Issue #1, August 2023

Welcome to the First Issue

This is the first issue of my relaunched newsletter. After a long break, technology and distribution methods have changed a great deal and I'm establishing this monthly newsletter in light of those changes.

The situation of the post-COVID world demonstrates a great fact of life: there are always new realities to adapt to, navigate and create in our businesses, organisations, societies and lives. Charting your course through those realities requires consistent reflection and provocation to stimulate your thinking and action.

So this newsletter is a return for me to monthly ruminations and recommendations for leaders, innovators and wannabes in every kind of environment.

If you have questions you'd like me to respond to or suggestions for issues of concern, feel free to send me a message. Of course, comments of an agreeable nature are always welcome.

So Much Strategy Is Risible

What is it about strategy that invokes images - smells, even - of huddled conferences, endless PowerPoints, 4-box matrices (particularly something branded McKinsey or BCG), lots of coffee and maybe some bad donuts, pointless SWOTs and an executive that puts out a glossy brochure 5 months later to which no-one ever pays attention?

I know I'm provoked whenever governments and big corporations put out their new "Strategic Plan", an exercise in extreme futility and frustration for everyone on the ground meant to deliver on the plan and for audiences who note the plan is outdated by the publication date.

These approaches to Strategy never float my boat, and I know as a consultant that it doesn't accomplish much of anything for clients.

Strategy, as classically defined, and I do mean "The Classics", is from the Greek stratagos and denotes the General (one of the strategoi) who decides how the army (stratos) is led or spread out (agos). Think more of a director than a micro-manager, as the General issues directives to be conveyed, ascertains movement and impact, terrain, tactics and ability of enemy forces and adjusts strategy in the demands of battle. He was not standing over each soldier taking a hold of his sword and striking down the enemy. He relied on the captains and other leaders to adjust to local situation according to the overall strategy.

Unfortunately the "Strategic Plan" (an oxymoron if ever you heard one) almost always heads immediately towards micro-management. If we budget in excruciating detail, determine every priority 2-3 years in advance, dictate how each department or team should respond on a weekly and even daily basis, etc. etc. then we are "doing strategy". But you're not, are you? You're engaging in mystic crystal-ball gazing at every desk and computer and hospital bed and tooling and technological level which leaves you blind to the new realities all around you.

That's why we have this litany of companies and industries decimated globally during and post-pandemic:

• Building and Construction companies almost daily
• Chains like Bed, Bath & Beyond closing its hundreds of stores
• Revlon entering bankruptcy
• World-class Restaurants closing by the scores
• Airlines making significant losses or failing miserably, for example the massive difficulties of Garuda Airlines.

Then there are the impacts on incredibly overworked sectors like healthcare and hospitals globally.

Three years ago, barely anyone was talking about hybrid work, but it's one of the new realities we all face, manage or enjoy.

What unrelated company would have anticipated in September of 2022 that everyone would be talking about AND USING ChatGPT and AI-writing and art as every day tools just a few months later?

You can see the pillars erected by the "Master Strategists" falling like dominoes.

The solution, however, is not to throw strategy out the window.

Despite the efforts of fabled business thinkers like Drucker, strategy needs to be redefined for most executives and organisations. Strategy is the framework around which you make your decisions on an annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily basis. It is that framework that shapes the decisions and actions of your people in the heat of the moment.

Therefore, what you need is a strategy approach at the leadership level that adapts to the moment, navigating towards end goals, marshalling resources and making decisions that adjust to the environment and consequences of your own actions within that environment. You need strategy that works for you, not for which you work.

Developing strategy should be creative and invigorating, not a shut-in process poring endlessly over matrices in that smelly, horrible conference.

Frankly, I'd rather have fun working productive strategy and so do my clients.

LEADING FROM THE FRONT LINES

A client recently related to me the handling of a major issue with longstanding contractors. They're a good company who had almost literally dropped the ball, and his own people had "participated".

The contractors came to his office and proceeded to show him their newly revised processes, procedures and standards by which they assured him these issues wouldn't happen again. One of the leaders went to the extent of blaming sub-contractors for the issues.

He slapped their document down on the desk and said, "I don't really care about this. This isn't what I want. We both know it won't change anything. I want you to own up."

Sheepishly they began to admit with a mea culpa. They protested that "most companies" would want all the documentation, etc.

He responded, "Yes, most would. But I'm not most and we have a good, longstanding relationship. I want to know that you admit the errors and are determined it won't happen again. You're a good company and I don't want to lose you."

They did and they worked out with him (and his people in their turn) how to avoid the issues in the future.

Working with a contractor or business partner who has provided good service and/or product until now, honestly admitting mistakes and navigating together towards new realities is worth a million pro forma documents and policies.

BECAUSE I'M SO SMART, CLEARLY (a story exhibiting my natural brilliance)

A friend who owns and runs a local cafe was talking with me and my wife, Mary, about the rising price of eggs. She and her husband have three children and she was telling him about egg prices in the context of the family.

"Stephen, eggs are so expensive! It's crazy!"

"I know," he said, "I fertilised three of them!"

The ladies and I laughed uproariously.

I then observed, "I can't believe it! So, why did he think he was fertilising chicken eggs?!"

Their jaws dropped. "Peter! 3 children!??"

Inquire with me for consulting, coaching or speaking services if you want to improve your condition.