GALT Consulting LLC

Last week, I gave you 3 Reasons why Strategic Plans Fail.  This week, I will give you the alternative.

Imagine being the coach of a football team.  You spend a lot of time analyzing the upcoming opponent.  You look at each potential match-up on the field and analyze the types of plays most likely to generate success.  You know, for example, that your running back can outrun their outside linebacker if you can pull an offensive lineman to block their speedy middle linebacker.  With all of this knowledge, you lay out the plays to call for the entire game.  Knowing that the results of each play will vary, you organize your game plan by down and yardage.  If it is 3rd and 19, you have a play.  If it is 3rd and 1, you have a play.  It is all mapped out based on your best information.

The game starts and you immediately notice that they are starting a new outside linebacker who appears much faster than the guy you planned to play against.  3 plays into the game, your star running back tweaks his ankle slowing him down.  The defense runs plays you have never seen before.  You are getting crushed.

You have 2 choices at this point.  Stick to the plan or pitch it.  If you are smart, you will pitch it...  well, not completely. 

The information you collected to create the plan is incredibly valuable and most of it still applies.  However, as the game begins, the information is changing and you are becoming more even more informed about the other team.  You need to use the information from the plan, and make some adjustments.  Furthermore, you have another choice.  Should you make the adjustments based on what you see from the sidelines, or should you ask your veteran players on the field what they are seeing out there?  I think you are getting the picture...

A plan is static.  It doesn't change.  It doesn't adjust.  It doesn't learn.  A system is dynamic.  It shifts and adjusts it's course based on improved clarity of the current situation.  You don't need a plan, you need a system.

Instead of spending all that time on the super play calling plan, let's say that you create a system to allow you to collect information and make better play calls during the game.  During a specific drive, you will rely on your coaches in the boxes watching the game from above as well as your own eyes to make calls, but you will also give your veteran quarterback the power to audible if needed.  Between drives, you organize your team so that information from the field flows to the coaches.  The coaches and veteran players adjust their gameplan accordingly.

Now imagine this type of system in your organization...

I took my family out to dinner recently and our waitress was really struggling.  She clearly was not the type of person that should be a waitress.  She struggled remembering details and had no concept of customer service.  I have been watching employees for a long time, and I am getting pretty good at spotting the difference between a lack of experience and simply not being hard wired the right way for a job.  This poor gal was not going to get much better. 

I found myself thinking about the impact of that single waitress who was making mistake after mistake.  The most obvious impact was that it had a negative impact on our dinner.  My 4-year old got her food a good 10 minutes after the rest of us (parents out there know what that is like!).  Another obvious impact was on the restaurant itself.  I won't be as quick to suggest dining at that particular restaurant again in the future.  

Think about the other, less obvious impacts of having the wrong person in the wrong place within an organization.  The waitress herself was absolutely miserable.  She hates her job.  She was pretty young, so this experience will also likely carry on to her next job.  She is getting programmed to dislike work and expect very little out of herself. 

What about the impact on her coworkers?  I noticed that she got very little help from her coworkers as she struggled around.  They were clearly tired of having to help her out.  The morale of the entire restaurant was undoubtedly impacted by this one employee.

The challenge to management is to not EVER allow this to happen.  Most managers would say, "yeah... I don't think she is going to work out" and leave her in the position to fail miserably.  I consider this pathetic.  Managers should move every day to find out the strengths and skills of their employees and constantly work to put them in a position where they can succeed, even if that means working for another organization. 

Last point... don't blame the waitress.  While we each have a responsibility to put ourselves in a position to succeed, I wouldn't expect a young waitress to know better.  I would expect the manager to know better.  Putting people in a position to fail puts everyone in a position to fail!

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Strategic Planning is well known.  I do it for a living...  and I have never written a strategic plan.  Strategic Plans don't work.  Here are 3 reason why...

1) You are getting smarter

The day after you print the plan you have spent so much time on, you are smarter than you were when the plan was created.  You have learned things.  The day after that, you are even smarter.  The same is true of your people.  They are getting smarter too.  Over time, something that seemed like a great idea when you created the plan may reveal itself to be a really bad idea.  A paper plan doesn't get any smarter.

