We were visiting over a good meal about leadership, decision-making, collaboration, and communication when I figured out something important. Most leaders help people move forward by explaining the company’s strategy and why we have a particular strategy. In particular, they explain what are the goals and priorities per quarter. This is called moving forward by knowing or knowledge. The difficulty is that many front line supervisors and employees can not relate to this way of moving forward, because they live in a world focused on day to day problems and day to day routines. There is no line of sight from their daily priorities to the overall strategic intent of the company.
Still, I get why leaders focus on unpacking the current strategy and the current context or environment in which the company is operating. But, again, the majority of front line supervisors and employees are more focused on whether or not the shift is filled, people come on time, and whether or not the daily, operational work is getting done. From their perspective, knowledge about doing the job is more important than knowledge about the company’s strategy.
Nevertheless, strategy is important. It impacts the company in the short and long term. Therefore, I think we need to supplement knowing the current strategy with one more thing, namely the idea of moving forward by experience. From this perspective, we need to go back in time and choose a past strategy that was successfully executed and explain how this strategy was created, and how it was executed. For as the best leaders understand, past strategy always creates the current operational reality.
By connecting the dots from the execution of a past strategy to today’s current operational reality, we remind everyone that they have already experienced the execution of strategy and that it has made a difference. Then, when a new strategy is introduced, front line supervisors and employees can relate to this new strategy, because they can reference their past experiences with a previous strategy as part of their understanding of the new strategy. With this perspective, they can move forward with experience and knowledge.
At the same time, I think we as leaders need to remember that moving forward with knowledge assumes that we will always have all the information and all of the knowledge to make the right decisions at the right time for the right reasons. However, as is normal in the world of leadership, strategy, and organizational change, we really only move forward with some of the knowledge that we need to make those decisions. There are always new situations, new problems, and new complexities surfacing. Therefore, we move forward with some knowledge, but we also move forward by experience, i.e. we learn our way forward. When we choose to do this, then the convergence of knowledge, experience and learning creates personal and organizational capacity plus a unique competitive advantage in the current market place.
Still, we need to grasp two important ideas as we support and encourage the aforementioned convergence. First, we must role model this in our lives, not just expect it of others. As executive coach, author, and founder of The Restoration Project, Lindsay Leahy notes, “Allowing yourself to be transformed, to become different, to surrender, and to accept a new reality is going to take real commitment.” And transforming commitment into action takes courage and continual learning. It requires us to focus on being aware of our goals and priorities, and to not get caught in the trap of trying to fix everyone else’s problems, which is the default choice of so many leaders during difficult and challenging times.
Second, we need to reflect on the following insight by Matt Licata, PhD.: “… the goal is always more consciousness, forming the basis from which wiser and more skillful responses flow.” Recognizing that people prefer what they are accustomed to, more consciousness begins with more awareness. However, we must recognize and accept that all of us have conscious and unconscious, default perspectives about life and work. We must also recognize that awareness is not synonymous with a transformation of thinking. It is the beginning of change but not a full transformation. The later takes place when we choose “wiser and more skillful responses.”
To accomplish greater consciousness, where the expansion of knowledge, experience and learning take place, I believe we need to think deeply about something that Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury who drafted the first edition of The Book of Common Prayer in 1549, noted about death, “life is changed, not ended.” When we move forward with knowledge, experience, and learning, i.e. the sum of greater consciousness, life is changed, not ended. In reality, it is restored and grounded in a wider and more inclusive perspective. With more consciousness, we see and comprehend the interconnectivity of strategy and operational choices, thinking and action. We recognize that people are always changing even when they prefer what they are accustomed to on a day to day basis.
Furthermore, these changes over time, small but significant, can result in a transformation of perspective and understanding, all of which started with a change in awareness. At the same time, this initial movement from unaware to aware cracks open the potential for multiple new choices and perspectives about how to proceed and how to engage with others.
Nevertheless, this all begins with a commitment, referencing Lindsay Leahy’s above quote. We can make this kind of commitment, but, at the exact same time, we must activate a network of support to assist us in executing our commitment. With the support of allies, confidants, coaches, and mentors, we can slowly, step by step, expand our consciousness and live into this level of consciousness.
Successful transformation does not happen in a vacuum. Instead, it always happens within a network of support and understanding. And this is an individual and a collective process, all at the exact same time. As Matt Licata, PhD notes: “Remember, the primary invitation is not rejection, purging, or deleting parts of ourselves but to expanding consciousness of what is happening, for it is from that increased awareness that we can choose a new way.” When we seek to move forward from a place of knowledge, experience, and learning, we can make better decisions. We also can work better with others, plus communication in such a way as to increase awareness and understanding. In short, we executive strategy and improve daily operations, all at the same time.
© Geery Howe 2025
No comments:
Post a Comment