Faking It

Often referred to by the phrase "fake it till you make it" is a philosophy that exists on the premise that starting with the end point will naturally fill in the gaps that get you there. If you keep acting it out then it will become a habit and eventuate.

The problem with this is we become creatures of habit rather than engaging with the reason "why" we do things. We miss the problem, or “root cause” and embed into our culture a "process" rather than a "passion" and may even fail to help us realise the end benefit.

The common approach for leaders to continually take a helicopter view can inadvertently cause us to lose an important element of engaging our people.

Ever flown to another city and tried to describe or even relate to the intervening countryside below? With the people, towns, culture or even weather that made up the distance in the space in between? You might like to think that you can identify with what its like down there, but you simply can’t because you bypassed all that, and jumped straight to the end destination.

We often attempt to do this with our organisations and people by developing strategies, defining values and behaviours hopefully inspiring our people to move to that place as if by "defining" certain behaviour it will happen.

We have become so used to "fast-tracking" our lives and utilising instant technology we have skipped the importance of actually "traveling" the distance. What works for point to point air travel simply can’t be applied to much of our business or simply achieved by establishing values, behaviours, a charter or a value statement.

There is a story about a child that asked his mum why she chopped off the end of the turkey before putting it in the oven. His mum replied that she thought it helped the meat cook better inside but maybe he should ask his grandmother. The child went to his grandmother and asked the question again. His grandmother responded saying that she thought it allowed the juices to flow through the meat enhancing its flavour but maybe he should ask his great grandmother. The child went on to his great grandmother and again asked the same question. His great grandmother turned to him and replied. "Dear that was because my oven was too small."

Just like the things that have influenced our personal development, aspects of our organisation must be "ground truthed" or experienced. This means getting out of the aircraft and "walking" the journey. It is by doing this we can see what is really happening, smell the air and "identify" with our people what’s really going on. 

It is our interaction with the ground that will both mature our outlook and authenticate the communication you need to have, firstly with your people and then with your customer.

Failure to do this will also smother innovation and detract our people from thinking for themselves. If we don't understand and experience the "why" we won’t identify any problem or nail the solution.

Are we trying to look the part? Have we really understood the problem? Are we applying a helicopter solution rather than deal with or understand the root source?

Is what you are espousing authentic and able to be challenged?
Are you inadvertently causing your people to fake it?

Could you be faking it?

Where there is a will

Where there is a "will" there is a way.

A saying that has been around for a long long time but often neglected for its truth.

Some of the things that we keep developing and coming back to in our organisations may be no different to those aspirational "new year resolutions" that we never really commit to personally. 

We know we need to do something so we keep coming back and working at it again. We might assign a new working party or undertake another workshop but if we look back we can see that we end up with same stuff, and ultimately the need for the same course of action. It might be green with yellow stripes this time, but it’s essentially the same as the red one underneath.

It might be a program, review or proposal that has never got past that. It could be a project that got to the 80% stage and progressed no further or values and behaviours that we aspire to, but never seem to achieve.

Quite often I hear organisational leaders espouse the desires and direction for the organisation or team with the picture of what that should look like but that's as far as it seems to go. The issue is why?

Many might suggest that this is because we don't know how to get there, however I might suggest it's because we are too afraid to go there and thus never really commit our "will" to it!

Health practitioners will tell you that the fundamental 'will' to change your diet or quit smoking is the key to success. It won't be peer pressure but a personal and deep down 'will' to change.

If we keep looking to change but don't, then it is our fear or unwillingness we need to address. That’s nonsense, I hear you saying, I am a leader I am not afraid or unwilling! No?

In many cases, whether it's in business or our personal lives we have a fear of leaving the known and moving to an unknown or exposed position. Even if our current state is flawed, at least we know how it works. We excuse ourselves by wanting it fully thought through and 100% guaranteed and perfect before we take the next step. Many times that’s just not possible and we use that as our platform to stay where we are.

We also have an image or persona which is built around our current state. We are afraid that the change would send a message to our clients or community that we were wrong somehow, wouldn't it? Afraid it will affect our credibility. Our image.

