“What’s for Breakfast? Your Business’ Strategy!”

Many people mistakenly think that the hardest thing in running a business is developing and continuously adjusting the right strategy to achieve the business’ desired goals. While having a sound strategy to deal with competitive pressures and economic uncertainties is critical, it is the process of implementing strategy that can be the major obstacle to long-term organizational success.

Recently a client from the hotel business was developing a complicated workforce development strategy. As the finishing touches were being put on the plan, the team leader confirmed that “we nailed it”. At that moment, I quickly interjected a popular buzz phrase to the rest of the team - “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. I explained that this is an accurate and realistic danger because many business leaders develop their short and long-term plans in a vacuum, thinking that the strategy itself will be enough to lead the way.

It always has been, and always will be, the people who must integrate change and adapt their attitudes and behaviors to new strategic directions if those changes will firmly take hold. If you’ve ever tried to steer an organization into a new direction through pure technical or strategic means, rather than incorporating a human strategy component that accounts for the living, breathing, working culture of the organization itself, then you know what I am talking about. It can be like herding cats.

An interesting question about organizational culture is: can we really influence it, or will it simply do what it does? In my work with organizations and their leaders I have come to believe that indeed we can influence workplace culture in meaningful ways so that good strategy has the chance to flourish. The next time you formulate the perfect set of strategic goals for your business, the following ideas may help you to integrate the strategy into the culture of your organization before it gets eaten for breakfast:

Know What Culture Is - Your culture doesn’t need to be a vague or lofty concept. Workplace culture is simply the collective stories, attitudes, beliefs, rules, behaviors, jokes and experiences that are learned and shared by those inside the organization. When it is meshing, culture is a powerful force that helps people understand each other and work effectively together. When it becomes dysfunctional or goes through periods of change, it can be a powerful force that contributes to misunderstanding, conflict, poor working relationships and inefficiency.

Treat Culture Like a System - The culture of your organization is a complex system, with lots and lots of moving parts that come together to give it its unique identity. When integrating new elements to the system (e.g. strategic plans), it is critical to take a step back and look at the written and unwritten rules of the organization to know how the strategy will be understood and received. Some cultures strive to hold firmly to their history and identity, while some others are built around the notion of continuous change. Sometimes the different parts of the system do not see the world in the same way; therefore, communicating context and insight related to proposed strategic change is essential.

Listen to Voices and Give them Choices - It is important to listen to all the voices within the organization. Often there are internal influencers (they could be positive contributors or underminers) that hold sway with the pulse of the group. All voices, despite their potential opposition to a new prospective strategy, should be fully integrated into the discussion. Listening is only the first part of this process, however. Opening up a forum for dialogue and an exchange of views gives people an empowering voice and renders organizational members more likely to support (even if they don’t fully agree with) strategic changes.

Considering these ideas may provide you with a wider perspective that ultimately helps to get things done. Imagine what’s possible when strategic thinking and cultural understanding skip breakfast and just do lunch.

Repairing a Breach of Trust in a Team

A great friend and colleague of mine, Wendy Frasier, just completed an exciting doctoral research project where she studied what team members did to work through and repair a breach of trust. She came up with six very insightful findings, which I mention here briefly:

- The teams that successfully worked through a breach of trust made more attempts to repair trust and matched an appropriate remedy to respond to the nature of the violation;

- They took an appropriate amount of time to engage in repair efforts;

- Group members were intentional about engagement, relationship building and Use of Self;

- People acknowledged their part in the violation(s) and were tenacious in the repair efforts;

- The groups generally had the right people and accessed additional people if they needed help; and

- Effective leadership within these groups influenced the repair strategy and overall success.

Thanks to the results of this study, there is now a clearer, evidence-based way to look at the success factors of working through a breach of trust in teams. You can learn more about Wendy's work here: http://wendyf.com/index.php

10,000 Hours

[The following post offers a brief excerpt from the upcoming Breaking Barriers book:]

Most efforts to explain the process of acquiring expertise in a given skill or endeavor include reference to a certain number of hours dedicated to intentional practice. Usually this number is 10,000, which represents the total investment required to form the vast superstructure of neural connections, habits, and patterns of attitude and action that signal the highest level of proficiency in the given undertaking.

The thought of attaining this level of expertise for most of us is overwhelming and (if we're honest) out of reach. We often project this gap because the demands of daily life leave precious few “extra” hours on evenings and weekends to pursue our truest ambitions. However, there is an activity that each of us could benefit from greater expertise. Conveniently, the nature of this activity also provides room for the timing and practice required for our 10,000 hours. I am referring to the practice of continuous learning and performance at work.

