Strategy in a Time of Explosive Change

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

May you live in interesting times – Chinese Curse

Interesting times indeed, no? The reasons are too long to recite here – changing technology, customer expectations, internationalization, rapid cultural shifts, the explosion of information…

Technological change, for example, is so rapid and severe that in many industries we can no longer confidently define value.

The ‘Eight Essential’ technologies – Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, AI, Blockchain, Robotics, Drones, Internet of Things, and 3-D Printing have exploded the ‘design space’.

Only by developing deep empathy with our customers & their customer journeys can we begin to understand what’s important to them. And even then, value is a moving target.

So it goes…

How to manage one’s business (and one’s life) in such times?

Let’s focus on the most important things first: How do we develop and deploy strategy in ‘interesting’ times?

Quick & ‘Easy’ Strategy

Keep it simple – if you can’t tell the story with one-page, do you understand it?

Accept that when it comes to strategy, perfection is impossible - and not even desirable! Remember, there is no right answer in strategy – only a right process!

Ensure, therefore, that purpose & logic are clear so that when you inevitably ‘pivot’, you’ll know what parts of your hypothesis were sound or not, and why.

Choose!

Strategy is not about deciding what’s important. All the ideas your team proposes are likely ‘important’. But you can’t do them all – you have to choose.

Too often, leaders try to hedge their bets by choosing too much, with predictable results. Choose the critical few, check frequently, and be prepared to pivot.

Please don’t misunderstand the great Henry Mintzberg’s ‘emergent’ strategies concept. Just because you’re prepared to pivot, doesn’t mean you needn’t articulate a hypothesis!

Failing to do so, of course, condemns you to the limbo of endless reaction & limited learning.

Avoid Boring Strategy Docs

The typical corporate strategy comprises a ‘Mission’, ‘Initiatives’, and in effect, a ‘Budget with Prose’. (Tip of the hat to another great, Dr. Roger Martin, for this.)

These are deadly dull and have a soporific effect on your team. ZZZZZZZZZZZZ…..

Keep your strategy to one page, tell your story, and answer the Big Questions as simply and clearly as you can:

1. Who are we and what do we believe in?
2. Where are we going?
3. How do we get there? (What’s our underlying logic?)
4. What’s preventing us?
5. What capabilities do we need to develop?
6. What management systems do we need to develop?

These are difficult questions, of course, which require deep experience and reflection. To develop a good strategy we need to bounce between the worlds of action and thought.

As the saying goes, get out of the building.

And finally, even though we live in times of explosive change, remember that some things are eternal.

Reflection, experience and the intuition gained thereby are innately human, and unlikely to be replaced by technology.

More likely, in my view, technology will enable the strategist, just as a horse enables the rider.

But that’s the topic of another blog.

Here’s to interesting strategic journeys.

Best regards,

Pascal



In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

The Function of Leaders is to Produce More Leaders
Complexity is a Crude State, Simplicity Marks the End of a Process of Refinement
Can Lean & Agile Help to Fix Our Courts? Part 4
Can Lean & Agile Help to Fix Our Courts? Part 3

Strategy in a Time of Explosive Change

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

May you live in interesting times – Chinese Curse

Interesting times indeed, no? The reasons are too long to recite here – changing technology, customer expectations, internationalization, rapid cultural shifts, the explosion of information…

Technological change, for example, is so rapid and severe that in many industries we can no longer confidently define value.

The ‘Eight Essential’ technologies – Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, AI, Blockchain, Robotics, Drones, Internet of Things, and 3-D Printing have exploded the ‘design space’.

Only by developing deep empathy with our customers & their customer journeys can we begin to understand what’s important to them. And even then, value is a moving target.

So it goes…

How to manage one’s business (and one’s life) in such times?

Let’s focus on the most important things first: How do we develop and deploy strategy in ‘interesting’ times?

Quick & ‘Easy’ Strategy

Keep it simple – if you can’t tell the story with one-page, do you understand it?

Accept that when it comes to strategy, perfection is impossible - and not even desirable! Remember, there is no right answer in strategy – only a right process!

Ensure, therefore, that purpose & logic are clear so that when you inevitably ‘pivot’, you’ll know what parts of your hypothesis were sound or not, and why.

Choose!

Strategy is not about deciding what’s important. All the ideas your team proposes are likely ‘important’. But you can’t do them all – you have to choose.

Too often, leaders try to hedge their bets by choosing too much, with predictable results. Choose the critical few, check frequently, and be prepared to pivot.

