While I would hesitate to argue with a writer of the stature of Truman Capote, good conversation is rich and complex and is based on more than intelligence, . . . → Read More: Are you structuring your interactions to destroy relationships?]]> “A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That’s why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.” ― Truman Capote

While I would hesitate to argue with a writer of the stature of Truman Capote, good conversation is rich and complex and is based on more than intelligence, particularly if he is referring to IQ.  For instance, here is a perspective on conversation that requires no great intellect to apply.   Though of course it does require a healthy application of self awareness and goodwill.

Professor Shelly Gable of UC Santa Barbara shows that even we lower mortals are capable of having a good conversation, if we adhere to some heart-warming rules.

Martin Seligman draws on this work in his latest book, “Flourish” in which he shows how positive conversations build strong relationships. Love and friendship increase in a relationship when someone responds to another in an active, constructive way as opposed to a manner which is passive and destructive. And if you need any reason to build relationships, solid relationships contribute to resilience.

The model looks like this:

So how does it work?

Well let’s say you have thought of this good idea for new business. You share it with your partner. She could react in one of four ways:

Active constructive

This is authentic, enthusiastic support: “Mmm that sounds interesting. How is it going to work in reality? You certainly have the skills for this, even though the idea is daunting to me. Tell me more about the resources you bring to sort out some of the obstacles.”

“Friendship is an obstetric art; it draws out our richest and deepest resources; it unfolds the wings of our dreams and hidden indeterminate thoughts; it serves as a check on our judgements, tries out our new ideas, keeps up our ardor, and inflames our enthusiasm.”  ― Antonin Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods

Passive constructive

This would be offhand support without any further interest. “Oh that’s nice.”

“I don’t know what he means by that, but I nod and smile at him. You’d be surprised at how far that response can get you in a conversation where you are completely confused.”  ― Jodi Picoult, House Rules

Passive destructive

Here your partner would ignore what you have said, either changing the subject, telling their own story without recognising yours or moving away without comment. “So what are you going to do about the widgetolator that needs fixing?”

“The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend.”  ― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

Active destructive

Here your partner would point out the negative aspects of the event. “you know of course that you have not the faintest idea about what you are getting into. I can see another fine mess you are getting us into (only they would not make the humorous reference).”

“Not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”  - George Sala

Perhaps with this insight we can review this quote from Dorothy Sayers, in a new light:

“A man once asked me … how I managed in my books to write such natural conversation between men when they were by themselves. Was I, by any chance, a member of a large, mixed family with a lot of male friends? I replied that, on the contrary, I was an only child and had practically never seen or spoken to any men of my own age till I was about twenty-five.

“Well,” said the man, “I shouldn’t have expected a woman (meaning me) to have been able to make it so convincing.” I replied that I had coped with this difficult problem by making my men talk, as far as possible, like ordinary human beings. This aspect of the matter seemed to surprise the other speaker; he said no more, but took it away to chew it over.

One of these days it may quite likely occur to him that women, as well as men, when left to themselves, talk very much like human beings also.”  ― Dorothy L. Sayers, Are Women Human?

The reason sayings become cliché is that they highlight truths in such . . . → Read More: Conversaction Newsletter – April 2012]]> Perspective:

We all know those two clichés about the elephant, the first about its encounter with some blind men (1,190,000 hits in Google) and the second about it being in the room (69,700,000 hits).

The reason sayings become cliché is that they highlight truths in such a compelling way that, for a time at least, we get a kick out of passing them on. Though in the process we run the risk of losing the impact of the truth.

Here is an elephant cliché story about some leaders who were all doing strategy. Even those who thought they weren’t, were, as ‘no strategy’, is one. No-one really knew what strategy was, beyond a vague notion that Greeks did it and it was important for success. Then some academics and consultants studied it. They each saw quite clearly what it was and wrote heaps about it. But of course there are none so blind as those who will not see. So they argued with each other and fell into the first cliché. The situation persisted for decades until it became the second.

Along came three wise men, Henry Mintzberg, with Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Llampel,  who looked from afar and wrote a book offering a full picture of strategy.  In the book they described ten schools of strategy, five facets and four main approaches.  In their writing they left room for the beast to develop and grow.

They defined strategy in five facets:

1. The Plan: How you formulate what you intend to do.
2. The Pattern: What you actually did, of failed to do, either deliberately or following your nose.
3. Position: the location of the products you create in the markets in which you operate.
4. Perspective: Your fundamental way of doing things.
5. The Ploy: A specific manoeuvre intended to outwit your competition.

