Finding fresh eyes in the fog.

The world is full of organisations which are struggling to find the best way forward.

Most have incredible assets, talented and motivated people, big ambitions and a track record of success. But many are suffering from a strange form of stasis – a foggy mixture of indecision, anxiety about the roads not travelled, hyper-alertness without clarity of understanding.

The result is a lack of clarity on some basic questions. What are we trying to achieve? What’s our story? What are the most important things we need to get done?

Often, the answers to these questions come as lists, or war stories, or with a disqualifying ‘and’ or ‘but’.

Almost always, they come with a sigh.

Maybe this is the inevitable result of a world of infinite options and distractions. Waves of disruption and transformation are personally exhausting. Every moment comes with so much information that every incoming notification breaks your flow of thought.

The more we can close this clarity gap, the more energy we can put into creating brilliant things, giving our colleagues a brilliant day at work, and going home every day with a smile on our faces.

The sources of the ‘fog’ are clearly different in every organisation, and clearing it probably requires some digging to find the roots. The stories of how they emerge are fascinating, and well worth thinking about (another time).

However, in an age that demands quick solutions, here is a set of things that have worked for me to find new eyes in the fog. Maybe they will work for you too.

1.    Get hindsight in advance

‘If I had known then what I know, the answer would be clear’.

Well, yes, quite. But assuming we are ruling out time travel, how can you try to know now what you might know for sure in the future?

I strongly believe that a well thought-through, quantified hypothesis is more likely to be right than wrong. What are the fundamentals on which your organisation is based, and how do you currently measure them? What is the single biggest thing that you think is changing about those fundamentals that is improving or undermining them, something you see happening already that you are pretty certain is going to become more extreme?

Now, can you quantify that change? If you stretch it out for 3-5 years, what kind of impact will that have on the organisation you are in? What’s the hypothesis?

Don’t worry if you feel out on a limb, or don’t quite have the data you’d like. Just how much opportunity is there in this thing…or how much trouble will you be in?

Once you’ve absorbed this, you’ll be standing in one of the most likely versions of the future, looking back at yourself. Now that you’re there, what do you think of all the things you were doing? Maybe some of them seem more important now.

Even better, maybe some of them seem like a bit of a waste of time now. You can put a stop to them…which will be a huge relief to everyone.

2.    Be born again

There is a famous insight from the world of behavioural economics called the sunk cost fallacy. On a personal level it will be familiar to anyone who has ever doubled down on a poker hand with nothing useful in it, or found themselves defending a ragged piece of work simply because they can’t bear to cover the same ground again.

However, the fact is that the natural tendency of something clear and simple is for it to become more complex and diffuse over time. Sometimes because the people change; sometimes because you hit a problem and go chasing after something new; most often because you have some unexpected success and suddenly that becomes the plan.

So, one of the best ways to get clarity is to go back to the beginning of the story.

It absolutely doesn’t have to mean resisting progress, or abandoning innovation. But it does mean going back to the insights, the motivations and the behaviours that got you started and the things that shaped where you are now.

All the really great organisations do this from time to time – they re-immerse in their heritage and where they started. It’s one of the reasons why start up founders have such an enduring value. A great question for this: ‘if we’d had the same insights and motivations and behaviours in the current context, would we be doing what we’re doing now.’

Again, it’s extremely likely that some of the things you are doing now feel spectacular, and some a little less so. What’s more, acting on this might meet less inertia – because those creation myths and moments are already buried somewhere deep in the organisation’s DNA.

3.    Reconcile conflicting perspectives

Some organisations really don’t know where to go next, and that’s fine and a good thing to recognise. But in most cases, they already know, but that knowledge is shared unevenly and partially between multiple different people.

It’s quite likely that your product and service experts broadly know what needs to be done to make the product better. Your finance and commercial leads will probably know where the money is leaking, and what needs to be done about it. The people facing your customers in the market probably know what they want, and your strategy and insight leaders probably have a good sense of how that’s going to change.

So why is it so difficult?

Well, of course there’s a pretty minimal chance that all these perspectives are perfectly aligned, or don’t require trade-offs. Often people don’t have the time or resources to find the space to resolve them, or leadership practices or structures don’t allow it. But I think quite a lot of the time it’s simply because most people don’t particularly like conflict.

Organisations spend so much time trying to operate fluently that conflict is not a popular force. But the truth is that conflict is either going to happen in the open, or in hidden corners. If it happens in the open, it can be understood, and choices can be made. This clears the headspace, and whilst not everyone gets what they want, you’ll have more clarity.

There are some very mature organisations that are good at doing this themselves. But there’s no harm in getting an outside perspective – someone who will listen to everyone, and present what they have learnt back to you as choices. The chances are that you are wrestling with challenges to which you already have the answers.

4.    Stop looking for a while

There is an incredible relentlessness about trying to solve a strategic challenge. You can find yourself looking for evidence and enlightenment everywhere. Every tiny thing becomes a sign of the problem or a clue to the solution. Unless that’s just me. It can be bloody exhausting.

One of the results of this is that your thinking can become so convoluted, your language in describing it so specific, your personal vested interest in certain parts of the solution so emotional, that the question itself stops making any sense whatsoever.

Time to take a break from it.

My personal prescription for this is a long swim, some loud music, and a deep sleep (ideally for a couple of days in a row.) I know people who like to go away and make something with their hands; and others who like to do two days of pure admin. What’s rarer is doing this together as a team – having a lunch with no work conversation, or a trip to a gallery – but I’ve never known anyone who’s done it regret it.

If this is all a bit too time inefficient for you, or you just can’t do it, another alternative is to stop trying to solve it, and have a go for a while at just describing it. Ideally to someone who has little or no idea what you are talking about.

You’ll have to massively simplify, abandon your language and stop fighting for your favourite solutions. The chances are the question you are describing will be much simpler and much easier to solve, even though in theory it’s the same thing. New questions mean new eyes – and hopefully less fog.