Managing Strategic Conversations for Results – Part 3

Where to from here?
Register for our seminar to learn how to manage strategic conversations for results. Click here to read more. In my first blog post, “Strategic Conversations” I outlined a concept for holding a strategic conversation. This simple framework shows how a series of simple questions, when asked in a particular sequence, can produce great strategies, ideas and commitment from a team in terms of a future state and goal. The outcomes of these facilitated conversations have certain things in common. Each of them includes:

1. A compelling ambitious future goal (something that creates stickiness for the team)
2. Defining and doing more of what works, valuing the goodness and greatness in what we do(operational efficiency)
3. Solving problems and finding ways we can do things better. Better, faster, cheaper – (function, process, systems, resources, suppliers)
4. Innovating (not emulating) to stay ahead and give us that all important competitive advantage.

When viewed in isolation one might see that there is a great strategy, but when put together I realized that innovation can distort the balance. This is a different kind of balance to the traditional Kaplan and Norton Balanced Scorecard. This is more about acknowledging the disruption that innovation can cause within your existing business. I began to map the outcome into a “balanced” new model which I have called “The Strategic Landscape”. It is intended to assist clients in focusing their thinking and to acknowledge context relative to their strategy. The landscape ensures that “why” we are doing this has equal importance to the “how”.

Mapping a Strategy
There are five kinds of strategies in a business:

1. Grow Future Value (GFV) – This is the kind of strategy that raises the bar. It’s the utopia of all strategies and looks at ways to substantially and substantively raise the bar of the organisation. It’s about preparing a business for what’s coming next; it’s about innovation and doing this, potentially, radically differently from your peers, competitors and counter parts.
2. Optimize Current Value (OCV) – This is what is known in many environments as asset optimization, getting more from less, sweating the asset, operational efficiency. If the business has assets let’s make them work. And obsessively measure our Return on Assets.
3. Rethink the Business Model (RBM) – This is where the business looks at improving systems, processes and ways of doing things. New systems typically fit here like a glove, as do our operating structures or business models. Too much rethinking and too many new initiatives can overwhelm people and cause destabilization of the business as usual. “Change fatigue” is increasingly acknowledged by executives who rethink their business models too often.
4. Navigating Out of Trouble (NOT) – I affectionately call this NOT Strategy. I argue, that, the only reason we got into trouble in the first place was because our leaders were not doing their job. But there are sometimes circumstances beyond our control that forgive the lack of leadership skill and end us firmly in the dwang. “Disruptive innovations”, new legislation or dramatic change in your economic climate can create untold trouble for your business. But, for the most part, executives take an Ostrich approach as Navigating Out of Trouble is a strategy that forces them to admit what they didn’t do to begin with. You may end up in this area because of a lack of compliance and commitment to your own operating models. Companies or institutions that have many NOT strategies are often in a mode of ‘depression’ and it is hard to inspire employee morale. If you find yourself with lots of strategies ‘down here’ then focus on one, and fix it. Fix it quickly. It’s imperative that you convert entropy into synergy to force the required change in your business.
5. Trends, Competition & Talent (TCT) – No business is immune to the constant ebb and flow of external forces. Being overly focused on the ‘outside’ will sometimes result in a lack of focus on the inside. This is where balance becomes an essential requisite. While you are keeping yourself very busy working in your own back yard, someone out there – your competitor, colleague or keen entrepreneur can come at your business and blind side you. Competitors are increasingly aggressive, the best talent doesn’t stick around and trends can knock you off track in a moment. Trends, competition and talent require a new leadership mantra which includes: “Nimble, flexible, adaptable and responsive” to change.

What can you do?
If you want to value innovation in your business or team, you need to do several things.
Here’s my 7 tip checklist to guide your strategic thinking process:

1. Remember strategy is a conversation, not a destination. Involve as many people as you can in the dialogue process. Evolve the strategy, rather than dictate it. The closer someone is to the generation of an idea the more likely they are to act on it.
2. Prioritize your strategies – try not to do everything at once as an over emphasis on one strategy will probably result in a loss of opportunity elsewhere.
3. Map your strategy onto the strategic landscape and determine what time, energy and money (resources) you are willing to invest in each level. Do not have too many in any one category
4. Ensure that at least one strategy focuses on the ‘back-yard business’ to ensure you Optimize the Current Value (OCV) of your business in parallel to Growing Future Value.
5. If you believe in innovation, invest in it. Don’t try and raise the bar without being willing to invest risk capital to make it happen.
6. Move out non-performers quickly. The minute you tolerate non-performance in your team it sends a message to the rest and may unleash a host of problems into the environment. Growing your business requires people who are beyond mediocrity.
7. If you are in the dwang and everything on your landscape is about Navigating Out of Trouble (NOT) then put ONE thing on the framework and fix it. Fix it fast. When that one is done, pick the next and so on until there is NOTHING beneath the foundation other than strength and success.

Good luck!
Nicola Tyler | Thinker