ValuExecBlog

Connecting vs. Engaging

Look, I am not sure where I am going with this so I would like to put it out there and get your thoughts. There is an old saying that 'people don't follow companies that have a mission - they follow companies on a mission,' which got me to thinking 'how do companies get their employees to follow strategy in much the same way that they would follow a company on a mission?

Alot has been written about employee engagement and the argument goes that if employees are to follow strategy they need to be engaged. And so, companies embark on alot of activities to keep them engaged. But, I am not sure that that is all there is to it. Having employees engaged is similar, I would argue to the company having a mission statement. It is essential but not fulfilling. People will go through the motions, get the job done and at the end of the day go home.

No, I think that for companies to get employees to follow strategy, and get behind the strategy, they need to connect with their employees. The difficulty is that to connect with employees, you have to do it individual by individual, you have to tap into the same emotions that get individuals to follow companies on a mission. Only then will employees follow and commit to strategy.

What do you think. 

Yours in execution.

ian

Getting to your one percenters

800CEORead recently posted a Q&A with Jackie Huba on their blog 'thinker in residence' featuring her book 'Monster Loyalty: How lady Gaga turns followers into fanatics.' (See Link to post below). There was one comment in the post that was particularly interesting and I quote:

'I use the term One Percenters to describe the tiny but oh-so-mighty subsection of a business’ customer base that evangelizes for that business. They’re your biggest fans. You can recognize them by a few distinct behaviors: They passionately recommend your company to friends, neighbors, and colleagues. They believe in the company and its people. They purchase your products and services as gifts. They forgive occasional subpar seasons or dips in customer service. They feel part of something bigger than themselves, seeking to connect with other like-minded customers around your products or services'.

Why this point is of interest is because in my opinion, One Percenters exist in every organization. They are our go-to people when we need something done. They are our story-tellers, our history teachers and our rocks. They are the ones who are passionate about the company, its products and the people who work there. They keep the clocks wound and the machines oiled. But they do have one serious flaw.

One Percenters in organizations tend to work in the background. They are not flashy; they tend to avoid the spot light and certainly do not 'blow their own trumpet.' And because they don't, they tend to get overlooked or are under-valued for what they bring to the organization. Leaders would do well to give more attention to this group, to place them on critical teams and make them accountable for key elements of strategy execution.

To those of you who are 'One Percenters', I salute you and what you bring to every organization and to those of you who are not One Percentaers, I suggest that you get one on to your team fast because they will cover your back and get you out of many a tough predicament - of that you can be certain. 

Yours in execution,

ian

Related articles

Thinker in Residence: Q&A with Jackie Huba

The 'Noise' Factor - Why executing strategy is so hard

Every day we are confronted by events that distract us from what we are focusing on. This 'noise' can be anything from unproductive meetings to conflicting activities. Whatever they are, they are costly both to the organization and to the people that they impact and they are a poison to ensuring effective execution of strategy. Few CEO's have lost their jobs because of strategy. More, lose their jobs because of poor execution.

Here are some startling facts on 5 of the most common 'poisons':

1. Unproductive meetings
    > $3.7 billion is the estimated salary cost of unnecessary meetings for US businesses every year
    > 50% of all meetings are considered time wasted

2. Ambiguity
    > 37% of employees understand what their organization is trying to achieve and why
    > 38% of employee time is unproductive due to unclear objectives and poor team communication

3. Distractions / Information overload
    > $900 Billion is the estimated cost in lowered employee productivity and reduced innovation due to information overload
    > 8 hours per week is the estimated impact of information overload on each knowledge worker

4. Disorganization
    > 43% of Americans consider themselves disorganized
    > 59% of managers miss important information every day

5. Off-plan work
    > 90% of manager time is squandered on ineffective activities
    > 21% of managers have missed vital work deadlines

Other key 'noise' include duplication, conflicting actions, bungled hand-offs and missed deadlines or targets. 

The solution to diluting this 'noise' can be found in 9 areas, 5 of which are key:

1. Direction
2. Leadership
3. Culture and climate
4. Accountability
5. Co-ordination and control

 So if you are continuously falling short of strategic expectations, lookat the 'noise' that is bombarding your team every day and see what you can do to muffle it.