By plotting the first four approaches against each of other in a matrix the writers defined four basic approaches to creating and executing strategy.

The discussion and implementation of strategy leads to a knife edge.  Within every advantage in the strategic approach, there lies a trap to for the unwary.

• Strategy sets direction and keeps the organisation cohesively on track. But strategy can also be a set of blinkers which prevent an organisation from seeing the changes and learning to adapt to the new environment.
• Strategy focuses effort, preventing the chaos that happens as people pull in different directions. But focus can lead to groupthink.
• Strategy defines the organisation, providing a short hand to define and distinguish the organisation. But sharp distinctions may be based on over-simplification and loss of understanding of the rich complexity on which the organisation really is distinguished, leading to a thin stereotyping.
• Strategy provides consistency to reduce ambiguity and provide order. Your strategy is a theoretical structure, a representation of reality, to simplify and explain your world and against which you can initiate actions. However simplification comes at the cost of detail and creativity thrives on inconsistency and the unexpected combination of details.

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Technique

This was the classic case study approach to . . . → Read More: The design school]]> Robert McNamara, one of Harvard’s most famous MBAs spelled out the following approach to military strategy:
“We must first determine what our foreign policy is to be, formulate a military strategy to carry out that policy, then build the military forces to successfully conduct this strategy”.

This was the classic case study approach to strategy.  Students assess the external environment, identify distinctive competencies, generate alternative strategies and recommend the best, all without ever having met the ‘customers’, visited the ‘sites’ or seen the ‘products’.

The rest of this formal and analytic approach to the engagement in Vietnam is history. The outcome is aptly described by Edward N. Luttwak of Time magazine. “The customary reward of defeat, if one can survive it, is in the lessons thereby learned, which may yield victory in the next war. But the circumstances of our defeat in Vietnam were sufficiently ambiguous to deny the nation (that) benefit.”  To which we could add that the lessons would only come to those who can add a learning lens to their spectacles.

The design school continues to influence teaching and consulting in strategy today.  The design school strategy model seeks to fit internal capabilities to external possibilities. External analysis (T and O leading to key success factors) and internal analysis (S and W leading to distinctive competencies) feed into a process of strategy creation. Implementation is a separate process.

Premises:

1. Strategy formation should be a deliberate, tightly controlled process of conscious thought. Strategy is neither intuitive nor natural but must be learned formally.
2. Responsibility lies with the CEO who controls the strategy in a single mind and carries the responsibility to decided on and then teach the strategy to the organisation.
3. The model for formulating strategy must be kept simple and informal (allowing for control). The CEO treads a knife edge between intuition and formal analysis.
4. Each strategy is unique, developed as a creative act, dictated by situation and built on distinctive competencies.
5. Strategy must be explicit.
6. The strategy is presented as a fully formulated grand conception, leaving little room for incremental or emergent strategies.
7. Thinking precedes action. Implementation can only happen after the unique, full-blown, simple and explicit strategy has been fully formulated.

Thomas J Watson, chairman of the board of IBM and famous for his quote, “I think there’s a world market for about five computers.” epitomises the Design School.

Strengths and weaknesses

The centrepiece in the strategic toolkit is the SWOT. This remains popular in textbooks and amongst consultants in spite of new strategic techniques. The SWOT with the design school model is a convenient tool allowing a consultant drop into an organisation, do a SWOT analysis, compile a strategy and move on.

But:

• Listing strengths on paper is prone to bias and over-confidence and is very different from testing the organisation and experiencing the strengths at work. Research and popular press alike show that listed strengths are of uncertain value.
• Experience shows that strengths are narrower than expected and weaknesses broader.
• ‘The business we are in’ cannot be discovered in a paper exercise but requires testing and experience.
• SWOT information is usually not used in strategy formulation (perhaps just as well).
• Business literature is full of references to events where assumed strengths either did not materialise or where they did but turned out to be hindrances.

Structure and strategy

Structure should follow strategy and be determined by it. But Structure and the competencies embedded in a structure cannot be easily changed, and structure provides input into strategy. In reality structure and strategy follow each other like your left and right foot in walking.

Making strategy explicit.

Summarising and fixing your strategy requires that you to know exactly where you are going with few serious doubts. This leaves little room for uncertainty, change and learning. Explicit strategies are blinkers designed to focus direction and block out peripheral vision and build resistance to change.

Separating formulation from implementation – detaching thinking from action

Behind the separation of thought and action lies the ambitious assumption that environments are stable, predictable and can be understood and that formulated strategies remain viable and can be transmitted to those who implement.

