The Long and The Short Of It

Episode 408 - Strategy

Transcript:

Pete: Hey, Jen.

Jen: Hello, Pete.

Pete: I'm coming at you today with a big loaded concept that I've thought about to the point of...I don't even know what I think about it anymore. And I need your help.

Jen: Oh my, what is the big loaded concept?

Pete: Strategy.

Jen: Oh.

Pete: I want to talk to you about strategy.

Jen: I can't wait. So excited. Okay. This is The Long and The Short Of It.

Pete: So "strategy" is one of those words, one of those concepts, one of those lines of work that I've been around and spent time on and nerded out on so much, that I'm starting to feel like it's lost all meaning or I just can't see up from down. And I'm working on a really cool big strategy project at the moment, helping facilitate a bunch of executive sessions and board sessions to help them recreate their new strategy. And so, I'm like deep in the weeds of strategy. And I just am finding myself, when I get the odd minute to myself, going, "What is strategy even for? What are we actually talking about here?" And I could get lost in the intellectualizing of it all...which I think is a big trap about strategy, by the way.

Jen: Yep.

Pete: So I'm like, "Who's the most practical, smart person I know that could help me unpack this? Jen Waldman."

Jen: Yay. Well, I am deep in the strategy world myself, because I am in the midst of my Reboot program, which is all about career strategy. So, I'm talking strategy with people literally every single day right now. And I love it so much.

Pete: Oh my god, I've come to you at the right time. This is perfect. I also was like, "Oh, we've definitely talked about strategy before." And I did a little search on our website or through our transcripts. And it came up a couple of times, but it's more like, "Here's a strategy for an audition," or "Here's a strategy for a job interview." And I was like, "But haven't we talked about something?" And then, I found Missionvisionvalues.

Jen: Yep.

Pete: Which feels adjacent, Missionvisionvalues, which is Episode 257. I'll include it in the Box O' Goodies. That felt adjacent, but we didn't actually say the word "strategy" in that episode. So I just feel like I need your wisdom and perspective on how do you even think about strategy? What are we talking about here?

Jen: Okay. So, Missionvisionvalues...one word.

Pete: Yeah, it was one word.

Jen: Those things are the guardrails that allow your strategy to be in alignment with where you want to be headed. And strategy is only useful if you have a mission, vision, and values, if you have a capital-G Goal for where you want to be headed. The strategy, I think of as the how. How are you actually going to move toward the things you believe in or the things that you want to achieve? But in order to create and then implement a or several strategies, you need to know where you want to go.

Pete: Right. So if I play that back, in order to have an effective strategy, we need to be clear on some version of this question: "What's the change we're trying to make? What does success look like? What problem are we trying to solve?" There has got to be some sort of end state that we've defined, that I guess is different to the current state. And the strategy is the part that gets us from here to there.

Jen: Yes. And I think strategy is the answer to the question, "And how are you going to do that?"

Pete: Right, right, right.

Jen: And to your point, we can theorize and think and pontificate and ponder and design, but where the rubber meets the road is that implementation and activation. So the strategy is great as a theory, but it's only effective as an action.

Pete: I totally agree with everything you've said. Does this play out for you in your world and your industry, with the people you're working with right now? Is the same thing true? They can articulate a strategy for you in terms of their career, but it could fall down with implementation and activation?

Jen: Well, I would say more often than not, when I'm first talking to someone about their career, they have no career strategy. They have a very clear vision for what they want. I mean, artists, generally speaking, have a pretty clear vision for what they want.

Pete: "I'm taking a bow on Broadway. I can see it. I can visualize it. That's the goal. That's what success looks like." Yeah.

Jen: Yeah. And this is not a scientifically sound number, I haven't put this through a rigorous study, but I'm going to say 90% of the time, the missing piece of the puzzle is strategy. Now, much of the time, they assume the missing piece of the puzzle is talent, in some way, or like there's something wrong with them, or something's just not clicking. Most of the time, the overwhelming majority of the time, the missing link is strategy.

