Be Different or be dead

April 18, 2016

What actions does a leader take if they want the organization to change?

Source: Unsplash

What actions does a leader take if they want the organization to change?

How do you know if the leader you report to wants to try new things?

You can spend months on analysis.

You can create as many scenarios as you can imagine.

You can employ all the tools available to mitigate risk.

But you will never be able to predict the outcome of trying something new. There are simply too many variables in the equation: competitor moves, economic shifts, regulatory changes and technology disruptions are always in play to confound the predictability of any action you plan to take.

You may get close. But you will never get it exactly as you intended.

There is a gigantic chasm between any plan and the results of the plan.

And the only way to bridge the chasm is to act quickly and see the results of your action; execute, learn from the execution, and modify or kill the plan on the run.

This requires a planning process that enables a stream of experimentation; that has the “Why don’t we… and see what happens?” question at its core.

Answer these questions to determine if experimentation is taken seriously in your organization.

▪️What is the conversation generated by leadership. Do they encourage testing new ideas by asking “Why don’t we…”? or do they ask for a detailed business case with yards of analysis that requires months to complete.

▪️How much analysis is performed when considering a new course of action? Is it increasing or decreasing in favour of taking action?

▪️Are annual objectives set for the number of experiments you want to conduct? Is the objective included in the organization’s performance balanced scorecard?

▪️Do experimentation champions get continuous recognition? Does leadership play an active role in the proceedings?

▪️Do your organizational values include a strong innovation focus? If value statements don’t expect a “let’s try it” attitude it won’t happen. And an innovative culture will never flourish.

▪️Are innovation results compared to targets prominently displayed in the workplace for all to see? Priorities must be in the face of all employees to reinforce their importance.

You can’t plan your way to progress.

The yard sticks move forward only by people doing stuff; by turning brave ideas into crude deeds constantly.

Stand-out leaders encourage this activity by asking “Why don’t we…” often and passionately.

Cheers,
Roy

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• Posted 4.18.16 at 05:36 am by Roy Osing
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