This past summer was unseasonably hot and dry. My lawn suffered from the harsh weather. As a result, I needed to plant some grass seed this fall to fill in the dead spots.
Getting grass seed to grow takes a lot more effort than just
throwing some seeds on the ground. First
you have to loosen the soil. Then you
have to keep watering it on a regular basis for several weeks. Then you have to fertilize it. That was tough work. Tossing the seeds on the ground was the easy
part.
At first, I thought I wasn’t watering the grass enough. But then I saw a cardinal giving himself a
bird-bath in a puddle where I had watered.
So I guess I watered enough.
And now, my lawn is covered with new grass.
Strategy is like grass seed. It is something new sown into the business with the hope of increasing the growth and value of the company. And if you want to take the analogy further and think of US dollars as “greenbacks,” strategies are the grass seeds that create that green (money).
The problem is that just because one throws seed on the
ground does not guarantee that the growth will occur. If the ground is hard and dry, the seeds will
just sit there until the birds eat it.
Similarly, if strategy is just thrown at a company, there is no
guarantee that the strategy will take root. Just as it took a lot more than
just tossing seeds to get grass, it takes a lot more than just delivering a
strategy in order to achieve a strategy.
If you see the role of strategy as merely delivering a fancy
document with all the clever ideas on it, then all you have done is just toss
seeds at the company. The document will
then most likely just end up on a shelf and never be touched again. It’s as if the birds ate all your seeds.
No, if you want a strategy which gets implemented, you have
to get involved in all the other work—the ground preparation, the watering and
the fertilizing.
The principle here is that strategies only succeed in a company which is committed to making it succeed. And that does not usually happen naturally. In fact, there is usually active resistance to strategies because they require changing the status quo—and that bothers those who are comfortable or have power in the status quo. Therefore, if you want to successfully implement a strategy, you can’t just give it to the company—you have to actively counter that resistance as part of the strategy process.
We will refer to those actions as preparing the soil,
watering, and fertilizing.
1. Preparing the
Soil
In grass-growing, you prepare the soil before planting the
seed. The idea is to loosen the soil so the seed can penetrate and get buried
in the soil.
A similar activity needs to take place in strategy. Before presenting the strategy, you need to
first prepare the audience so that the strategy will penetrate their wall of
resistance. Since that wall of resistance
is in their minds, then the mind is where you need to prepare the soil.
The core idea is very simple. People act based on the way they think. Therefore, if you want to change the way they
act, you must first change the way they think.
In other words, if you want the leaders embrace and willingly implement
the strategy, then you must first get them to think that it is right to abandon
the status quo and embrace the new strategy.
There are several ways to change that mind. The first approach is “The Burning Platform.” This is where you change how people think
about the status quo. The idea is to
convince them to believe that remaining with the status quo is not a viable
option for the long term. It does not
work in the changing environment.
Instead, it is like being on a platform which is burning up. It is only a matter of time before it is all
burned up. And if we do not jump off that platform, we
will burn up as well. It is only a
matter of time. So we may as well jump
as soon as possible.
The second approach is “The Locked Door.” The idea here is to paint a picture of a
glorious and prosperous future—a place so desirable that it makes your
executives salivate with anticipation when thinking of it. Then you convince them that there is a locked
door between them and that glorious future.
That locked door is the status quo.
It is impossible to reach that future as long as we cling to the status
quo, because that approach cannot get you there. It is only by tearing down the status quo
that we can enter that glorious future.
The first approach of thinking prevents actions of turning
back and the second approach of thinking increases enthusiasm for actions
moving forward. Depending on the nature
of your soil (type of resistance) you may need one of these or some other
thinking approach to prepare them for proper acceptance and action.
2. Watering the
Soil
Watering the soil is an intensified effort for the period
immediately after planting the seed. It
is not a one-time act, but needs to be done continually until the grass seed
has fully sprouted. The strategic
planning equivalent is working intensely with executives until they see the
connection between the long-term strategy and their daily actions.
