Cast in Ice

Its been an amazing response to the opening edition of the newsletter, "Boss, who never was". A huge thanks to everyone who read, shared and provided inputs on that.

For second edition, I would like to speak about ICE and about casting things in Ice. While I used to work in the Nordics a decade back, I got a chance to visit Rovaniemi in Finland - a sweet little town at the Arctic Circle and home of Santa Claus. Amongst other things, one of the must visit places in Rovaniemi is the SnowHotel.

The Hotel opened for the first time in 2008. Inside the Arctic SnowHotel you can find approximately 30 hotel rooms, Ice chapel, Ice Restaurant and Ice Bar - all cast in ice. In the below pic, you can see my daughter and her friend during that trip in 2013, waiting for their meals at the Ice Restaurant.

The amazing thing about the hotel was that the same is melted down every year after some period and rebuilt afresh every year, with new sculptors.

Contrast this with the sculptors / inscriptions across the world which are cast in stone. They are symbolic of a rule that can't be broken. (Reminds me of the bollywood movie Mohabbatein in which lead actor Amitabh Bachhan as a college principle keep talking about Parampara, Pratishtha, Anushahan). (Translation in English: "Tradition, Respect, Discipline"). Once casted centuries ago, the 'cast in stone' still remains and their are communities / tribes / groups which still live by some of those words. So much so, that the term 'cast in stone' is now being used as a synonym to a word / a promise / a contract which will hold the test of time.

Now, if you are wondering - where am I going with this and what's the business mantra for the fortnight.......we are almost there.

The Principle of 'Cast in Ice' Decision Making Model comes from one of my management gurus. Whenever we used to do brainstorming on 'future direction' of the business, and it used to reach an impasse with different stakeholders in the meeting, this manager lists down a way forward and close it with saying - "This is cast in ice". This was a big departure for me, as I have in past generally heard of "Great. We have taken a decision now. Let it be cast in stone" and make everyone understand this. The "cast in ice" essentially means that the principle laid out is the principle for now but not for eternity. While in the beginning, I was sceptical about whether it will really work ? What if people keep coming with changes? However, over time I have realised that this is a great mantra for startups or business units in high growth phase or businesses in a highly volatile sectors or for any sector / section / unit where remaining agile is one of the biggest needs.

Let's now understand the basic tenets of how does "Cast in Ice" model works.

Improves Agility and Speed to market - Imagine that a team is planning to roll out their product into a new country and the team is debating market entry strategy from channel perspective. There might be a retail business team, which wants to open physical own brand stores to keep margins high and build brand. There could be distribution team, pushing for appointing a distributor in that territory to keep costs low. There could be a third team proposing only online play talking about customer's buying behavior and within that there can be a debate around marketplace vs brand store. In such a scenario, debate can keep on going for weeks and months as each of these strategies have their own plus and minus. In such a scenario, the "cast in ice" approach will help the team leader to make a decision. Eg. in this case, they may start with the easy to start route of Online, without really closing the doors on other channels. Meanwhile, if either the retail team can come up with a great location and good rentals 5 months down the line; the strategy can be modified and the team doesn't feel hassled about the strategy and focus change. Contrast this with alternate scenario, where once the leadership decide that we will go only online in this territory - there is no going back even when there are good profitable ways of starting other channels. Many organizations also call this Agile but than 'agile ways of working' is a term that has got quite limited to IT industry.

Breaks down the hierarchy - Another feature or characteristic of "Cast in Ice" decision making model is the firm belief that a good idea can come from anyone and at any point of time. Therefore even if a decision has been taken, a good leader keeps the eyes and doors open to listen to ideas from any stakeholder and not just hear them, but truly listen to the ideas and when required - the ice sculpture strategy is melted to reshape / tweak the strategy.

Gives leader time to think for future - A classic issue that in most organization's mid to senior level managers struggle with is that their 95% time goes in fire fighting, crisis management and operations and they are not able to devote time towards future building. The challenge of this vicious cycle, which only a very few are able to move out of, is that if one doesn't invest in future planning, they won't be ready for future thereby they will keep on struggling with day to day operational issue even in future. The 'Cast in Ice' approach to decision making overcomes the frictions within team as each functional lead sees that there is always opportunity to bring forth their ideas. Lesser frictions reduces the need of leader to spend time on such issues and can rather spend that time on planning future readiness of the business.

Boosts creativity - Finally, going back to the Ice Hotel from Finland, the "Cast in ice" approach to decision making can help nurture creativity, by giving opportunity to different sculptors (or professionals / team members) to come back on same pedestal, again and again and again, and freely contribute to ideation - sometimes for winning and at other times, just for the passion towards creativity.

That's it for this time. Above four are the benefits that I have seen with the approach and as the saying goes, "They are not cast in stone, they are cast in ice". Do share your feedback, inputs, insights about what's your mantra on Decision Making principles. Practice the "Cast in Ice" principle and share if it is working for you.

Watch out for the very special third edition of your fortnightly source of unheard wisdom from work life - "Boss, who never was" 15 days from now. Third edition would focus on my own learnings from 1000s of interviews that I have taken over the years for different roles.