In preparing to kick off a big client strategy project with a growing international firm in the building products space, I was reminded that the best work is always developed with well thought out collaboration.
I’ve been reflecting on what it takes to have a great outcome, and this is true not just for me as an external strategist, but also for you, the internal growth champion of your firm.
If you are reading this on LinkedIn or Twitter, you are reading only one third of a monthly newsletter filled with useful advice for innovators. If you’d like to receive the full newsletter, please sign up in the orange box to the right.
Initially, many firms think they want a strategist to come in, do some interviews, go talk to customers, come back with the answers and then put together a team to “install” them. While this may “tick the box” for someone’s annual goal to look at reach out strategy, we know these one-size-fits-many strategies have very low engagement. We have all seen, with very few exceptions, that within 180 days this work is forgotten – and the thumb drive with the presentation is collecting dust in the back of the desk drawer or some forgotten folder on Dropbox.
Transformative work comes out of a process and a journey that involves hard mutual effort, set up in a way that allows joint discovery and direction finding. These principles are not just applicable to externally facilitated advisor-led programs, but applies equally to strategy work done internally. Throughout the years I have found there are several key elements necessary for this outcome:
- Developing the key questions and strategic intention of the work, for example, what exactly are we going to use this information to do? What impact do we expect it to have and in what relevant time frame? The best work is done when a client is deeply engaged in answering great questions about what’s happening in their firm, their market and their reality.
- Mutually shared inside out “fact set.” When I work with a firm, I begin by going deep to understand their world so that I can reflect it back to them in a concise set of tools that provide visual, narrative and numerical summaries for key attributes of the firm. Creating a tight brief from a strategic point of view allows the internal team to quickly get on the same page, and allows all participants to literally be on the same footing with no hidden cards under the table.
- Working with the team to select a key set of domains that can provide an outside in “fact set.” We go through areas of interest, initially starting with areas that the team knows they need to know more about (KDK for you JoHari experts), followed by deeper dives as the team comes to know specifically where they would like to dig in. I use multiple domain experts to provide a written background that the team can study and reflect on prior to our session. The key is to have a process that develops a strategic “sandbox” and a set of facts that creates the opportunity for real dialogue.
- A facilitated session that is set up to draw out the best thinking within the team. This always results in several emergent viewpoints that are unanticipated at the outset of the engagement. It is quite important to allow several views to surface, as it is nearly impossible for the group to surface views and do real-time decision making. Great work is done when the facilitator draws the best work from the subject matter experts both within and outside the firm. For the strategy process leader, the work is to set up the process that will draw out rich viewpoints, allow tensions to surface and allow them to be built into something more – in a true one plus one equals three.
- A separate session that is set up to do decision making, in the way the firm is used to doing it. Once option development is complete, it’s time to stack up the choices available to the firm and make a decision. For example, if it is a manufacturing company, building the scenarios out in the format they would consider plant expansions with, or for an investment firm, building them using their investment board process. Then it’s time to allow their natural decision discipline to kick in and make a selection.
If this sounds like a lot of work, it is. However, the outcomes are always profound and the implementation work is a natural outcome of going through this process.
The best work comes from working collaboratively and allowing the client to use the decision making tools they are accustomed to by building the strategic choices in a way that “fits” their system – rather than dragging them into an unfamiliar place and context.
Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that this is the only way to proceed, and in fact I now only work with clients who are willing to lift their proverbial end of the couch.
The minute my role moves from shaper, framer and clarifier to producer – i.e., personally creating something that I am “selling them on” – we have lost the momentum. My role is to help people find the best in themselves and their firm, not to impress my intention on them.
If you’d like to talk about what the right project looks like for you and your team, I do reserve a few slots in my schedule for private, executive coaching relationships. To learn more about how I can help you guide your organization to clarity, action and growth, please call me at 847-651-1014.
