“from ideas to impact”...
This is the
tag-line for my coaching & facilitation venture: Visiontracks Facilitation
and Coaching: www.visiontracks.ca. I chose it carefully to challenge not only
those I work with, but myself! My
passion is to help bring life to individuals’ and organizations’ dreams by
helping them articulate it and then lay the tracks that lead to desired impact.
A plan isn’t satisfactory.
Its impact that matters.
The truth is many ideas never cross the bridge to impact.
I have observed some barriers over the 20 years I have
coached individuals and organizations. Each of these I have faced in the
execution of my own dreams. It seems to
be part of the human condition. However
rather than just identify barriers, I will describe THE BRIDGES that lead to
impact.
I see 3 primary barriers that affect the ability to reach the
stage of impact:
Execution
Anxiety
Execution is the ‘other side’ of planning. Problem is, it’s the planning that we love
more. We love it because it is all about
possibilities, opportunities, dreaming.
It is an artful stage: intellectual fun with no responsibilities. Even more, when you are done with the plan
you can declare a ‘victory’. Most of you
reading this have experienced participating in strategy development only to
watch it die on the shelf of neglect.
It’s similar to our new years’ penchant for goal setting. There is enthusiasm for the plan, less energy
for the execution side. We’d rather plan than execute.
To build THE BRIDGE from planning to execution:
·
Keep your plans simple with enough room for ongoing adaptability. I have become less enamored with the rigid,
detailed and highly structured strategic plan.
That’s not because I have become lazy, but as a result of observing that
not only do people respond poorly to overly complex and rigid plans, but the
complex and fast-moving environments in which we lead require plans with built-in
adaptability. Simplicity makes sense and allows room for adaptation.
·
Centralize the questions; decentralize the answers. In the execution of the plan, move key
operational decisions out to the edge.
Central planning has not served world economies very well and it’s not
likely to work for you. The generational
forces currently at play have influenced & empowered a grassroots
leadership environment (note the Occupy Movement). Trust your people to execute. If you can’t, either you have the wrong
people or you should not be the leader.
·
Act as though your plan is never done. Planning does not end when you produce and
publish it. It’s an ongoing
process. By that I mean adaptation along
the way is what completes the plan. Think
about this - it’s only with hindsight
that you ‘see’ the actual plan.
·
Praise execution, not planning. Execution is real results. Plans are fond hopes that must survive the
brush with reality. Therefore as the
leader, the most critical part of your role is to accomplish the mission by
caring for the people who face reality and execute the plan. Praise and support them in the acts of
bridging ideas to impact.
Fear
Fears matter. They are natural to leaders and teams when
entering the unknown territory that visions typically demand.
How do we walk across THE BRIDGE from fear to courage?
·
Resist simply powering through them as your
solution to the fears expressed in the team (or in yourself). While it may appear as courage or ‘leadership’
to be stoic and committed to the vision “come hell or high water”, it’s
actually foolish because you are setting yourself up as unwilling to adapt to
changing conditions and information.
·
Address fears by naming them. Fear feeds retreat, so if you really want to
move ahead, you must deal with fear. Label
them. Lay them on the team table. This
takes courage, trust and openness. Doing
this as a team is a profound team-building experience, because better than a
rock climbing exercise, the honesty & vulnerability required transforms
co-workers into true colleagues. True
vulnerability starts with the leader. Once
you lead in this way, over time the team will be willing to express more than
just superficial fears and concerns.
However they are finally labelled, I find fears
typically emerge from: resistance to change, a desire to maintain status quo, caution
because of past failure, lack of information or sufficiently robust research
and lack of confidence in team members with whom they must execute a plan. Astute leaders need to stay tuned for the ‘elephant
in the room’ and coax that invisible yet monstrous obstacle out from the
shadows of team silence. Give it a name.
·
Now decide if the expressed fear is one of
execution (accountability), or one that legitimately reveals an operational weakness
and requires adaptation.
Some fears
are legitimate, so don’t push those fears aside because you want to appear
‘strong’. If you let fear fester, it
will eventually breed doubt, lack of courage and even cynicism toward the
plan. By that stage it’s hard to peel
back all the layers that covered your original fears. You have gone from naming the fear to blaming
someone or something and have given up your power to create change and impact.
Wavering Focus
Although we enter a planning process in order to gain the
kind of focus that will marshal our resources and efforts in a concentrated
way, once a plan is decided upon, the ‘what-if?’ syndrome can kick in:
“What if this isn’t our best
plan?”
“What if our planning scenarios
change?”
“What if we had tried option ‘C’
instead?”
“What if...”
No matter how robust your planning process, this kind of
‘what if’ thinking always lingers among leaders and team members. Resist the temptation to abandon your plan
and take a completely different road. Adapt
– yes. Abandon – no. The execution road is never as easy as the planning road.
I have observed that pining for a different road happens
when:
- We resist the accountability of execution
- We don’t accept limitations. This is especially a
problem for visionaries & conceptualizers.
They LOVE ideas and options. It’s
their world, their fuel, their food. To
finally commit to one road/plan although it may make intellectual sense, feels
like it is now limiting them. There are
limitations in ANY plan. (By the way,
that ‘other road’ you desire to take has its own limitations!)
- We don’t
create the support mechanisms which keep us progressing toward our goals. Regular check-ins with the team to track
& acknowledge progress, make necessary adaptations and celebrate
achievements, are ways to maintain focus.
THE BRIDGE to FOCUS is paved with 4 stones which I find are
foundational when I am coaching individuals or teams:
·
Time: Change
leading to impact requires commitment to a reasonable time period for execution.
·
Attention: A
regular ‘check-in’ which brings the goals to the front of your mind ensures you don’t create a ‘distance’ that easily leads
to neglect.
·
Repetition: Reviewing
where you have come from, as well as reminding yourself of the vision and the
steps to get there keeps you grounded.
·
Affirmation: Being
generous with affirmative comments to your team creates positive psychological momentum; a motivation to keep striving for
fulfillment of the
vision.
It’s one of
the ‘large’ questions of life, whether for an individual or an organization:
What impact will I have on this world?
The larger
question is:
Have you built
the bridge that gets you there?
If you need help as a leader or a team to walk across the
bridge from ideas to impact, consider connecting with Harvey as your coach.
The premise of this “Nomadic Leader” blog is that effective leadership requires a nomadic spirit. You can read more on that in my inaugural blog from Sept 2009. We live in a world that itself is constantly transforming, therefore its essential we develop the skills to see what is changing in our world, then change ourselves accordingly. Gone is the great man theory of leadership where he/she sits atop their trusty stallion as the consummate expert and ‘general’, charging ahead into the future, leading the troops to certain victory.