Yours in execution,

ian

Lessons from the trenches ~ Don't pretend

We all know the story - 5 frogs sitting on a log and 4 decide to jump off; how many are left? The answer is 5 because 'deciding' and 'doing' are two totally different things. Despite knowing this story, and the lesson it teaches, we have a tendency to act like our frogs everyday. Deciding one thing and doing another. There is another saying that I think sums this up well - 'we judge ourselves by our intentions, and others by their actions.' 

How often have you sat around a table with a group of people discussing an issue and everyone commits to an action that will help resolve the issue. And, then be back in the same room a few weeks later to find that the issue is still on the table and no action (or a few actions) has taken place.

It's the same with strategy execution. There has been research after research that highlight the gap between performance and strategy - that show the low percentage of CEOs who expect their strategy to be executed and yet, few are putting in place the 'action' to improve the situation.

I am all for making strategy simple, but that will require some rigorous action and I am not convinced that we are there yet. So, I will decide to sit with my frogs and keep them company.

Yours in execution,

ian

A lesson from the trenches ~ being devious doesn't get you anywhere

A CEO was approached by his executive assistant and told that the Management team had thought it critical to the business that they join a golf club so that they could entertain their agents. It was well known in the industry that agents were avid golfers and that alot of relationships were built that way and subsequently business gained. At least, that is what they told the executive assistant.

Before signing any membership forms to a golf club, the CEO approached a colleague who deals with alot of agents to see if they did indeed play golf only to be told that that was not the case. Whereupon the CEO called his Management team together and proceeded to make it known how disappointed he was in their behaviour including that of his executive assistant.

There are 3 points to this story:

1. Stay focused on what is important
   What irked the CEO was the fact that joining a golf club was not about the agents or the company but rather about the self-interests of the Management team. He had no doubt that agents would have been invited to play but the motivator was the individual self-interest of the Management team. The Management team had lost sight of what was important.
2. Be direct rather than devious
   By approaching the executive assistant and asking her to approach the CEO, the Management team appeared devious and their intentions questionable. We have all used at one time or another assistants to do our dirty work for us but in this case it was tantamount to sending a lamb-to-slaughter and a direct approach would have been better. 
3. Be courageous
   Knowing your boss and knowing what is important to him/her; knowing how she/he thinks and what they will say before they actually say it, is a sign that an assistant is aligned with the boss. In our story, the executive assistant knew instinctively that the answer would be 'no' but she went ahead and asked anyway. She needed to be courageous despite any pressure from the Management team. It is important that a CEO and the executive assistant are seen as one. 

So next time you approach an executive assistant with a request - ask yourself if a). you are focused on what's important and b). would the direct approach be better served. 

Yours in execution

ian

The Art of Making Strategy - Simple

Last month, as part of our Leadership Series I had the priviledge of interviewing the CEO of ING Direct Australia, Vaughn Richtor about strategy and strategy execution. The outcome of that interview is attached and is well worth a read for the insights that it highlights.

There are 10 lessons that we can all learn from Vaughn and the Leadership Team at ING Direct when it comes to strategy and the execution of that strategy. Those lessons are covered in the attached file.

Download The Art of Making Strategy Simple_ING Direct_2013

 

I hope you enjoy the Series.

Yours in execution,

ian

Strategy & Simplicity

Last month I asked the CEO of a very successful financial institution why his organization was successful at executing strategy. He said that it boiled down to one thing - Simplicity. Taking the complex and making it simple so that everyone in the organization understands where they want to get to; who their customers are and how they will get there.(I will be posting my interview with this CEO with my next post.)

This gentleman was telling me that on a long overseas flight he took the 20 page strategy document that he was given together with its 200-odd slide deck and condensed it all on to one page. Having one page, he suggests, makes strategy so much easier to communicate.

However, it goes way beyond communication. Condensing your strategy to one page forces you to focus on what is critical; it forces you to clarify your thoughts; it forces to make decisions as to what not to do. There is no more hiding behind words, powerpoint or politics. But it also makes your strategy a 'living' document. Try it.