Pete: Yeah. This is so helpful, and so fascinating. Because I think about this and look at this through the lens of large businesses. And it's different but similar to what you're describing, which is an individual. So I'm tickled by the differences in where they might fall down, and how that might relate. So in your example, it's the absence of a strategy is actually (whatever percentage we want to include) the reason these things don't get achieved. I'd say in business, it's not actually the absence of a strategy. It's probably more the relevance of the strategy, or the application of the strategy, or the resonance. Like, I don't know, if someone's writing a strategy for a large retailer, are we writing it as the people in the corporate head office? Yes. And are we considering what it's like to actually work in that retail store? Because if not, the strategy for them is not goin to mean anything and help them get to where we want them to go. So for me, I notice less that they don't have one. But it's almost that they don't have one, because it's written for a different audience. Like, I feel like the question (again) here of, "Who's it for," is really important. Which we talk about, I feel like, almost every episode.

Jen: Well, Pete, this is reminding me of my STAR l MAP framework. Which you know I love, and I will include a link to the STAR l MAP episode in the Box O' Goodies. But one of the key components of the STAR l MAP, which is both a goal setting framework and a strategic planning framework, is the R: Realistic? And if you cannot realistically implement all of the actions that you have determined are necessary in order to move toward the goal, you have to go back and figure out what is realistic. Because what I'm hearing from you is there may be a goal, and they've written a strategy that they're going to assign to a department or team, and it's not realistic that that is the way that team is going to be able to work or these actions are not realistic for this particular department to take. So in that case, I would say, "Oops. We've got to go back and figure out where the unrealistic thinking started to happen."

Pete: Yeah. It also makes me think that there's almost Strategy with a capital "S", and then there's lowercase "S" strategies along the way.

Jen: Yeah.

Pete: You know? Like there's a strategy for this very specific focus area, but there might be a broader strategy in terms of the thing we're trying to do. Like in your example, you might have a career Strategy for being an artist that works with Jen. But you might have a lowercase "S" strategy for how you're thinking about reaching out or auditioning, and that would feed the broader Strategy.

Jen: Yes. And sometimes, there are multiple strategies available to you, to achieve the same aim. And part of making decisions about which strategies to implement are to rely on your guardrails, missionvisionvalues.

Pete: Right. And then, what about the measurability of all of this? I imagine you come across this in your individual clients. Like, it might be one thing for me to go...again, I keep using this example for some reason, of like, "I want to be taking the bow on Broadway. And you go, "Cool. Let's develop a strategy for how you want to get from here to there." Saying something like, "Well, I'm going to focus on collaboration," might be something that people say. And this is...I'm trying to take this out of the corporate context, but you can clearly see in here, I've seen this in the corporate context. Right? "Part of our strategy is focusing on collaborating more effectively." It's like, "Okay. What does that mean? How do we measure that? Who's collaborating with whom? Like, what? Can you get more specific about that?" So, how do you think about coaching people for that part?

Jen: Pete, that's the M in the STAR l MAP.

Pete: I know, I know. I'm trying to tee you up.

Jen: Well, I think it is critical that you, the person, or you, the group of people, know ahead of time how you are going to measure your progress and determine what is and what is not working, so that you can adjust your strategy as necessary. So, well, I should just back up and say, when I'm working with people and they say, "My goal is to take the last bow on Broadway," I say, "That is not something we're going to use as a goal, because that's out of your control."

Pete: Right. Great point.

Jen: "That would be a wonderful thing to aim for. But what is in your control? Oh, introducing yourself to the people who work on that show or preparing the material in a way that is world-class, or whatever you want to do. But it's got to be within your control. And then, how are we going to actually measure this?" And what I have found is that there are (I don't really like this expression, but I'm going to use it) a million different ways to skin a cat.

Pete: Yeah. Don't think about that expression too much, everybody.

Jen: I know, don't think about it. But for some people, they require a very robust measurement system, because that system will allow them to have the accountability they need. And for some people, a very light touch, like, "Oh, hit that milestone. Hit that milestone. We're in the right direction," is all they need. So, part of this is know thyself or know thy group.

Pete: I don't know if this is an Australian expression, but "horses for courses" is another expression that might be better than "skin a cat". Have you heard of this?

Jen: I remember you saying that, once upon a time. I still don't fully understand what it means.

Pete: Well, depending on the course you have to get around, you use a different horse. One horse might be a great show jumper, and one horse might be comfortable swimming.

Jen: Oh, the course is like...got it. That's like the actual race they're running.

Pete: Right. Pick the tool for the job at hand, I guess is another way of describing it. Horses for courses. People say that in Australia, all the time. "Oh, you know, horses for courses." It's like depends on the context.

Jen: Pick the tool for the job at hand. And make sure that you're also picking the tool for the hand that's going to hold the tool.

Pete: Wait. Explain that. What do you mean?

