We need a coach...
I had a great conversation with one of our Pentagon clients a few weeks ago, and it’s been replaying in my head ever since. We were talking about the challenges DoD leaders face when translating future-looking concepts and high-level policy directives into concrete plans and actions. With the competitive environment changing rapidly and technology developing at an ever-increasing pace, it’s hard for leaders to even know where to start.
“It’s like we need a coach,” he said, “to help us bridge the gap between the high-level policy and the people, process, and technology choices we have to make every day.” This statement didn’t register as particularly profound when he said it (my coffee hadn’t kicked in yet), but as I reflected on the conversation later that day, I realized it was pure gold.
Leading in government is incredibly hard. You must follow policy guidance that is, in many cases, almost impossibly broad. Technology clearly holds immense promise, but savvy leaders know that, despite the promises of many technology vendors, it’s going to take a lot more than installing software to drive meaningful change in a massively complex and bureaucratic organization.
Michael Jordan said, “a coach is someone who sees beyond your limits and guides you to greatness.” Greatness in government can mean a lot of things: successfully migrating legacy IT to the cloud, implementing a predictive analytics program to improve maintenance outcomes, or delivering a new project on time and on budget. Limits are everywhere—limited budget, limited bandwidth, limited openness to change.
Coaches help leaders transcend those limits and achieve outcomes that matter by breaking big, daunting tasks into small, manageable ones and help anticipate and overcome roadblocks. Coaches don’t do the thing; they help the players do the thing.
In the past couple of weeks, this has started to become a mantra for our team at LMI. We want to be the best coaches for our clients. Sometimes we help to write policy and sometimes we partner with technology vendors to implement solutions. But LMI shines when we coach our customers through the gap between high-level guidance and tactical outcomes - between policy and technology.
As perhaps the best (fictional) coach of the new millennium, Ted Lasso, put it: “…takin’ on a challenge is a lot like ridin’ a horse. If you’re comfortable while you’re doin’ it, you’re probably doin’ it wrong.”
A great coach can’t make change easy or comfortable, but they can make it possible. Let us know if you want to talk about how LMI can help coach your team to greatness.