Developing a niche

Locating an organisation in a niche can narrow its perspective and short-circuit learning about what it could become. Thinkers in the design school try to circumvent this by broadening definitions.

Most have heard the wisdom that McDonalds is the real estate business rather than fast food. In 1960, Theodore Levitt wrote “Marketing Myopia”, urging firms to define themselves in terms of broad industry orientation and underlying generic need, rather than narrow product or technology terms. Railroad companies are in ‘Transport’ and oil refiners in ‘Energy’.

Companies, academics and consultants had a cerebral fiesta based on over-ambitious assumptions about the strategic capabilities of organisations. A ball-bearing company was ‘reducing friction’, a chicken farm, ‘providing human energy’ and garbage collection was ‘beautification’. And the classic suggestion that “buggy whip manufacturers might still be around if they had said their business was about self-starters for carriages”. What material supply, technology, production process, competency or distribution channel could ever facilitate such a change? A more logical generic categorisation would be ‘flagellation’ wherever that leads.

The external environment is not a fruit that can be plucked from the tree of external appraisal. It is a major, sometimes unpredictable force to be reckoned with, including unexpected change and resistance from those who implement (wrongly or rightly).

Conclusion

In spite of criticising assumptions and application, the design school provided strategic vocabulary to discuss grand strategy and introduced the central concept that strategy represents a fundamental fit between external opportunity and internal capability. This concept of ‘fit’ is being developed today into a dynamic process of adjustment.

There are perhaps four conditions in which an organisation could benefit from the design school approach:

• When a single brain can handle all the information relevant to strategy formation.
• When that brain has a full, detailed, intimate knowledge of the situation (facts and emotions).
• The situation will remain stable or at least predictable during the strategic period.
• The organisation is prepared to cope with a centrally articulated strategy.

These four conditions bring to mind Apple and Steve Jobs, described in a previous post.

From “Strategy Safari” Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel  who have compiled a ten-schools model of strategy.

When asked to describe his most important . . . → Read More: Fourteen keys to success at Apple]]> We have all done those strategy workshops when the facilitator says that our core values should not be more than 4 or five. But here are fourteen. And it is interesting that some of the favourites “Passion”, “People” “Service” are not even mentioned but taken for granted.

When asked to describe his most important creation, Jobs replied that it was Apple the company. Making an enduring company was far harder and more important than any of the products created. Time will show how the company will endure and how much Steve Jobs could accomplish in this respect in the decade and some that he had before his untimely death. Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs best-selling biography has listed 14 keys to his success that provide compelling material for reflection.

Here is a highly abbreviated version of those keys:

Focus – Relentlessly filter out distractions

On his return to Apple in 1997, he sketched a four-cell matrix with “Consumer” and “Pro” along the top and “Desktop” and “Portable” on the rows. He made it clear that he wanted four products, one per quadrant. All else was cancelled. And so he saved the company.

On the last day of his annual retreat with the 100 top people, he would build and prioritise a list of 10 top products. At the end of the day he would wipe off seven. Three products for the next year.

Simplify – Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

Deep, rather than superficial simplicity, requires intimate understanding of the structure of what is created and the process through which it is manufactured. The proposed solution must be irrationally uncluttered and presented with immutable confidence.

On the design of the iDVD option, Jobs watched the presentation of navigation screens, then drew a rectangle on a whiteboard. “it has one window. You drag the video into the window. Then you click the button that says ‘Burn’. That’s it. That’s what we are going to make.”

End to End responsibility – absolute perfection needs exhaustive control

An open approach, allowing other manufacturers to use your operating system to create products may be a better business model and higher short-term profit but it is a recipe for “crappier products”. In a world filled with junky devices, inscrutable error messages and annoying interfaces, Apple offers astonishing products and a sublime user experience.

When behind, Leapfrog – if you are not first, create an offer that makes the first irrelevant

The first iMac could not burn CDs when users were swopping photos and music and burning CDs. Apple responded with an integrated system including iTunes, iTunes Store, and iPod, by far the most advanced tool for buying, sharing, managing and playing music.

Products before Profits – “Don’t Compromise”

The Macintosh was designed to be “insanely great”. The high cost led to Steve Jobs ejection from Apple in 1983. But the Macintosh led the home-computer revolution.
John Scully came in from Pepsi and turned the focus to ‘profits’. He wrote a self-aggrandising biography at the top of the slide and the product guys “turned off” and Apple lost its way. On his return Steve Jobs returned the company to a track where the intention was to make great products, all else being secondary.