Jen: Like, for example, I have some people who like to do their work in an analog fashion and some people who like to digitize everything. If I told the analog folks that they had to work with computerized tools, that wouldn't work for them, and vice versa. So, I'm not sure that's the perfect example of what I'm talking about. But you want to make sure the strategy fits the person or people who are going to be using it.

Pete: Yes. So this is to my example earlier of like the retailer, the person working in a retail store, that is now supposedly covered by this strategy that a bunch of executives came up with in a boardroom one time. How do you think about helping it be relevant to that person? And / or a question on my mind is: Who, in a perfect world, sets the strategy?

Jen: That's a good question. Well, it's going to be everyone's least favorite answer...it depends. I'll just go back to what I'm working on right now. I'm working one-on-one with these clients. I'm talking them through potential strategies they could use to achieve their career aims. And so, when they're encountering roadblocks or new information comes in, we work together to set the strategy. But my goal is that when this program is done, they've had enough reps of encountering a challenge, making an adjustment, thinking strategically, implementing their strategy that they can do this without me.

Pete: Yeah.

Jen: So like in that trajectory, we're co-setting the strategy. And then, eventually, they're setting the strategy.

Pete: I love it. Co-design. I think that's right. I mean, I'll keep using this example in the context of a group of executives writing a strategy for a retail organization. I mean, someone has to write the strategy, and it usually comes down to the executive teams who understand the business, the problem, the macro landscape, the challenges, where the business is heading, all those sorts of things. But it should hopefully be done in an effective way, in a way that's co-designed with the people that matter, the people that are in the retail store, the people that understand what the customers are saying. If we can co-design it upfront, then we can hopefully hand off the execution of the strategy. Because as the executive team, you can't be in every retail store at every single location, making sure people are doing what we hope they're doing. So, there has to be some ownership.

Jen: Right. This reminds me of Brené Brown's concept of paint done, where we agree on what done looks like and then, it is up to you, the person who's responsible for the doing, to design how it's going to get done.

Pete: Yeah. Which echoes a couple of my favorite tools when thinking about strategy, which are pre-mortem and pre-parade. And so, we've talked about these before. I think we've got separate episodes on them. I'll put a link in the Box O' Goodies. But the pre-mortem is a strategic thinking tool, which essentially says, "If this doesn't go to plan, what would have happened and how could we avoid it?" So in order to get clear on if this doesn't go to plan, we need to know, "What does success actually look like? What are we trying to do?" I mean, we need to know Brené's paint done, so that we know if it didn't go to plan. And then, we can start to mitigate that upfront, to increase the likelihood of us getting to done, i.e. to increase the likelihood of our strategy being effective. The same is true with the pre-parade. It's just the inverse. "If this goes beautifully, if this is a success, what would have happened?" So this requires us to be clear in what we're actually trying to do, to then get clear on what a good strategy would look like, so that we can then own it and move it forward, hopefully, upfront.

Jen: I use both of these tools all the time. And I love them. And one of the scenarios where I find it incredibly useful to do this is when someone is naming a goal that is out of their control. This is one of the ways to help them find the things that are in their control. So like you had mentioned, "To take the final bow in a Broadway show." So like, if we pre-mortem that and go, "Okay, well, let's say you never take the final bow in the Broadway show. What are some of the things that might've contributed to that?" "Well, I never auditioned." "Oh, okay." "Or my audition didn't go well, because I wasn't memorized or I never introduced myself to the writer." You go, "Okay. So those are things that you can do to bring this thing that feels so out of your control into steps you can actually take that are in your control, to move yourself closer and closer to your aims."

Pete: I feel like it's such a good reminder of the goal before the strategy needs to be within our control. Otherwise our strategy, it's not hanging onto anything that's real. It's hanging onto hope. And who was it that famously said, "Hope is not a strategy?"

Jen: Well, I don't know who said it. But they were right.

Pete: Right.

Jen: Hope is a value.

Pete: Well, this is, I mean, sort of one of my attempts at going back to first principles. And like I said, I've spent so much time and read so many books and worked with so many clients intellectualizing strategy, that I felt like I needed to take a step back to go, "What are we even talking about here?"

Jen: Right.

Pete: And I knew you would help me. So I'm just looking down at my notes and I have in big capital letters, "HORSES FOR COURSES."

Jen: Yeah. I think at the end of the day, Pete, strategy is simply the answer to the question, "And how are you going to do that?"

Pete: And that is The Long and The Short Of It.