Re-exploring the Strategic Mindset

When asked recently about what I think leaders need to be working on this winter, I have responded with two answers. First, they need to embrace a strategic management mindset. Second, they need to commit to operational excellence.

Believe it or not, many senior leaders are no longer focused on 2014. They know that if something new or better has not started by now, then more likely the more pressing problems left over from 2013 will consume what is left of 2014. Inertia and old stuff always slow down new initiatives during the first quarter of a new year.

However, the best leaders know that this is the perfect time to think through 2015 - 2018. Some are even planning out as far as 2020 - 2025.  All of them are doing this because they comprehend what it means to embrace a strategic management mindset.

Many years ago, James Belasco and Ralph Stayer in their book, Flight of the Buffalo: Soaring to Excellence, Learning to Let Employees Lead, noted the following: “The primary purpose of strategic planning is not to strategically plan for the future, although that's an important purpose of the exercise. It is primarily to develop the strategic management mind-set in each and every individual in the organization. The purpose of the process is not only to produce a plan. It is to produce a plan that will be owned and understood by the people who have to execute it.”

The big question for us to today is “What is a strategic mindset?” To understand this question, you have to understand that adaptive problems reflect a change of context or environment while technical problems often reflect a change in standard operating practice. With a strategic management mindset, it is the “genius of the and,” referencing an old Jim Collins term, where a leader knows the importance of making sure all involved have clarity of context, strategy and operational excellence.

Now to the last one of the above three, let us remember that Tom Peters, who is the one who started us all off in the search of and understanding about operational excellence, defined it as a workplace philosophy where problem solving, teamwork and leadership resulted in on-going improvements or continuos improvements in the organization. This took place when we focused on customer needs, continual evaluation and optimization of current work place activities, plus developed an engaged work force, i.e. positive and empowered.

This week, I encourage you to embrace a strategic management mindset, and commit to operational excellence. This will help you and the organization move through the normal turbulence and cabin fever of February.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

The Strategic Mindset and Operational Excellence

Routinely now, I tell leaders to embrace a strategic mindset, and commit to operational excellence. While this is a challenging action, the first step in this process is to truly comprehend this passage from James Belasco and Ralph Stayer’s book called Flight of the Buffalo: Soaring to Excellence, Learning to Let Employees Lead (Time Warner, 1994). As they write: 

“The primary purpose of strategic planning is not to strategically plan for the future, although that's an important purpose of the exercise.  It is primarily to develop the strategic management mind-set in each and every individual in the organization. The purpose of the process is not only to produce a plan. It is to produce a plan that will be owned and understood by the people who have to execute it.”

Peter Fuda and Richard Badham understood the concept of a strategic mindset when they wrote their article called “Fur, Snowball, Mask, Movie: How Leaders Spark and Sustain Change” in the November 2011 issue of the Harvard Business Review. As they explained: “... Leadership transformation is deeply dependent on context. Everyone follows his own path, has her own story. The key for people who are seeking transformation is to identify the common thread in the experience of others who have achieved success and absorb the insights they find.” To do this, leaders need to understand what is the current context and to reflect on the adaptive problems and challenges that are driving context inside and outside of their organization. Furthermore, they need to understand the technical problems that are impacting SOP if they are to commit to operational excellence.

In essence, to embrace both elements of the above, we need to realize that the most effective leaders are able to tolerate and then utilize to their advantage the “genius of the and,” a concept first put forth by Jim Collins and Jerry Poras in their book, Built To Last.  When they do this, they develop an awareness and understanding of how the two concepts, strategic mind set and operational excellence, dynamically interact, recognizing that this level of understanding and clarity builds ownership for change. They know that ownership is growing in their organization when there is clarity about the why? factor and the why now? factor.

Still, people often ask me what is operational excellence. I always refer them back to the work of Tom Peters. He views operational excellence as a workplace philosophy where problem solving, teamwork and leadership result in on-going improvements or continuos improvements in the organization. In particular, this means all involved focus on meeting customer needs, continual evaluation and optimization of current work place activities, and the development of an engaged work force, i.e. positive and empowered.  

This week, I encourage you to ponder how well you are monitoring context and excellence in your organization. Both are critical to your short and long term success.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

For The Love of Food

I am a foodie. I like good food. If it is locally grown and organic, the better. If it comes from our own gardens in the back yard, the best. I also love to cook and I love to eat healthy food with friends and family.

I do not have a collection of cook books but I do have some favorites. A good recipe can make a world of difference when it comes to putting together a fine meal. This in combination with the right pots and pans can make a meal a marvelous adventure.

When I travel, I like, when possible, to eat good food and to have long meals with clients. These are working meals but when good food is present the conversations are better and more meaningful. People just open up, relax and explore ideas differently with good food.

But I know from experience that the good food is only half of the story, the other part is the atmosphere surrounding the food. Good food in a poor service environment just feels wrong. Great service and poor food does not sit well either. It is the combination of the two that makes all the difference.

Right now, too many people who are planning for the future are stuck in the “Tyranny of the OR,” a concept first presented by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their wonderful book, Built To Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, HarperBusiness, 1994. No one reads this book anymore because Collin’s more recent titles like Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall have become best sellers. But both of these books are built on the foundation of the book, Built To Last.

Within Built To Last, there is a concept called the “Tyranny of the OR” vs. “The Genius of the AND.” As the authors explain, “Instead of being oppressed by the “Tyranny of OR,” highly visionary companies liberate themselves with the “Genius of the AND” - the ability to embrace both extremes of a number of dimensions at the same time. Instead of choosing between A OR B, they figure out how to have both A AND B.”

For example, these companies can have the following:

- purpose beyond profit and a pragmatic pursuit of profit

- a core ideology and a vigorous strategic plan

- Big Hairy Audacious Goals and incremental evolutionary progress

- ideological control and operational autonomy

- investment for the long term and specific demands for short-term performance.

As the authors continue, “We’re not talking about mere balance here. “Balance” implies going to the midpoint, fifty-fifty, half and half. A visionary company doesn’t seek balance between short-term and long-term, for example. A visionary company doesn’t simply balance between idealism and profitability; it seeks to be highly idealistic and highly profitable. A visionary company doesn’t simply balance preserving a tightly held core ideology and stimulating vigorous change and movement; it does both to an extreme.” The challenge is to embrace both.

When good food and good service are experienced together, then the whole experience is profoundly different. There is no balance as much as a synergy of the elements. The results are transformative.

This spring I encourage everyone to go out and eat good food in a great restaurant. Or if possible, purchase or grow good food, cook it, and then serve it to friends and family. The results will be worth the effort.

For when we come to embrace the “Genius of the AND,” we will understand the comments by F. Scott Fitzgerald when he wrote,”The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” This is exactly what visionary companies do every day.

Geery Howe, M.A.Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer inLeadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational ChangeMorning Star Associates319 - 643 - 2257