Don’t be a slave to focus groups – Customers don’t know what they want till we show them

Caring deeply about what customers want is different from continually asking them what they want. Knowing what they want requires intuition and instinct about yet unformed desires.
Jobs felt the music players around in 2000 were lame. As a music fanatic he wanted a device that would allow him to carry 1000 songs in his pocket. “When you are doing something for yourself, your best-friends or family, you are not going to cheese out”.

Bend reality – impossible deadlines lead to extraordinary feats

When Jobs demanded that Corning supply “Gorilla glass” screens for iPhone, within six months, Wendell Weeks explained they weren’t making glass and did not have the capacity. Jobs stunned him by saying “Don’t be afraid”. Weeks explained that false confidence would not overcome engineering challenges to which Jobs replied “Yes, you can do it. Get your mind around it.” Corning delivered the shipment for the first iPhones in under 6 months.

As a result of this, in an age when most components are made in Asia, every piece of glass in iPhone and iPad is made in America by Corning.

Impute – presentation drives opinion

People do judge a book by its cover. Impute signals from packaging and design.

iMac was a desktop machine. There were few people that would carry it around. However, the recessed handle on the top of the iMac conveyed a sense of friendly utility to those who may be intimidated by computers, a ‘permission to be touched’.

Push for perfection – ‘implement’ means ‘enough expertise to redesign

Jobs stopped the creation process for each major product and went back to the drawing board because he felt it was not perfect. Toy Story was rewritten at production to be more friendly, Apple stores were redesigned around activity rather than product line, iPhone was redesigned to minimise the case and elevate display, iPad design was rounded to make it more likely to ‘snatched up’ rather than handled with care. Even the unseen parts were managed. The engineers were made to line up the chips on the boards neatly in the Macintosh, even though no-one would see them. Then they had their names engraved inside the case “as would real artists”.

Tolerate only “A” players – trust allows conflict and commitment

Jobs was blunt and honest beyond rude. But he had an ability to inspire. In his passion for perfection he prevented the kind of polite culture in which mediocre people felt they could stick around, what he called the ‘bozo explosion’. He had learnt that you don’t have to baby really good people.

Engage face-to-face – converse, think, scribble – ban slide shows

You cannot create ideas by email and online chat. Creativity happens through personal interaction.
Jobs designed the Pixar building so that all everyone had to pass through the central atrium, promoting unplanned encounters. Serendipity sparks magic.

Know both the big picture and the details – strategy and detailed design

Jobs had the ability to envision the overarching strategy as well as the tiniest detail of design. He first saw the personal computer as the digital hub for managing music, video, photos and content and got Apple into the personal device business with iPod and iPad. Then he saw this ‘hub’ moving into the cloud and began building a massive server farm for content. At the same time he agonised over the shape and colour the screws inside the iMac.

Combine Humanities with the Sciences – the essence of applied imagination

Jobs had the intuition to integrate science and engineering towards imaginative business strategy. He was inspired by Edwin Land, creator of Polaroid, who pointed out the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of the Humanities and Sciences.

Stay Hungry and foolish – engage in the adventure

Jobs surfed two great waves emanating from San Francisco. The hippie counterculture and the high-tech hacker culture of Silicon Valley. The business and engineering side of his life he tempered with the hippie, non-conformist. This was the common thread throughout his life.

Self Managing Teams are the best way to get the best from your people. This short report offers important pointers to check whether you are on the right track. Based on the very latest, in-depth research on what makes teams work, this report contains practical . . . → Read More: 10 MISTAKES LEADERS MAKE WITH TEAMS]]> Sign-up to receive this informative article about setting up teams.

Self Managing Teams are the best way to get the best from your people. This short report offers important pointers to check whether you are on the right track. Based on the very latest, in-depth research on what makes teams work, this report contains practical ideas you can use immediately in leading your teams.

There is a lot of hype surrounding the use of teams. The reality is that not all teams deliver as expected, there are many pitfalls to be avoided.

The report, “10 Mistakes Leaders Make with Teams” will give you some thought-provoking insights into what you can do to set up an environment in which teams deliver and grow.

Just fill in the your name and e-mail in the form below and I will dash the report off to you right away. You will also be added to the list for our monthly ‘Conversaction’ newsletter in which we provide more information on how to execute strategy in teams.

Picture from Reddit

Nobody cares about your intentions. Intentions . . . → Read More: Conversaction – March 2012]]> Perspective:

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Technique

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A small adventure

Are you stuck in a monochrome palette?

One of the newsletters I follow covers the world of presentation skills.  In a series on marketing presentations the writer challenged her readers to create a short video describing the difference they want to make in the world.  I took up the challenge.  The scripting and action for the video took a lot of work, but I found the available technology surprisingly easy to use.