2) It's a Different World

One of my client's spent months generating a detailed strategic plan for their organization.  The plan hinged on a key manager whom we'll call Bob.  Bob was mentioned throughout the plan as a key champion.  3 months into the plan, Bob left the firm.  The plan was immediately rendered totally obsolete.  This is an extreme example, but ultimately, any plan put down on paper refers to a world of the past.  The world is constantly changing and the plan won't change with it.

3) A Plan is like a Diet

Ever go on a diet?  Ever fallen off the diet?  Ever gone back on a diet?  Ever fallen off again?  Diets fail because they are temporary.  A diet is an initiative taken outside of your normal routine or world designed to force change.  A strategic plan is the same thing.  You get into the conference room and perform your analysis and get excited about the ideas presented, but then you go back out into the real world and struggle to apply it.  Diet's fail when something happens that the diet doesn't address like that special meal when you go on vacation or that restaurant that doesn't sell good carb-free options.  Strategic plans fail when the real world presents you with a situation not specifically covered in the plan.  The plan is dropped and you move on just as the dieter decides to order to the cheesecake.

So what do we do?

I wouldn't make a very good living telling people not to do strategic planning if I didn't believe that businesses didn't need a strategy.  That is the key... every organization needs a strategy, not a plan.  The key to implementing a good strategy is not to develop a strategic plan, but to develop a strategic system.

Sounds like a future blog article....

A pizza place emails out a coupon to it's preferred customers.  One customer gets the coupon and decides to eat at the restaurant... only they don't print out the coupon.  They arrive, order, eat and go to pay and show the coupon via their phone to their server, who rejects it.  The owner comes out and explains...  "If we didn't make you print the coupon, our wait staff would give away food to everyone who walked in."  The customer does not get the discount... and proceeds to tell the story to several people (including me). 

I understand why the owner made this decision, but that doesn't make it a good decision.  The owner doesn't have clear vision for what it takes to run a successful business.  I am not criticizing to complain, I am trying to make the point for you, so you don't make the same mistake. 

Businesses are made and lost on relationships.  Why?  Because it is far better to have a long-term relationship with a customer than to have to develop new relationships with total strangers.  The coupon incident was handled by an owner who expects every transaction to occur between strangers.  He sets a policy that shows his employees and customers that he doesn't trust them. 

Cost control is important in business, but relationships are more important.  NEVER do anything that signals a potentially valuable client that you are only interested in a relationship when every transaction is financially beneficial.  There are a lot of pizza places out there...

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If you want to see a powerful profile in Passion is Productive, you won't find a better example than my brother David.  Born with a condition that doctors reported would leave him unable to walk or talk, David has continuously beat the odds his entire life.  He is a major influence on my life and I am very proud of him!

This week, he is competing in the National Special Olympics in Lincoln, Nebraska representing Nebraska.  He is interviewed in the story linked below, and I think you'll catch a glimpse of that passion that has helped him his entire life!  It is worth the two and half minutes!

NEWS VIDEO OF SPECIAL OLYMPICS - JULY 18. 2010

OK... so it's not really new, but to those of you who have lived within (or even propagated) the "Top-Down Management" philosophy, this will seem new to you.  If you are wondering what is wrong with Top-Down Management, you need to read my article HERE.

What is the alternative to Top-Down Management?  The alternative is called People-Centric Management (first coined by my friend, former business owner and executive coach, Randy Mayes). 

People-Centric Management (PCM) revolves around the people within the organization rather than depending only on the management team.  Imagine all of the talents and strengths that exist within a typical organization.  I have been surprised many times in organizations where an employee suddenly emerges with a fantastic and incredibly useful skill that no one knew existed.  This is true everywhere.  Edwards Deming once said that the greatest waste in American industry is the unused talents of people.  This is the "hidden resource" in your company that PCM helps you to tap into.

I know what you are already thinking...  Are we going to vote on all decisions from now on?  How do I let my people run the organization when they can't even do their own jobs correctly?  If you are envisioning an organization run like a commune full of hippies, you aren't thinking quite right.

People-Centric organizations set a clear mission and vision for their organization.  They then empower their people to make decisions within the organization and within their own strengths and influence.  In this model, management doesn't have to solve all of the problems, they only have to make sure the vision is clear.  Here is how it works...

