Strategic Context: Perfect Answers, Wrong Questions
The previous blog featured a graphic that maps Stanford’s elements of strategic execution. It is extremely useful for locating the You-Are-Here spot . Importantly it is a good reminder for checking He-Is-There – an often forgotten half in communications.
When goals seem divergent, look to the next higher level.
Perhaps it’s a difference in culture. A managing director of a maquilladora on the Mexican border saved significantly on cash bonuses that didn’t seem to make enough impact on employees; she instituted instead a much less expensive but more meaningful monthly company barbecue-and-beer: a gesture of camaraderie that seemed to resonate with the village culture of the workers.
Perhaps it’s values. Take a boss who is perplexed by a highly paid employee’s unwillingness to stay till 8:00p as the boss does; this expectation is amazingly common, especially of younger hires. Well, to begin with, the employee likely does not draw the pay and equity that the boss does. Or simply, the employee sees the job not as an end unto itself, but only as a means to support the family. Visualize values as concentric rings : what is at your center? What’s theirs?
Take a look at this illustration of conflicting hierarchies of values. Which one approximates yours?
Obvious and commonsensical – yet we see it played out every day.
When faced with a situation that doesn’t slide smoothly into your thinking, pause, step back, especially if there is an emotional factor at either end. Emotions aren’t aberrations, they are a reality: for good reason, the word derives from the Latin word movere- as in motivation, driving force.
Being strategic starts with a consciousness of a larger context. You may have the right answers, but the questions may have changed.
Next blog: keeping perspective in the midst of chaos. Values as concentric hierarchies, and a practical guide to difficult negotiations.
Stanford’s elements of strategic execution were mapped in the previous blog . It is extremely useful for locating the “You-Are-Here” spot . Importantly, it is a good reminder for checking “And-He-Is-There” – an often forgotten half in communications.
When goals seem divergent, look to the next higher level.
Perhaps it’s a difference in culture. A managing director of a maquilladora on the Mexican border saved significantly on cash bonuses that didn’t seem to make enough impact on employees; she instituted instead a much less expensive but more meaningful monthly company barbecue-and-beer: a gesture of camaraderie that seemed to resonate with the village culture of the workers.
Perhaps it’s values. Take a boss who is perplexed by a highly paid employee’s unwillingness to stay till 8:00p as the boss does; this expectation is amazingly common, especially of younger hires. Well, to begin with, the employee likely does not draw the pay and equity that the boss does. Or simply, the employee sees the job not as an end unto itself, but only as a means to support the family. Visualize values as concentric rings : what is at your center? What’s theirs?
Take a look at these illustrations of conflicting hierarchies of values. Which one approximates yours?
Senior managers and owners tend to have a blindspot that keeps them from realizing that the regular employee has far less stakes in the job than they do. Obvious and commonsensical – yet we see it played out every day.
When faced with a situation that doesn’t slide smoothly into your thinking, pause, step back, especially if there is an emotional factor at either end. Emotions aren’t aberrations, they are a reality: for good reason, the word derives from the Latin word movere- as in motivation, driving force.
Being strategic starts with a consciousness of a larger context. You may have the right answers, but the questions may have changed.
Next blog: keeping perspective in the midst of chaos. Surprising new findings contradict the sacrosanct Maslow hierarchy of values. Negotiation strategies.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
September 16th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Julian, nice work on pointing how important value drivers are, and how easily they are presumed to be the same for everyone – when they are not. This looks like a form of redefining being strategic as making sure your attempts to motivate behavior to reach strategic outcomes as in line with value drivers for the participants.
Rodney Brim
http://www.ManagePro.com/blog
September 16th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
You’ve made a salient point. So many times bosses have no idea where their employees are coming from. They need to stand back and put themselves in their staff’s shoes. Often times, an employer can really improve employee morale and productivity by just doing simple things involving no extra cost i.e. providing flex time in a worker’s schedule, or giving them more autonomy. Employee output increases when the boss and the employee are in tune with each other.
December 5th, 2009 at 2:05 am
Nice post & nice blog. I love both.
December 6th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
I am definitely bookmarking this page and sharing it with my friends.
December 13th, 2009 at 5:24 am
Looks like you are a true pro. Did you study about the theme? lol