If executives do not see a connection between their daily
decisions/actions and the long term strategy, then they will not change their
daily decisions or actions. And, as we
all know, if the daily actions don’t change, then the long-term outcomes will
not change. The real strategic outcome
of a company is the cumulative result of all those daily actions (not the
result of that document on the shelf).
So if you want to get the new strategy implemented, if must be
meaningfully represented at the point when daily decisions are made. Watering
the seed then means that strategists need to be present when daily decisions
are being made—to teach people how the new strategy should influence how those
decisions are made.
For example, new strategies are typically about winning a
particular position. And in order to
have enough emphasis in the winning area, one usually needs to makes trade-offs
with areas less critical to that success.
Therefore, our daily actions need to make the right trade-offs so that
we choose in the direction of the winning position. And if intensive effort is not placed on
training people to make the right trade-offs, then wrong trade-offs will occur.
Think back a few years ago to the crisis at Toyota. Their strategy was built upon winning in
dependability. However, for awhile,
management’s daily decisions were not keeping dependability at the
forefront. Ideas of growth, expansion,
and low prices got in the way. As a
result, dependability suffered (numerous crashes, lawsuits and recalls) and Toyota
had a huge set-back. Management had to
go back and re-water the soil—to get everyone to realize that dependability is
top priority and must penetrate every decision made on a daily basis. Once the soil was sufficiently watered with
that intensive effort, dependability came back and so did the prospects at
Toyota.
3. Fertilizing the Soil
Fertilization is a brief activity which takes place at set intervals. For example, many recommend fertilizing grass 5 times a year. The equivalent activity in strategy is the strategic review. The idea here is that just as periodic fertilization keeps the grass on track to grow, periodic strategic reviews help keep the strategy on track to proper implementation.
There are several methods to do this. One is the dashboard approach. The idea is to set desired near-term outcomes
related to the strategy. These are
usually referred to as KPIs, or key performance indicators. You then measure actual performance against
the KPIs and display them on a dashboard.
Periodically you look at the performance on the dashboard and make the
appropriate adjustments to get back on track.
Depending on how broadly you want to measure the strategy you will end
up with different dashboards. In the
broadest approach, you end up with something like a Balanced Scorecard.
A strategic review which will occur less frequently is the
review of assumptions. The idea here is
to periodically go back to the core assumptions behind the strategy to ensure
that they are still relevant. If they
are no longer relevant, then it is time to modify the strategy. Sometimes, this process makes use of scenario
planning. In scenario planning, several
potential environmental assumptions are examined. Strategies are developed for the most like
sets of assumptions. Then, at the
periodic reviews, one looks to see which scenario is coming to pass, so
that one will know which path to take.
A third approach for strategic review is known as stage-gating,
or real options. The idea here is that large
strategic initiatives are broken down into smaller parts. Each part optimizes the strategy based on
what is known at the moment the stage is started. Then, based on what is learned over the
interim of that stage, you choose the proper next stage, and so on. The periodic reviews occur for each stage.
An example would be in oil drilling, where one buys an
option to drill well before drilling begins.
Then one examines in more detail the likelihood of that being a good
place to drill. If yes, the next stage
is to prepare drilling. If no, you let
the right to drill lapse. The idea is to
maximize action while minimizing risk.
Just having a strategy does not guarantee that the strategy will become a reality in the business. To increase the likelihood that the strategy comes to pass, you also need three other activities:
- Preparing the Soil--Changing the way the company thinks, so that they naturally want to work hard to make the strategy come to pass.
- Watering the Soil—Intensive effort up-front to teach people how to incorporate the essentials of the strategy into everyday decision-making.
- Fertilizing the Soil—Periodic strategic reviews in order to make sure everything is on track, that the assumptions still hold, and that periodic adjustments can be made.
You can’t prepare the soil, water the soil and fertilize the soil if you are locked up in the ivory tower at corporate. No, you have to get your hands dirty and get out into the field where the soil is.
