The big question right now is the following one: what are the surge competencies we need given all that is happening?
First, I think we need to understand strategic intent more than just strategic goals or specific objectives. Strategic goals and objectives are created to be executed during normal operations. However, a surge is an increase in volume that exceeds normal operating capacity. Thus, strategic and operational goals and objectives may no longer be viable during a surge. Therefore, people must understand strategic intent and think strategically.
Next, leaders need to be able to do a risk analysis. We are asking people to make the right choices for the right reasons at the right time. I just don’t believe we have very good language around risk. We approach it in a binary fashion, namely too risky vs. not risky. I think we need to collectively reread the following book: Collins, Jim and Morten T. Hansen. Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck - Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, HarperCollins, 2011. They have a great chapter and language on risk management and we need to better define risk and frame it up as a risk continuum rather than a binary problem.
Now, the desired outcome of being able to think strategically is to reduce uncertainty and mistakes. However, I keep thinking about the following quote from the aforementioned book: “It’s what you do before the storm hits - the decisions and disciplines and buffers and shock absorbers already in place - that matters most in determining whether your enterprise pulls ahead, falls behind or dies when the storm hits.”
Therefore, I think another competency that will reduce resistance is to participate in regular, intelligence gathering and analysis. With the goal of creating a shared mindset, we need to return to the work of Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall in their book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World, Harvard Business Review Press, 2019. As they write, “When we understand the characteristics of an intelligence system, as distinct from a planning system - accurate, real-time data, distributed broadly and quickly, and presented in detail so that team members can see and react to patterns in deciding for themselves what to do - we begin to see them everywhere. … the best intelligence wins.”
There are three kinds of intelligence gathering. The first is Warning Intelligence, namely What is coming at us? or Who will attack us? This is to prevent Pearl Harbor, 911, etc., and to deal with close and present danger. The second is Emerging Trends Intelligence which focus on the question: What trends 5-10 years from now will impact our business? Here, we are trying to create foresight of what could happen. The third is Strategic Intelligence where we are looking for an accelerated convergence of which we may or may not understand, i.e. what are the factors that will come together and create a situation that will impact our future? This will determine if the plan we have needs to be changed or executed faster.
Buckingham and Goodall say we do this kind of work by “First, liberate as much information as you possibly can. Second, watch carefully to see which data your people find useful… sorting the signal from the noise. Third, trust your people to make sense of the data.”
The next competency is to be able to prioritize. People who can prioritize well understand the difference between a goal and a priority. They also understand the difference between complex and complicated. Finally, they understand the difference between discernment and judgement.
This week, delegate decision-making closer to the source of the surge. Remind people that when dealing with surges and with resistance to ask themselves the following three questions based on the CIA Model by Janet Feldman:
- What can we control?
- What can we influence?
- What must we accept?
Life can be challenging but with the right competencies and perspectives, we can handle it and move forward in an effective and resilient manner.
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