk, no action
The final client had identified clearly the opportunity to grow, and the competitive threat to the business if they did not grow. To get growth required some big decisions, which they felt they had made. And yet still nothing happened.
Rather amazingly, the problem appeared to be not knowing how to act. All of there energy was put into researching options, analysing and justifying marketing opportunities. No energy or projects were directed into customer and new business development activities.
In this case the balance of the team was at fault, as well as their experience, led by thinkers with little concept of how to act on the very good and detailed thoughts.
I am sure you can think of many more cases to add to these. The few businesses I know that can identify competitive advantage and move quickly to take the ground are normally winners. The rest are average or lucky!
PB Entrepreneurs
At Price Bailey we provide a forum for our entrepreneurial clients. We meet once a quarter for a half day to discuss the major issues each of us has to grapple with to be successful in business. It gives us a chance to share ideas, to support and learn from each other.
There are often case studies presented by members for feedback from the group and a range of supportive online resources are provided to support the group's work.
I have started this blog to write about some of the issues arising from the main theme for the forthcoming quarterly meeting, and plan to publish these in advance of each meeting and from time to time to add other thoughts.
If you are not a member of the group you are still very welcome to follow and comment on this blog if you find it useful.
The meetings dates, titles and locations are published on LinkedIn under my events tab.
There are often case studies presented by members for feedback from the group and a range of supportive online resources are provided to support the group's work.
I have started this blog to write about some of the issues arising from the main theme for the forthcoming quarterly meeting, and plan to publish these in advance of each meeting and from time to time to add other thoughts.
If you are not a member of the group you are still very welcome to follow and comment on this blog if you find it useful.
The meetings dates, titles and locations are published on LinkedIn under my events tab.
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