According to Patrick Lencioni in his book, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business (Jossey-Bass, 2012), there are six critical questions that a team and an organization must answer. They are as follows:
1. Why do we exist?
2. How do we behave?
3. What do we do?
4. How will we succeed?
5. What is most important, right now?
6. Who must do what?
As reflect on all the meetings I have been a part of this winter and all the one on one visits I have had with people in various leadership positions, the one question we are not taking about is “How will we succeed?” It seems that either people assume every agrees with them on how to succeed or they haven’t a clue on how to answer this question.
For some, I believe they think the question is too simplistic and not worth answering. Others give me a rudimentary answer that focuses on operational execution. But, when I take this question and expand it in the following manner, many have to stop and really think deeply. Here is the expanded version:
What is your company going to do in order to thrive and differentiate itself from your competitors?
Recognizing that the global pandemic, staffing shortages, and stiff economic headwinds plus supply chain issues are not going away, there is a secondary and important question that also needs to be addressed:
How will you make strategic and operational decisions in a purposeful, and intentional way that allows you and your team to maximize your success and differentiate you from your competitors?
Again, these questions are to make us all stop, think deeply, and reflect. The are designed for us to look at the bigger picture, and to explore the trends and risk factors before the company. They require us to differentiate between technical problems and adaptive challenges.
During the last 90 days, when I have seen a senior leader and/or their team successfully engage with this level of thoughtful reflection and the subsequent level of strategic dialogue, I have always noticed one thing. Everyone around the table has a common language to address these issues and a shared mindset around the history of the company that led them to this point in time. It is the common language and understanding of history that gives the people in the room the capacity to think short and long term in an effective manner. It empowers them to be bold and thoughtful.
Robyn Benincas in her book, How Winning Works: 8 Essential Leadership Lessons From The Toughest Teams On Earth (Harlequin, 2012) reminds us that there are four P’s to making a commitment. They are preparation, planning, purpose, and perseverance. Given the challenges that are surfacing as we move from winter into spring, we need to answer the question “How will we succeed?”, continue building common language and an understanding of organizational history, plus focus on ways to build more commitment to move forward together through out all levels of the company.
No comments:
Post a Comment