How Sparring Strengthens Strategic Sourcing and Procurement

"Younger companies typically have strong debate cultures, but some companies get so big that debate and dissent become difficult... Social science suggests that rigorous debate leads to better decisions, so when you are evaluating initiatives, you should include everyone who has a stake in the outcome in the debate." — Tim Koller

I’ve been a martial artist for a nearly five decades, studying and teaching disparate systems like judo, boxing, wrestling, fencing, kobudo, arnis, and karate. While these styles span diverse countries and cultures, and practitioners engage in them for a variety of different objectives, they all have one thing in common: Every martial artist I know loves sparring… and we all hate fighting.

To the uninitiated these two things—sparring and fighting—look a lot an awful lot alike. An outside observer could expect to witness two or more people trying to punch or kick each other, throw each other onto the ground with impetus, apply pins, chokes, or armbars, stab, smash, or slash each other with various implements, or perform a variety of other violent-looking techniques. But, upon closer examination one would discover that no matter how fast and furious the action appears to be, sparring is about challenging and learning from each other. It is never about causing harm.

Sparring looks violent, yet it is about challenging and learning from each other. It is never about causing harm.

You see, sparring begins with some sort of mutual acknowledgment, say a respectful bow for eastern styles or touching of gloves for western ones, and ends with a smile, a hug, and oftentimes an invitation to go out for a meal or a drink afterward. Every practitioner’s goal is to pressure test what they think they know, discover something valuable, and walk away more skilled and experienced than they were when they started. It’s intense but worthwhile, and we feel energized and enlightened afterward.

Fighting, on the other hand, typically begins with glaring, staring, or ambush, and often ends with hospitalization, incarceration, and legal fees. The goal may be social dominance, or something darker and more predatory, but it is always nefarious and should be avoided. As Sun Tzu sagely wrote more than 1,500 years ago, “...to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence. Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”

Conversely, when asked about ways to excel in martial arts Bruce Lee advised, "Turn your sparring into play—but always play seriously." To prevent injury and build confidence when sparring, most martial artists’ introduction is via slow-motion tandem drills or pre-defined sequences performed with one or more other practitioners. Minor bumps and bruises are common with intense physical endeavors yet we never want to injure our training partners, even accidentally, so safeguards are put in place to inculcate good habits and practices.

Sparring requires absolute confidence that everyone will act in good faith. The higher our skill and ability to trust each other, the faster and harder we can safely go, and the more we are able to learn from the experience.

As discipline and skill mature, we are able to move into free sparring, the unscripted application of techniques at something approximating full speed if not full power. This requires absolute confidence that everyone involved will not only act in good faith, but also have the proficiency to carry out their beneficial intent. In fact, the higher our skill level and ability to trust each other, the faster and harder we can safely go, and the more we are able to learn and grow from the experience.

Sparring looks a lot like fighting, but it is very much not fighting. Done right, it is training at its highest level. Even if you’re not a martial artist it should be self-evident that fighting is something we should all strive to avoid, but it may not be as obvious that sparring is something we should all seek to embrace. The idea of pressure testing what we think we know in order to learn, grow, and make better decisions is as valuable in business as it is in martial arts.

Robust debate and healthy disagreement are beneficial. Done right this dynamic creates a competitive advantage for any organization, one that differentiates it from enterprises that suffer from groupthink. You see, as trusted advisors our job is to help assure that well-intentioned people in our sphere of influence are less likely to make suboptimal decisions by valuing harmony or coherence over critical thought. We don’t simply carry out orders, we confer, consult, contend, and help shape the mission before implementing it to assure optimal results. And, we do so with unwavering diplomacy and tact.

The idea of pressure testing what we think we know in order to learn, grow, and make better decisions is as valuable in business as it is in martial arts.

From a strategic sourcing and procurement perspective, this conversation often begins with make/buy determinations, kindly sparring with our business partners to determine the best way to solve their unmet business needs. Just because an initiative owner has budget for a project does not necessarily mean that they will always craft the best strategy for how to spend it on their own, or that the use of suppliers is the best way to create value in their unique situation. This is where we can and should help.

Healthy debate and disagreement can take a little longer at times, but in most instances it is far better to make informed decisions than expeditious ones, hence this process will actually be more productive over the long run. In fact, by leveraging diverse perspectives we make better decisions collectively than we are likely to do alone as long as we are conscientiously sparring, not fighting.

No matter what words we use in the debate, everyone should walk away from the conversation feeling energized and enlightened, never angry or frustrated. After all, we're all on the same team, and all trying to solve the same problem, we just look at things a little differently depending on our background, brain chemistry, education, experience, and what organization we're from. No matter who ultimately decides, it is important to embrace this diversity of perspective and assure that everyone is included in the conversation.

No matter what words we use in the debate, everyone should walk away from the conversation feeling energized and enlightened, never angry or frustrated.

For example, for each procurement project, we need to clearly articulate what success looks like so that we will know what we're aiming for. That answer is likely to change depending on who we ask, as the initiative owner, the law department, third party risk management, information security, the global privacy office, finance, and other key stakeholders derive their answer through a different lens.

Are we looking for cost savings or avoidance, speed to market, access to capabilities, value creation, risk remediation, revenue enhancement, regulatory compliance, or something completely different? Typically, more than one thing is required, so we must gain consensus or compromise amongst stakeholders in order to figure out the order of importance and tradeoffs amongst competing priorities.

Armed with this information we can build a strategic procurement plan and bid list to best achieve our objectives considering things like competitive bid versus directed buy, ability to leverage diverse suppliers, governance needs, critical statement of work elements, pricing structure, optimal evaluation process, risk, issue, and opportunity management, negotiation strategy and fallback positions, etc.

Diplomatically challenging assumptions can lead to more creative problem solving, continuous improvement, and better outcomes from all aspects of our work.

Procurement professionals not only spar with our business partners and external stakeholders, oftentimes we can and should spar amongst ourselves too. Diplomatically challenging assumptions can lead to more creative problem solving, continuous improvement, and better outcomes from all aspects of our work. While our profession requires both hard skills and soft skills, and the ability to diplomatically spar with our colleagues can be a key differentiator of career success.

Here are a few resources that can help:

1. How to Handle Difficult Conversations at Work (Rebecca Knight, Harvard Business Review): https://hbr.org/2015/01/how-to-handle-difficult-conversations-at-work
2. How to Disagree without being Disagreeable (Anthony J. Yeung, Mind Café): https://medium.com/mind-cafe/how-to-disagree-without-being-disagreeable-c71244b273f8
3. Thinking About Diversity of Thought (Susan Woods, Cornell University): https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/74781

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