1) Engagement - Establish a culture where people can openly identify opportunities (which you probably call "problems").

2) Focus - Utilizing the "right" cross-functional team of experts (including management if needed), a team develops a plan for taking advantage of the opportunity presented (or "fixing the problem").

3) Accountability - The people set their own direction and then hold themselves accountable to that direction. 

4) Repeat

This cycle is repeated over and over again starting with the determination of an organizational strategy (called "People-Centric Planning" (TM)).  You will find organic change within your organization... in other words, with a clear vision and mission, you will start to see improvements occurring all over the place.  This eliminates the barrier of "selling the people" on change because the change just occurs from the people. 

Soon, I will tell you a true story of an organization that practices People-Centric Management and what that looks like...  it will blow your mind!

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For many decades now, the term "management has taken on a distinct meaning in our culture.  I recently conducted extensive research on the subject (aka: I Googled "Strong Management") and found one website that claims to help companies build strong management teams.  They define a manager this way...

"Manager - One who directs or conducts the affairs and interests of an entity such as a business; one who controls the direction and operation of such entity; one who brings about results."

Wow...  this definition would seem to be non-controversial and serves as the basis for many management education programs... and it is extremely damaging and leads to mediocrity.

I especially despise the last line...  "one who brings about results".  This is classic management philosophy that is known as Top-Down Management.

In Top-Down Management organizations, the boss develops the strategy and tactics, puts them on the tablets and then brings them down from the mountain to their workforce for implementation.  Management's role is to give directives and employee's role is to follow the directives.  Studies (such as those outlined in Jim Collin's book, Good to Great, show that this approach can work, but rarely leads to "great" companies).

Here are 4 reasons Top-Down Management isn't effective:
1) The organization is only as good as the management team
2) All change efforts have to start with getting employee buy-in
3) People are hardwired to be less motivated when they have no autonomy
4) The newer generation of workforce is less tolerant of it

So what is the alternative?  Stay tuned!

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I'm referencing a reference here, but in the book Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, a study by anthropologist Robin Dunbar showed that people can realistically manage about 148 (give or take) real, authentic relationships at any one time.  As a business owner, your goal MIGHT be to be one of those 148 people for your clients.  Or maybe not...

When developing a strategy for your business, it is important to understand not only your Unique Value Proposition (UVP), but also to understand how people will connect with your UVP.  Your clients / customers may or may not require a "148 relationship", but you should not overlook the value in those relationships as potential connectors to your business.  Each of those 148 people has a relationship with up to 148 other people who take that person's advice very seriously.

What about the people outside of that 148?  They are very important too, but for different reasons.  For one thing, they probably hold opinions that directly impact your product.  My friend Matt Block recently wrote about this in his blog.  I have heard that for every customer that complains, there are 10 more who feel the same way who didn't make the effort to tell you.  As Jim Collins says in "Good to Great", you must "Confront the Brutal Facts".  Is your advertising working the way you thought?  What is your public image?  Listen to the masses to better understand your REAL UVP and learn where you need to make changes.

I've included one example in the picture above.  This sign was hanging in the downtown Springfield office of a friend of mine.  What are your clients saying about you?

Sometimes a concept is so simple, we miss it.  This concept is one of those...  ready?   Helping out other people and businesses is good for business. 

Often times business owners spend a lot of money trying to market to strangers when they really don't honor the existing relationships they have.  My friend Sean Saunders, PGA Golf Teaching Profressional and owner of SWS Golf (www.swsgolf.com) is a great example of someone who takes care of everyone who knows him.  He does whatever he can to take care of his friends.  He regularly sends cards to friends and clients and looks for ways to promote other businesses.  He is the first person to buy something from a new business, just to try out the product.  I recently asked him for a gift certificate for a free golf lesson for a client, and he gave it to me... no questions asked.

Sean is practicing the concept of "Giver's Gain".  He nurtures his relationships and guess what... they nurture him back.  People love Sean and work hard to help him out when they can.  Doing the right thing in terms of helping people is also the right thing in terms of growing your business.

There is a catch.... you must be genuine.  Helping people only when you are in the position to get something back is easy to spot and will earn you a very different type of reputation.  You'll know when you are doing it right when you help people that have no way they can help you back.  Not only will you feel good, kindness has a way of coming back around!

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