It’s been a journey these last couple of weeks.
I’ve been working with teams in large businesses to help them execute – in other words, lock in – on the right project, the right team, and the right plan.
Of course, it’s challenging to do this work remotely, but honestly, it’s more than that. Decisions and momentum that made things seem clear in February have evaporated, leaving teams with a wider palette of decisions and a weaker reference framework for making them.
An unspoken truth among those of us who engage in assisting large firms is there is always a diversity of opinions and multiple pictures of the strategy that the group needs to follow to be more successful in the future.
The challenge is to surface them, clarify them, and enable the choice making for coordinated actions towards success.
These are not easy choices. In fact, I call these trade-offs “49/51 decisions,” where there is not a preponderance of evidence for either path, yet one must be chosen. Throw in the shock wave of the current pandemic, where people are not only uncertain about the future, but also reframing history, and you have a good picture of why things are harder.
Choice making is essential for progress – yet it’s also an easy trap for firms to over-function on problem selection and underperform on execution and learning.
No wonder it is so easy for the tangible urgent to trump the abstract important.
All is not lost though.
Let’s get clear about what large firms do well. Heavily matrixed firms are built to deliver superb results (at scale) in a relatively narrow operational environment. Relationships are well established, and the process pathways are well understood. Because each member of a matrixed firm has more than one boss (by definition), they are very resilient within the scope and incredibly resistant out of scope.
To really evolve, we need to put in focus, clarity, and nimbleness. Within these relationships, it is quite possible to carve out a surgical (sprint) team that can collaborate and discover the new product, service, or process that will lead the firm forward.
The equation is that we need to find the right (not perfect) problem – one that is relevant to the market the client is working on – and get it in a frame that those in the firm recognize they can contribute to.
This lays the foundation for the next phase of the journey.
And here is the surprise: when completed, our understanding will improve and the next “reality” will be different.
The Genius of Collaborative Evolution
The mistake I see many make is that they fail to make enough room for learning. No one is good enough to plan everything out when embracing new markets, products, and services. The very act of creating precision around an offering leads to deep discovery and insight. If you don’t spend time capturing the insights, you’ll risk leaving a lot of valuable intellectual property on the field.
In the work I do with clients, we consistently take time to evolve the problem, the team, and the process to get the new strategy in place. Remarkably, it takes only minutes per week to get the team together and collect learnings and insights, but every time we do, we come up with much stronger commitment – and in many cases – more client value for the firm.
It’s in the solving of the real world runway level problems that strategy goes from abstract to real – and where the kind of intrinsic value that can’t be copied is built.
New benchmarks, new expectations, new challenges
Post-COVID, we are all on an unchosen learning curve. Our markets have shifted quickly. We have much higher expectations for customer experience and digital efficiency. We want to be treated as people, yet have the immediacy that only automation can bring.
What really is needed is a strong intent and the skills to adapt
I’ve built a client tested, robust approach to developing these projects in a way that can shift you and your team to much higher performance and output. In the context of adaptive learning, you may want to check out the articles here, here and here.
I frequently work with technical leaders and their teams that have growing operational responsibilities. If you’d like to have a conversation with me about a complex challenge, please email me at scott@scottpropp.com, or use this link to put a call directly on my calendar.
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