The problem here is the fact that your credibility is now already in question isn't it?

Are you seeking another program, rewrite or review failing to make the change or release it hoping that it might tell you a different story?

Could you be responding in fear? 

Where there is a will there is a way.
Where there is no will... there is no way!

Are you really willing?

A Dead Horse

Riding in the saddle of our previous success may delude us into thinking that we can cure or give CPR to anything. Convinced that if we continue with the tried old methods, performance will again improve.

Many Organisations continue to flog people, processes and programs as if pushing or poking them in a different way will produce a desired outcome. When is it time to recognize that something else is in play that thwarts any attempt to "strategize" a solution.

It could be time to look at the problem from a different perspective or a different lens and not assume that we even can, or should fix it?

Maybe we are hanging on to a "loved possession" whether it be the foundation enterprise that got you going in the first place or something into which you have invested just too much. Maybe we feel we owe someone or feel a duty of care. Or maybe we just don't want to appear to have invested unwisely.

To be able to tell the difference between a good investment and something that's at end of life, is a valuable attribute. Maybe its time to recognize your riding a dead horse. Maybe you've even been riding it for some time?

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed down from generation to generation, says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to "dismount". 

Western civilization however has developed a whole range of far more advanced strategies that are often employed, such as: 

• Change riders.
• Buy a stronger whip.
• Do nothing: "This is the way we have always ridden dead horses".
• Visit other countries to see how they ride dead horses.
• Perform a productivity study to see if lighter riders improve the dead horse's performance.
• Hire a contractor to ride the dead horse. (Can be as useful as a saddle when it comes to protecting you're backside!!)
• Harness several dead horses together in an attempt to increase the speed.
• Provide additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse's performance.
• Appoint a committee to study the horse and assess how dead it actually is.
• Re-classify the dead horse as "living-impaired".
• Develop a Strategic Plan for the management of dead horses.
• Rewrite the expected performance requirements for all horses.
• Modify existing standards to include dead horses.
• Declare that, as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overheads, and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line than many other horses.

Which approach have you found most useful?

Is it time to get off?

Denial or avoidance wont change the outcome.

Footprints in the Butter

How do you know when there is an elephant in your fridge? There are footprints in the butter of course.

Obviously! Why didn't we notice that?

Whilst this is supposed to be a lame joke, it replicates so much of what goes on in organisations and many personal lives today, it’s actually not funny.

Whilst we might refer to elephants being "in the room" we may actually have put some in our fridge. It’s as if by preserving them in the cold and dark for long enough we think they won't stink or simply people won't be aware that we have this great big creature in residence.

We forget however that like our culture, the fridge is a little thought about, but essential element of our lives we visit every day, and every time we open the door, there staring us straight in the face will be those large "footprints in the butter".

The first thing to take into account about elephants is that they are big and take up a lot of room leaving no space for anything else. Such things as fruitful discussions, meaningful planning and problem solving have no room to progress or breathe whilst discussed in the shadow of suppressed challenges or issues.

As leaders try to motivate and encourage organisations we try to also ignore the issues in our strategies and corporate messages. It’s like trying to add stuff in the fridge when it’s already full and it’s why so many organisations fail to move forward.

How can you expect your organisation to energize itself or your family or colleagues to show enthusiasm, whilst they feel the weight of barriers that block the way?
No amount of positive thinking will get you going if an elephant is standing on your foot.

The second thing about elephants is that they are not naturally aggressive. In most parts of the world they are used as a valuable tool, providing a strength in moving otherwise immovable objects and have assisted in building lasting landmarks. In the same way, ignoring the elephant may mean denying yourself the greatest opportunity for achieving the results you’re looking for.

An idle elephant only gets in the way, but a working one "paves it".

A third thing about releasing an elephant is that to move it, use it or get it out, it will mean moving or removing some of the other items to make sufficient room for the elephant to get out. So who is going to move first? It won't be the elephant. It may need to be you!