Let me put the incentive for this in terms of my own demographic: Considering the current life expectancy for Gen X’ers like me, as well as the current downward trend in the economy, if I keep my health and wits about me then I will most likely work until I am 75 years old. If we consider the implications of current bio-technology research and medical advances that could improve health and sustain quality of life beyond current levels, the millennial generation and those that follow are likely to perhaps live and work well into their 100’s. Even for me, these 60+ years spent in the workplace make an absolutely definitive statement about the truth of the adage life is work and work is life.

So, here we all are – destined to fulfill a working life with increasing pressure on ourselves to remain employable. Breaking Barriers offers a set of integrated models that can serve as a road map to navigate the challenges and pitfalls of work. When integrated fully, the system of personal and professional development can pervade every aspect of how good work is done - from the simple interactions between colleagues to the major activities and decisions an organization engage in. If you commit to full immersion into Breaking Barriers, then your path to proficiency is a lot more realistic.

Instead of the inconsistent half-hour each evening and a few hours on the weekend to inch closer to excellence, I am suggesting that the workplace can be your workshop where your full-time devotion to learning the art and practice of Breaking Barriers and improving performance can dramatically accelerate the path to expertise.

The average full-time employee works around 2,080 hours per year and in this regard getting to 10,000 hours of hard-earned practice will take less than five years. If you are going to spend 70 years in a working life, isn’t it worth the investment to set a trajectory of optimal performance and increased personal success?

Make no mistake; there isn't a short cut to this kind of proficiency - everyone must earn these 10,000 hours if they wish to experience the benefits of mastery. However, I believe that the development of meaningful excellence at work is something that each one of us can attain. The benefits include greater personal and professional success, as well as a high-demand skills set that will go with us as careers and jobs evolve into an unknown future.

What’s Your Formula For Success?

For many people, the reasons behind our success or failure in managing the day-to-day demands of life feel mysterious and difficult to understand. Not only are there the everyday challenges to contend with, but often we experience emergencies that require additional energy to address. When you take these demands and consider the added dimension of our goals and aspirations for the future, it can feel overwhelming to find a path forward.

When coaching a person or consulting with an organization that is having a hard time meeting the on-going demands of their circumstances, I invite them to make an honest assessment of their formula for success. Borrowing from the psychologist and researcher Howard McClusky’s theory of margin, we can identify the fundamental variables that influence their success. If they are not achieving at the level they want, the simple formula indicates what changes could be made to improve results and create greater satisfaction.

The formula looks something like this: LOAD/POWER = MARGIN. Load represents the total internal self and external social demands that must be met in the course of living (i.e. family and career obligations as well as goals and personal expectations, etc.). Power is equivalent to the resources we have at our disposal to meet those demands (i.e. financial resources, time, supportive relationships, accumulated skills, resiliency, etc.). Margin is the excess of power at our disposal that can be utilized to meet both expected and unexpected challenges that arise.

Obviously, a person with a high margin of excess power is in a better position to successfully adjust to emergencies that arise, as well as to apply their surplus power to new areas of growth and development. When a person or organization’s load is much greater than the available reserve of power, the inverse margin can create tremendous stress and limited success. The question becomes how can we increase our power or decrease our load so that our margin for success grows?

After taking an inventory of all the factors pertaining to their load and power, I then ask the client to create a start doing and stop doing list. This list becomes a guide for selectively reducing the load factors and intentionally surrounding them with power factors to get their margin into better balance. The conversation could go something like this:

- Client: I have way too much on my plate right now to be successful at the things that matter most!

- Coach: Okay, let’s take a look at everything on your plate and prioritize your commitment to these things. This will give you the chance to let go of responsibilities that are negotiable.

- Client: Okay, as much as I would like to hold on to this, I guess I need to let go of activity x.

- Coach: Good, now that you’ve looked at the LOAD factors, let’s look at ways to shore up resources and increase your POWER. What available or easily acquired resources could we add to help you in your everyday experiences?

- Client: I never ask my colleagues for advice and they are much more experienced than me. Also, I forget that I have paid time off that I never take – maybe I should give myself some down time between big projects.

- Coach: Great, what else?

As this conversation progresses, ideally the MARGIN gets into a better balance and the client is now aware of a tool they can use to identify and improve their formula for success. Imagine what’s possible when you adjust your formula for greater success.