Please don’t misunderstand the great Henry Mintzberg’s ‘emergent’ strategies concept. Just because you’re prepared to pivot, doesn’t mean you needn’t articulate a hypothesis!

Failing to do so, of course, condemns you to the limbo of endless reaction & limited learning.

Avoid Boring Strategy Docs

The typical corporate strategy comprises a ‘Mission’, ‘Initiatives’, and in effect, a ‘Budget with Prose’. (Tip of the hat to another great, Dr. Roger Martin, for this.)

These are deadly dull and have a soporific effect on your team. ZZZZZZZZZZZZ…..

Keep your strategy to one page, tell your story, and answer the Big Questions as simply and clearly as you can:

1. Who are we and what do we believe in?
2. Where are we going?
3. How do we get there? (What’s our underlying logic?)
4. What’s preventing us?
5. What capabilities do we need to develop?
6. What management systems do we need to develop?

These are difficult questions, of course, which require deep experience and reflection. To develop a good strategy we need to bounce between the worlds of action and thought.

As the saying goes, get out of the building.

And finally, even though we live in times of explosive change, remember that some things are eternal.

Reflection, experience and the intuition gained thereby are innately human, and unlikely to be replaced by technology.

More likely, in my view, technology will enable the strategist, just as a horse enables the rider.

But that’s the topic of another blog.

Here’s to interesting strategic journeys.

Best regards,

Pascal

Reprise: How Will You Motivate People, Pascal-san?

By Pascal Dennis

An esteemed sensei asked me this a couple of decades ago. Still trying to figure it out.

How does a leader motivate people to do extraordinary things?

Change is hard, transformation hurts. By contrast, doing nothing is easy.

Here's what I have found.

Safety & Security are Job One

If people don't feel secure in their jobs, forget it.

Great companies live the 'Safety first' mantra -- and that means both physical & psychological safety.

Immature organizations may pooh-pooh such ideas.

'Human capital' -- morale, ingenuity, flexibility, problem solving -- have little value for them.

Does that make sense in the world of Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google?

Noble Goals

People want to be involved in something bigger than themselves.

No man is an island, said the poet John Donne. People will die for a noble idea, a just cause.

So leadership is story-telling, narrative.

How to frame our activities so that our team members feel they 'building a cathedral', and not simply cutting stone?

Then, how to deploy our goals so that each front line team is engaged?

Simple Decency and the Great Virtues

The Great Virtues are enduring standards of behavior. As in manufacturing, ethical standards make problems visible.

People will not follow swine, at least not for long. Safety plus noble goals plus simple decency allows people to relax.

'I'm okay here. These are good people & they'll do the right thing...' -- which unleashes commitment & creativity.

Brain imaging technology reinforces these observations. Under stress, the Pre-frontal Cortex, the brain's managerial centre, shuts down.

The limbic and sub-cortical, fight or flight, parts of the brain light up.

Fear makes us stupid. Deming intuited this decades ago: "Drive fear out of the organization!"

Safety, Noble Goals and Simple Decency are simply good business.

Great organizations, those that have prospered for generations, understand this in their marrow.

(For more on the Great Virtues, see here)

Best,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Change & the Light Touch

By Pascal Dennis

Change is hard; change hurts.

Yet, in an ever-changing world, change is necessary.

Adapt or Die would be a reasonable hoshin in most companies.

Change is nobody's constituency, whereas the status quo is everyone's.

It's remarkable, really, that organizations are able to change at all.

Lean Pathways transformation approach is based on fifteen years of empirical science.

(In other words, we've learned what works through trial & error, in the form of rapid PDCA cycles.)

The Remedy and Getting the Right Things Done give some idea what it feels like.

Sooner or later, and usually between years 1 & 2, the existing culture's anti-bodies counterattack.

We've found that the Light Touch is essential then, and throughout the change process.

The Light Touch is central to our practice and informed by the following reflections:

• Most of the problem is in the system, not the people
• Most people are decent & hard-working and want do what's right,
• Change is hardest for middle management
• Humour helps the medicine go down
• People learn best when they're laughing

Lean Pathways doodles & humour (such as it is) are humble expressions of this philosophy.

Of course, maintaining the Light Touch in the face of hostility requires sound technique.

(Lean fundamentals needs to be rooted in your unconscious mind.)

The Light Touch has helped to turn many a sour Grumbler into an 'Okay-I'll-try' Watcher - and some into 'This-could-work!' Rowers.

Perhaps most important, the Light Touch expresses fundamental decency & respect for people.

(Absent these, you can't sustain a damned thing.)

Change is hard; change hurts.

Remember the Light Touch

Best,

Pascal