- Find the Truth: The information you have is valid and it has been transformed into the wisdom required to inform decision making
- Set Direction: You need people from the target system tto test your wisdom and as a consequence set a direction that is supported and shared
- Execute: You establish and deploy appropriate levels of capability to implement and sustain the decision
Step 1 – Don’t be an elephant jockey
Imagine riding on an elephant, you are way up there just behind the head looking where you are going, now tell me what is that the elephant just trod on. Can’t tell? Not surprisingly you can’t see from where you are, you just cannot be everywhere all at once and you cannot depend on the elephant to be able to tell you. Every leader who is ‘riding an elephant’ needs to find ways that they can trust to get the true state of play on how their organisation is performing or how their target markets are behaving.
Step 2 – Followers define a leader
Without followers, what is a leader? You can make all the decisions you like on your own, but when it comes to implementation you rarely implement decisions solo, you must depend on others to help you. For a follower to champion the ‘new’ they need to genuinely understand drivers for the direction decided, while having the courage confront resistance, be they people or systems, in ways that will assist the implementation to be successful. Involving them in these conversations to set direction equips them to take on these challenges and translates the vision for success further into your organisation.
Step 3 – We need a bigger boat
Executing new plans takes more time and more effort and as a consequence for these two, more money. If you don’t have surplus capacity in your current workforce, then asking them to do more and maintain operational performance just puts unnecessary pressure on the system that delivers the critical value while at the same time jeopardises the chances of the new tactics being successful. I’m not saying that the organisation need not be involved in the execution of change, just that the effort required to execute needs to be properly scoped, defined and resourced.
The right decision requires investment, that investment is always much more cost effective than not deciding.