Yours in execution.

ian

This is a true story

This is a true story. We were asked by the country-head of a company to help his team formulate their strategy and once done, to prepare the strategy document and the corresponding slide deck that would be presented to the country-head's CEO at a later date. All of which we did.

The slide presentation to the CEO was eventually given (by the country-head) and the strategic document handed over. The CEO loved what he saw and the country-head was applauded for his insight and given an additional number of countries to look after (no kidding). And that was to be the end of the story until one of the country-head's management team asked 'what now?' It was a question that the country-head was not expecting, nor one that he was prepared for. 'What do you mean?' he asked of his team member. 'Well, how do we make this document, these slides - in fact the strategy - come alive? How do we make this strategy mean something to the rest of the organization?' she replied. Scratching his head his response was simply to mumble 'I don't know! You do it!' And so the task of making the country's strategy come alive was left to her.

The sad thing is that all too often country-heads or MD's develop strategies and use them simply for their window dressing capabilities (i.e., to show how good the management/leader is). There is never an intention to go the next and most difficult step of making the strategy 'come alive'. If you can not bring your strategy alive and get it to mean something to your employees, it will not happen. If that is the intention - so be it but please call it for what it is - 'fluff'. Making strategies 'come alive' is not easy, but it is essential. Fortunately for the hero in our story - she has us to fall back on. 

Yours in execution,

ian  

Getting Rid of Clutter

We have found that one of the hardest things that managers seem to be able to do is to 'Get rid of clutter,' or to put it another way, to stop doing something that they have been doing for years. With every strategy it is important that you get rid of the clutter.

This was brought home to me the other day when looking at our own company. When we started some 8 years ago, we formed an alliance with a particular company whereby we would use their products and services and share equally in the revenue. However, as the years progressed, we realized that the business model was not feasible and the product and services were lacking in key areas. Rather than stopping as soon as we realized this, we carried on with the relationship using up limited resources until eventually with both parties as frustrated as hell with each other, we exited the relationship. We could have saved ourselves alot of time, effort and financial resources had we cut the realtionship as soon as we knew it was not feasible. We should have got rid of the clutter.

And so it is with alot of the companies that we do work with. In some cases it can be as mundain as a report that someone spends hours compiling and that no-one reads or it can be a process that is no longer relevant but that for some reason that no-one can now remember is written into policy; or it can be the larger debris such as a brand, a division or even a business that year-after-year drains the company of vital energy and which the leaders hold on to because of some historic tie. Make no mistake, it is a tough call to make - to decide to stop doing something - but getting rid of clutter is a call that you will be pleased that you made.

Yours in execution.

ian

Is Strategy Execution Losing its Juice ? (Part 2)

In Part 1 we suggested that there was an element of 'creeping conservatism' invading strategies and to that point, I came across a wonderful blog posted by Ken Bator of btcsmallbusiness entitled 'Be Daring with Your Strategy,' and is well worth a read (Be Daring with Your Strategy.) However, there is yet another reason that will add to strategy execution losing its juice and that is the tendency of companies to develop strategies by formula.

Now there are a number of reasons for this but the most common that I have come across has as its foundation what I call 'strategy by powerpoint template.' The need for business units to present their strategic plans within the confines of a template that was developed by Head Office. We all know why Head Office wants to confine business unit presentations to the same format - it is easier to follow particularly when they have to sit through a number of presentations over a 3 day period; and it also ensures that they (Head Office) can direct the information that is presented to them. However, templates have a tendency to restrict both strategic and creative thinking but also to tempt managers to consider 'dusting off' past presentations and simply change the numbers. This just doesn't work in today's economic climate.

Apart from the obvious 'strategy by template', there is yet another reason why we revert to the 'strategy by formula' mindset. And that is because we have been taught that there is a logical hiearchy to strategy formulation i.e., from setting objectives to developing initiatives followed by tactics etc - you know the formula. The process is logical, clear and as history has shown, it works (in the main, that is). But where it loses its edge, is when people spend more time thinking and arguing about the flow rather than having robust discussions on the actual strategy itself.

So, let us drop the powerpoint templates and allow business units the freedom to be creative; let us have robust discussions on where you are today, where you want to get to and how you are going to get there, and let the flow come together how it will.

Yours in execution.

ian