Most people don't want to be the one to refer to the elephant as it’s not the elephant they fear but the owner who appears to want to let it remain frozen. These are the leaders who only work on the paradigm of positive thinking and who reject references to challenges and blockages as weakness and suppressive.

By identifying and “naming” the elephant however you will be able to harness its power. Instead of being afraid of its size, see its strength. Leaders who actually engage with the elephant find it not only friendly but very useful. Obstacles also disappear as the tension is released.

A standing agenda item of mine is "the elephant". It actually becomes the most fruitful item as it clears the way forward in any discussion. It engages the people and it engenders trust and collective strength.

Are you denying yourself and your people the greatest opportunity for success?
Are you unable to move?

Are there "footprints in your butter?

Fit For Nothing

It’s not a lack of something that is our problem...
It’s our lack of nothing.

We continually complain about the need for more resources however it is the very lack of something that is our wealth. The very nature of having nothing can provide us with the best opportunity to move ahead or expand our thinking into spaces we would be too lazy to enter.

In the same way we have developed a reliance on technology we have also developed an insatiable desire for money, time, people and all sorts of things to expand or develop ourselves and our organisations. It comes to a point where confronted with something like a power outage many people become disabled, not knowing how to cope, almost as if they themselves were plugged into the power socket.

I see this every day in such examples as the EFTPOS machine going offline with a queue of patrons waiting. People paralysed and stressed when right in front of their faces there are many alternatives. Whilst a 'continuity' plan may go some way to resolving this, it’s the complete numbness in our human processing that pervades when confronted with nothing. Working on the premise of 'continuity' also emphasizes the fact that we don't want to change what we are doing we just want to ‘continue’ and not be interrupted, choking the greatest opportunity for development in us and our people to show initiative, agility and resilience in all environments.

We have been deceived into a place where we are translating doing more with less, into 'less effort', rather than just less, or even nothing.

When was the last time you used a pencil? Do you even have one? If you had no white board what would you do? Could you or your staff give a presentation that did not involve PowerPoint slides? What if the power went out just before that meeting? Could you or your people deliver the message or hold the conversation with nothing?

If we want ourselves, our organisations and our people to really develop flexibility, initiative, innovation and confidence maybe it’s time to put ourselves on a diet. Look around and ask, is my organisation fat? Are my people obese? Are we agile and fit? If I pulled the power switch now would their lights go out or would they transition readily. How would they behave? Would they readily embrace disruption as if it’s a normal day?

In trying to focus on gaining a competitive advantage and maintain our place we may be overlooking the best advantage we could have. Is it time to change from a continuity plan to an adaptive one and throw away the reliance?

The generation that invented and developed what we rely on today, were able to do it with nothing. If we were placed in the same space today could we? Could our people? Have we lost all those skills that made what we have?

Your competitive advantage may be your organisations fitness for nothing. Is it time to cause a famine? It will mean going back to basics and relearning skills that we have forgotten or thrown away. It will invoke new and exciting conversations. It will result in doing more with nothing, and it will allow your people to embrace the future and not be paralysed by nothing.

Can you 'do this without this'?

When you are fit for nothing you may actually have something.

Are you ready?

Are you there yet

Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Any parent of young children has had this question asked of them. We start out on a journey having given our children all the assurances that it will be fun and where we are going will be worth it. We load them up with things to do, goodies to eat and games to play hopefully to distract them from the distance to be travelled.

It’s not long however before they call out "are we there yet, are we there yet?" Because they have no means of identifying what the destination looks like and no means by which to measure the time and distance they start to become restless. They begin to view it in their own terms and measures and it all becomes boring and tiresome.

If we apply this analogy to how individuals or organisations define their vision they often fall into a place where parts of their enterprise will be asking the same thing.

We understand that the starting point for a good plan is the mission or vision; however in many cases these statements have become more about branding and image, than a clear destination. The focus is on making an “inspiring” statement, something that is “attractional” or something that makes us feel good rather than take us to an identified place.

A strategy is essentially a positioning or an approach which you or an organisation is taking, in order to reach an objective or “destination”. It will be impossible to implement however without this being "tangible" and measurable, and you must be able to "identify" it when you get there.

