Hey, happy Monday!
Today we try to fix this with time.
“The new economy runs so fast that it is impossible to keep up with innovation.”
It was 2001 and this answer was in a survey by Bain&Co..
It seems that the situation has not changed at all.
Therefore, I decided to make public a workshop, one of the most effective, conducted to date only with STRTGY Alumni. Those who have done it have told me that:
- He has clearer ideas about what the mechanics of his own growth are
- He finally eliminated the noise and was able to focus on the things that really move the bar
- Team members have the feeling that they are all rowing in the same direction, while maintaining autonomy
I recommend that you participate, either alone or with your team, before spots run out.
It is really powerful.
We don’t have time to devote to it.
– Eugène Ionesco
On Saturday I sent an email to all newsletter subscribers, you should have received it too, in which I asked what was the most important thing that if solved would enable you to work 10 times better.
If you haven’t had a chance to respond yet, you can do so by visiting at this link, it will literally take 3 minutes on the clock. I’m really interested in that!
I carefully read all the responses and could collect them into three categories:
- “I don’t have time.”
- “My team is not clear on what to do.”
- “Processes are not properly structured.”
As I followed the flow of responses, I also realized that these three things are connected in a dangerous vortex: I don’t have time to do my own thing, as a result I struggle to communicate with my team who are unclear about the direction and therefore cannot structure processes to make work more efficient (and fun)…
Where to start to get out of this fog?
Untitled.ppt
Which document clearly explains what the strategy is that you as a company, or as a team, are implementing right now. Could you find it?
Mmhmm… Maybe you have a business plan….
It’s not your fault, how can you know what to do if no one has told you which direction to go?
There is a beautiful passage in a book I recommend, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt that goes something like this:
“A good strategy always seems simple and obvious and does not need slides to explain it. It does not magically appear while filling in a strategy tool, matrix, chart, triangle, or while completing white spaces. Instead, a good strategy manifests itself when a talented leader identifies one or two key problems and decides to focus all his or her resources on them.”
Do you agree?
Seeing the gears in X-rays
Let’s talk about your car. Actually about any car. Most of the interesting stuff happens in the engine. You don’t know how it works, all you need to know is that when you press on the accelerator you will go forward to the destination you need to reach.
That’s it, in your business it’s not enough to press on the accelerator without knowing how the engine works, because your job is not just to reach the destination whatever the cost… Your job is to make the car better by making it so that it can go farther, using less gasoline, with less smoke and less noise….
To do this you need to know what the gears are and how they are arranged to understand how energy is transferred from one to another.
When you first see the gears lined up on the sheet, it will be like looking at the engine in an X-ray. You will understand how it works, and more importantly, you will discover that it is simpler than you thought.
This propulsion scheme is your Strategy.
And it should be on your desk and that of your entire team. Only by knowing it will they be able to ask themselves: but the activity I am doing what gear will improve?
Time we cannot create but we can make the most of the one at our disposal by focusing only on the things that matter. On those few, individual cogs that move business forward.
Are you ready? Tell me when you want to work on your growth machine..
Good work!
Make yourself heard.
