A Pathway To A New Beginning
“Adaptations are not necessarily improvements or progress,” writes Margaret Wheatley in her book, Who Do We Choose to Be? Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity (Berrett-Koehler, 2017), “they are intelligent responses to what has changed.” A bridge plan is an intelligent response to an unusual and dynamic situation. It also is the pathway to a new beginning.
Once a bridge plan has been built and once people begin to execute it at the local level, many leaders do not realize some important things about this pathway to new beginnings. First, “new beginnings involve new understandings, new values, new attitudes - and - most of all - new identities,” writes William Bridges.
Furthermore, many leaders confuse starting something with a new beginning. They do not grasp that in a new beginning, people want it to happen and are relieved that it is happening. At the exact same time, people also fear a new beginning. They are scared, because they will be required to make a commitment to a new way of thinking and doing things. Thus, the normal response to a new beginning is that people resist them. New beginnings also trigger old anxieties, e.g. the ending of work as we knew it back in March 2020. They also include the risk that the new beginning may end again, i.e. we may have to go back to hybrid or all remote work due to another wave of COVID-19.
Therefore, when executing a bridge plan, leaders are very conscious that in the midst of turbulence, instability, and challenge, they are on the verge of a new beginning. Once the bridge plan is nearly fully executed, and once the market conditions are more stable, then leaders will start a strategic planning process which will result in a new strategic plan. In particular, this new planning process is not a sequel to the last strategic plan, but instead a sequel to the bridge plan.
As the best leaders know, a strategic plan is an extensively premeditated, carefully built, long term plan designed to achieve a particular goal or goals. Strategy, like a bridge plan, also needs to be adaptable by nature due to unforeseen variables rather than presenting a rigid set of instructions or tactics which has the potential to create organizational vulnerability. However, what most leaders miss is that strategy, and in particular strategic planning, serves an important function within an organization because it promotes ongoing, evolutionary success.
Thus, when entering and then moving through turbulent times, the planning process is the following: “old” strategic plan -> bridge plan -> “new” strategic plan. The experience of creating the bridge plan and the experience of executing the bridge plan impact the “new” strategic plan more than the planning and execution of the “old” strategic plan. Therefore, the new beginning, that I referenced earlier, does not start in the old strategic plan, but, in reality, the new beginning starts in the bridge plan.
And when a new beginning entails “new understandings, new values, new attitudes - and - most of all - new identities,” referencing Bridges earlier writing, and when a new beginning is something people normally resist because it entails the previously mentioned four new things, i.e. understanding, values, attitudes, and identities, then a leader is very careful in the creation of their bridge plan. In particular, they are mindful that a successful bridge plan must generate local solutions. The goal of these local solutions is to create local short term wins in the spite of the turbulence that caused the bridge plan to be an “intelligent choice,” citing Wheatley’s earlier comments. The best leaders grasp that when a bridge plan generates local short term wins, it will create more local ownership, engagement, and confidence. It is the cumulation of all these local wins that has the potential to generate overall corporate adaptability and resilience. Plus it becomes the framework for the new beginnings that will take place in the “new,” post bridge plan, strategic plan. In short, the pathway to a new beginning always starts in the bridge plan, especially during times of market turbulence.
Building Clarity During A Bridge Plan
Understanding the importance of new beginnings within a bridge plan, and their powerful impact on the development and execution of a post bridge plan, strategic planning process, leaders need to build clarity and focus during the execution of a bridge plan and during the subsequent strategic planning cycle. The best way to do this is to focus on purpose, picture, plan and part, what William Bridges calls the four P’s.
Now, most leaders explain the purpose of a bridge plan, and then assume that everyone also understands the local, desired outcomes that are to result from the bridge plan. However in the past when I have been called in as a consultant to figure out why the execution of a bridge plan was not working at the local level, I routinely discovered that the “why” behind the plan, i.e. the reason for creating and executing a bridge plan, did not have line of sight to the local performance expectations that people were supposed to generate it. In simple terms, the bridge plan was a concept that could not be translated into sustainable local outcomes.
Furthermore, because of this problem related to lack of line of sight, the bridge plan was helpful for senior leaders, but not for local leaders. This disconnect at the local level happened because daily operational problems, both technical and adaptive, trumped the performance expectations defined within the bridge plan for the local level. While senior leaders had clarity and focus, the local leaders were more focused on local problems and local solutions. They grasped the idea of the bridge plan, but could not relate to how it would be executed at the local level. Therefore, clarity and focus was positional, and not practical.
The solution to this situation starts when senior leaders do two things. First, they need to better understand the local situation and the local problems, not just the overall market turbulence. Second, they need to connect the overall turbulence with the local perspective. Bridges called this “selling the problems before the solutions.” I think the challenge of this is that the definition of clarity for most senior leaders is focused on external, global market conditions and not enough about local market conditions.