I made the video using the camera on my Android Smart-phone and edited the footage in Windows Movie Maker.  There is just one place where I got a squeak on the movie.

Here is one of my final versions of the painting:

I have embedded the video in the newsletter here, but it may not present.  If the video does not show up in your e-mail you can see it in the blog posting

You can read the story here .

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At StrategyWorks we assist leaders and their teams, with those crucial conversations for clarity, decisions, action and outcomes.  These conversations can be frustrating when people are not heard, the team cannot make decisions or the way forward remains vague.  Leaders contact us at StrategyWorks when they are ready to do something different.  In the process those involved in the conversations feel understood and challenged.  At the end of the intervention, the leaders and their teams feel focused and released around a clear plan of action.

Find out more from our website at:www.strategyworks.co.za or better still contact us at the email address: stephen@strategyworks.co.za to arrange a meeting with Stephen.

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© 2012 Stephen Quirke, All rights reserved.  You are free to use material from this Conversaction newsletter in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear.  The attribution should read:  ”By Stephen Quirke of StrategyWorks.  Please visit Stephen’s web site at http://www.strategyworks.co.za/ for more resources on how to hold effective conversations in your organisation.” (Please make sure the link is live if placed in an eZine or in a web site.)

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Picture from Reddit

Nobody cares about your intentions. Intentions . . . → Read More: Life rewards action]]> In life we achieve results through action. Sustained, purposeful, meaningful action. This is the only way you will create a unique experience, your personal contribution to the world. Prolonged aimless, worthless and unrealistic activity produces inferior results. Ultimately, if you do nothing, you get nothing.

Picture from Reddit

Nobody cares about your intentions. Intentions are a good start. But they are only a start. Intentions without significant action are worthless. Life rewards what you DO. You may have intended to be at your daughters prize giving. You may have intended to follow up with that client. You may have intended to complete your degree. All these things you were going to do. But in the end, without action, these intentions are worthless.

The world measures your success only on delivery. Results! You may as well choose the same standard. This means no more procrastination. You have opportunities to take. Sometimes the window opens just so long and then it is closed. Forever! It also means demanding better treatment from those around you. Measuring their actions, not their words. Not accepting excuses. And not being governed by someone else’s view of who you should be.

We tell ourselves we have lots of time. But the years slip by. The anniversary we forgot today becomes the opportunity we missed for the last 10 years. You may think you have a long life to live, but perhaps you won’t be around for my next newsletter. This is not a dress rehearsal. You have one life to live and this is it.

Are you ready to make your own choices, take action and create an experience with outcomes all, uniquely your own.

Taking action means taking risks. Solving problems simply gets you back to where you should have been. Change requires you to create something new, perhaps without guarantees of success. What is the change you need to bring? Some people are good at taking risk. They stretch, stumble and rise. Unwilling to settle for what they are served up, they push until they get what they want. So what are you going to do? Are you going to pretend that what you have is okay or that you don’t deserve more?

There will be fear. Doing something new invariably incurs the derisive judgement of a world deeply suspiscious, envious and fearful of anything new. Having experienced this judgement, we may choose not go through it again. By not taking the chance we seek to avoid a world of pain. By hiding behind your fear you are wasting your gifts, you are not doing what only you can do. You are cheating yourself. You are cheating everyone whose life you could be touching.” Life does not reward quitting. Only we do that for ourselves. We buy ourselves a type of peace when we shrink back into the seductive safety of being a passenger, where there are no threats and no decisions to make as long as we tread water from one day to the next. But in our comfort we see our dreams drift out of reach. Sometimes passengers are taken to where they really don’t want to go, where the safety is whipped away and it is too late to take up the controls.

Can you justify your hesitation? Or are you laying down your arms in the face of a vague, looming threat that will dispel as someone else steps forward to claim your prize to a chorus of oohs, aahs and “if only-I-had-thought-of-that’s”?  Are you going reach the end of your life filled with regrets of what you didn’t try or are you going to give it a go, learn the lessons and push ahead?

Perhaps you are in pain. If you have been selling yourself and your vision short you may be feeling it right now. If you have not achieved what you could have, you have a decision to make. It is up to you whether you choose to acknowledge your role in where you are. By acknowledging your role in getting to where you are. By choosing to put denial aside. By embracing your pain, you can propel yourself onto a new path.

Now is your time. You know that winning happens. Winning happens to those who know what they want and move toward it in a strategic, consistent, meaningful, purposeful manner. Get started now. Take action. Insist on results. Make winning happen to you.