Whilst a plan with a statement "go west" may seem like an exciting one, it’s not until you are somewhat along that journey that you will realise that this statement or "vision" is left wanting. It provides an unclear base for next level planning, resourcing or even risk management. For instance "how far west" are we going, or “do you mean due west”?

If the destination or location is not clear, then appropriate risks and a strategy involving your "positioning" or "approach" cannot be developed or addressed.

This is why many organisations fail to move forward and why the people within those organisations struggle to align any efforts to measure or credibly invest in what needs to be done or even identify what may be a problem.

If your people can't articulate your destination, see that you are going the right way, and be able to recognize when they get there, then two things will happen.

Firstly, they will lose interest and become disengaged from what they are doing and from the leadership and secondly, they will eventually look for somewhere else to go!

Is it time to get off the bus and take a look at the destination label on the front? Where are you going? Is it clear to all who are on-board and anyone who may want to get on?

It’s been well versed that, if you don't know where you’re going, then anywhere will do! This may be fine for drifters but not for leaders.

Will you know when you get there? Are you on the right road? Do you have enough fuel to get there? How long will it take?

So when you hear, "are we there yet", what will be your response?

The problem with solutions

We have all heard the song of the little old woman that swallowed the fly, then swallowed the spider to get the fly, however we probably don't realize how some of our strategies and business approaches are inadvertently based on the same principle.

How much time and energy do we put into resourcing demands that have actually been created by the solutions we put in place from a previous strategy. Many business proposals present the "problem" in the context  of "we need......" and similar dissatisfactions. If you step back from these presentations you will see that what is being put is really a solution not a problem.

A ready example of this is, "we need more money". The problem may actually be, "I spent or committed too much". This of course can be the pains of a growing organization however could be the symptoms of an organization that is destined to accumulate further burdens that will emerge down the track. It’s important therefore to be able to discern the difference.

The first thing to challenge is "what is the problem".  

By saying "we need" something you have already come to the conclusion that this is the "solution" and not having it, is the "problem". This "need" however is not the problem but an indicator of something deeper and if you continue your business planning in this paradigm then the solution will readily become your problem. Whilst we may put things in place such as "investment logic" processes we are still at risk of solving the "solution" rather than the "problem". 

In an environment where "growth" seems to be a key success factor, organizations and individuals can very easily be driven by the elements and structure that they build around them rather than the market forces and requirements that originally gave them birth. The inadvertent problem (solution) solving strategy being applied can eventually drown them.

A test to apply is to ask the "why". Why do we need whatever? Then ask "why" again to the answer you get. Then ask why again and again at each response you get or give to yourself. When you can ask "why" no more, you may have identified the problem. This process isn't anything new, however we often don't dig deep enough or seriously enough. You may know you’ve got there when you get to a statement of fact rather than a request. For instance if you ring for an Ambulance what your request is "I need an ambulance" but the dispatcher will be seeking the fact, "I have a broken leg". This is when appropriate and effective triage and response can take place. Why do we not do this for our own organisation?

In many cases of evaluating corporate or even personal problems we can get to 6 levels of asking the "why". Not so unlike the woman who swallowed the fly then the spider, the bird, the cat, the dog, then the goat. In drilling down from what presented itself initially as the problem (solution) we may actually find the real issue which may direct us to effective triage. The real concern for the old lady was the fly which, if originally left alone, would not have provided the ongoing and pervading dilemma for the woman. It may be a funny song to sing to your kids but not what you want to experience personally or for your organisation.

It's not easy and at first we may even frustrate ourselves and others as the natural tendency to protect our "solutions" will pervade and influence our response to the "why" question. We may even have a personal investment in the solution. We may also be pressured by the sense of urgency which may be applied to gain weight to the problem. The fact is however, if we don't ask we may very well sabotage our own intent.

What happened to the little old lady in the end? She swallowed a cow to catch the goat then swallowed a horse, "she's dead of course".

Don't let your problem be your solution.