However, the best leaders grasp that it is not one level of clarity, i.e. global, or the other level of clarity , i.e. local, that is more important. Instead, it is the level of clarity that combines both the global and local that will make a difference. Therefore, the best leaders connect the global and the local conditions into one level of understanding, i.e. the global and the local are inter-dependent and each is impacting the other. By bringing the global and local challenges into one, united purpose, the best leaders are transforming our fear of the unknown into confidence that the bridge plan will help all involved move collectively and successfully through this time of market turbulence. The best leaders also understand that by linking the two they are building a foundation for a new beginning.
With a united purpose, leaders move to the second P, namely the picture. The classic choice that most leaders make is to paint a picture of how the desired outcomes will look and feel at the local level. Yet, the best leaders I have worked with during the execution of a bridge plan start at a different place. As William Bridges wrote, “The picture in people’s head is the reality they live in…”. Therefore, they spend a significant amount of time trying to understand “the picture in people’s head” before painting a “new” picture. In particular, they want to comprehend what is the local picture of operational excellence and how well this picture is or is not working.
With this new information, these leaders can then paint a more nuanced and applicable picture that links desired outcomes at both the corporate and the local levels. The end goal of this understanding is to create a picture that is aligned, owned, and understood by all who have to create it on a day to day basis. As Bridges reminds us, do not “overwhelm people with a picture that is so hard for them to identify with that they become intimidated rather than excited by it.” We can create this exciting and aligned picture, when we recognize that the sharing of the picture is based on a collaborative dialogue more than a single leader lecture.
Next, we need to focus on building the actual bridge plan. At this point, I am reminded of the insight that Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze wrote in their book, Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey Into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now (Berrett-Koehler, 2011). As they noted, “People don’t support things that are forced on them. We don’t act responsibly on behalf of plans and programs created without us. We resist being changed, not change itself.”
I think this is an important insight. We need to co-create bridge plans with others, helping all involved understand what needs to take place and what is the desired outcomes as the plan is executed. Often, this level of planning may need to involve the sharing of more information, possibly including some training around key concepts and lots of support as people process what is expected of them. As always, we need to start a bridge plan where people are, not just where we want them to be.
Finally, we come to the last piece, namely part. Here, we need to define the tangible ways individuals can contribute and participate in the bridge plan when it is executed. In particular we need to answer the two most common questions people ask during the execution of a bridge plan, namely “Where do I fit in to the plan? What is my role now?” While the questions may seem simplistic, the answers are, nonetheless, critical to success. For if we seek to be successful in the midst of market turbulence, then all involved need to know how their actions connect to the desired local outcomes within the bridge plan.
Building clarity during a bridge plan takes time and energy. It is a commitment to the present course of action, and it is an investment in being better prepared for the future. It is not just one new beginning. It is the creative act of being able to produce many future, new beginnings as the markets and the customers continue to evolve over time.
Stay Humble
One of the Dalai Lama’s Principles for Ethical Strategies is to “stay humble,” and “know the limits of our knowledge and also to realize we can easily be misguided in a rapidly changing reality.” This is one of the greatest lessons to be learned when deciding to create and execute a bridge plan in the midst of difficult, overwhelming, and frustrating market conditions. While we may not be certain about the exact path forward, we, as leaders, need to realize that our perspective and our knowledge may be limited or skewed by our own ego or lack of desire to change our own minds. Being humble and realizing that we don’t know it all or understand it all can be hard for someone in a leadership position, but it also is one of the defining characteristics of a great leader. These unique group of individuals recognize that collective intelligence is more important than their own intelligence, and thus they stay open to the insights of others.
Furthermore, this same group of people recognize a truth that Margaret Wheatley shared in her book, Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. (Berrett-Koehler, 2005). As she wrote, “All organizing efforts begin with an intent, a belief that something more is possible now that the group is together.” It is the combination of humility, clarity of intent, and the focus on creating a working environment where a group can come together and stay together through the turbulence, that will make a profound difference over time.
But for me, the heavy lifting begins with our clarity of intent. We can create clarity about what is happening in the world around us, and we can share key information and metrics about what is happening within the company. We can even strengthen and maintain a healthy network of relationships at all levels of the company. But without clarity of intent, the work of a bridge plan is only somewhat effective.
However, when we have clarity of intent, and when we are clear about why we are committed to building and executing a bridge plan, then the plan itself changes everything. W.H. Murray, Scottish mountaineer and writer, understood this when he wrote: “The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision which no one could have dreamed would have come their way.” With clarity of intent, we then activate a larger circle of resources and relationships that will generate new and even better options and possibilities.
In the end, I agree with President Teddy Roosevelt: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” A bridge plan is a an intelligent response. It also is the pathway to a new beginning. For when our known knowns, our known unknowns, and our unknown unknowns all accelerate and converge, a bridge plan is the right choice when confronted with an unusual and dynamic environment.
© Geery Howe 2024
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