How To Communicate to Uncertain Or Anxious Team Members
June 16, 2020
Why Momentum Can Slow In A Founder Business
July 7, 2020
Hey how are you doing? I hope you had an okay week. I know for many people things are moving all the time and changing all the time. And we’re having to adapt how we behave, the way we work with our teams and the way we run our businesses.
One of the things I’m doing, two updates from me is
- I’ve been working a lot with founders of companies. So, you know I worked with big corporates, in engineering, and law and a bunch of others where I coach their leadership teams and I coached leaders.
- I’ve also built a framework over the last sort of month or two for digital tech companies who have got teams of 3 or more, and have got a product in market. And I’ve been talking to 15 or so of them about what their challenges are and from that work, I’ve got really clear on what strategies and I think those two markets can really learn from one another but what I want to share with you today is a really refresher course on what a strategy is.
Strategy = Path to Goal
Why do we need a strategy? What it fundamentally comes down to is that you as a business exist in the world to achieve a set of promises or commitments that you have made to your stakeholders. Whether it be your investors, your board, your shareholders, your staff, partners, team, customers. And here’s the thing, they expect your return on those commitments. They expect you to live up to them, those commitments and promises whether they be financial, in terms of staff, in terms of money.
They allowed them to have certainty. And so on a regular basis, what happens is that we set some X by Y kind of goals around and we move to deliver this by then to give shape to how you are going to run the business.
Unfortunately we all have a boss, and setting those goals in the business over a particular time frame is the nature of how we give certainty to the future even in a chaotic world. Now, a little crash course on strategy is that whether the strategy is static or dynamic, a strategy is essentially then the path to the goal.
So the strategy defines who, who you gonna play? Who are your ideal customers? What are you gonna sell for them? And how are you going to deliver it?
Clarity, Alignment and Attracting Talent
And it gives clarity as to how the capital or resources of the organisation are going to be used over a period of time frame to get to achieve the goal. In a world like where we’re in at the moment, which is where things are changing on the outside of your business, in your home, a lot.
It’s really difficult to set and forget a strategy the way we’ve traditionally done strategy, it has been a little bit like every 12 months we set a kind of strategy which gives clarity as to how we’re going to achieve their goals in 12-month time. We may consider things like culture, products, we normally cut them up into categories, and it works, especially if you’re aligned to communicate with people around it.
Here’s the thing though, what quite often happens is that we tick the box in terms of being done but what happens is that 80%-90% of people just continue to do what they’ve always done. They keep focus on the projects and they don’t look up and think how can I do it differently or how can I do it in alignment to strategy?
So the second thing they do, instead of strategy being something new when a new way achieves the goal, it’s an incremental extension of whatever has already been done. So it’s kind of like rather being something new it’s kind of like the last strategy plus a little bit of thing on the end.
In the world that’s changing, we make it a 12 month time frame. Often if we don’t adapt in that 12 months time frame, then we’re not keeping up with the way the market and the way our customers are at. So what can happen is that overtime from the perspective of our investors and our board, start partners, shareholders. If we got a static strategy then if we don’t keep up with the way the markets changing our momentum slows and your results suffer.
Not just in terms of revenue, but your ability to set up your customers, your ability to be relevant to what their needs are and you can get stuck in a rut because you are continually doing what you’ve always done. You know some famous moments like Kodak and the taxi industry and all the others, and I won’t name them but you know what I mean.
And the third thing is in terms of attracting talent, people want to work for someone that is moving, that is inspiring, that’s got a perspective on them, on their market. It’s finally enough we moved away from 3 year and 5 years strategies, but I think we’re moving to the era of the dynamic strategy.
What Do I Mean by Dynamic Strategy?
What I mean is a dynamic strategy is really clear on one of these. It’s intention is to increase value for current and future stakeholders, all those people that I mentioned before. It’s not about the internal it’s about making a difference from the outside.
And that focus gives it a really sharp edge around measurement when making sure we are measuring the right things and continually getting feedback around whether we’re making a difference. It’s actionable and tangible, so rather than sitting on the shelf, it’s about translating a document, the words into what happens with customers on a project, live every single week, every single month.
It’s actionable into people’s days and weeks, instead of sitting there every 12 months and guiding, we treated it as almost like a testimony exercise, where strategies tested, what works grows and what fails is product for the future projects. It’s learning. And instead of it being 12 months, I reckon it’s either a strategy that has a quarterly focus or a six week sprint.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about vision. So I still think companies need visions, which is the ultimate destination I want to get to and where they want a place in the market, and they need a mission which is their overall purpose. Those things are important to define what they are and who they are. But in terms of strategy I think we’re reaching a point where it’s becoming much more of a dynamic moving process.
If we have a strategy like this, instead of it being momentum slowing, feeling stuck and not inspiring, it really helps the organisation focus on customer outcomes and customer value. Helps the organisation become innovative and ultimately that allows it to be more sustainable and profitable.
What You Need to Do
First thing you need to get your head around is that the way you run your business and the way you think about strategy is cyclical, not linear. The linear process has always been kind of do a spot or look at the gaps or put strategies to address the gaps, and then a tactic to address the gaps, now strategy will be a combination of all those three things and they sit on the shelf.
I don’t think it can be that way anymore. I think especially in this current environment we need to do things differently and I would think that you need to run a short little process with your stakeholders ideally involved where you agree on two things.
- Just for a period of time, could be six months, could even be less. What are the goals? What’s the pay off and what’s the plan in terms of the problems to address the opportunities to take, to attack and get agreed on what those goals are and how you are going to do it?
- I would then probably go over “tested in market”, take two or three year assumptions in your hypothesis and for six weeks or a quarter run a sprint where you put some of these things in place and you work out what is working and you double down on it. And what’s not working, what’s failing, you cut and you learn from it and you adjust.
And then you come back to your stakeholders and communicate with them around what the real market reality is in the strategy and how you’re going to adjust it in the next 6 weeks or a quarter and adjust it. It’s dynamic. And then you pivot and adjust. Even I am pivoting my own strategies, I’m doing it.
Summary
Get your plan tested in market, continue to give feedback to stakeholders back and forth, pivot and adjust and then keep updating it and it’s a cyclical process.
So here’s the thing if you’re a company that’s got three or more people in it and you got a founder team and you feel like you’re lacking a bit of focus and clarity at the moment and the impact of that is that the momentum is slowing. You feel like you need to move into the future and create some different ideas, so that your investors can see you being strategic, being clear and moving to the future and your staff can get something inspired around.
Leave me a comment or Get in Touch
I’m about to launch a program, it’s a 3 month program that’s specifically around focus and clarity. We’ll have some face-to-face components, some workshop components and then a bit of stuff for you to do online.
Just let me know, I guess the thing you need to do today is just put your hand up. Just say “Yeah, I’m interested”, I’m going to be doing some more posts about it and I’ll send you through the details and let you know how it works.
For those who want the freebie and just want the information. What I would do from here is to start to think about how to move your strategy from being the one that sits on the shelf, the one that dynamic and gets tested in market. And I would think about that process I talk to you about around setting the strategy, aligning stakeholders, testing at market, getting feedback and then continually updating and refreshing it so you can achieve your goals. Enjoy the week and stay safe.
Talk to you soon. Bye.
When you are ready…. let’s work out if we are a good fit.
If you’re a growing mid size business and you want help to get more focus in your leadership team, scaling with people and systems or leading inside and outside your organisation, then click the link below. You’ll be taken to a super short survey and then asked to book in an initial 20-minute call where we can work out if what you need is aligned with the results I can deliver.
I look forward to the chat…
