When Institutionalized Strategies and Analysis Miss Objectives = Disasters in the Making

Fact 1: Oceans of data with continuous growth is exponentially making sound insights difficult for organizations [of all sizes] to deliver correct decision-making from both their own internal data, and disparate wide ranging data sources, with recent media examples pointing to incorrect ‘strategic' decisions derived by incorrect presentations. There are simply alarming spurious correlations from which incorrect decisions are made and continue to prevail.

Fact 2: Making sense of multiple data to support strategies is faltering especially in long-standing incubated groups that are unable to see the entire picture, and writing-off or changing outliers when the outliers are opportunities,

Fact 3: New skills and continuous skills should already be part of strategic foundations, and life for anyone in strategy, delivering strategy or supplying recommendations based on data findings. Most concerning is the growth in people believing their 2-prong variable findings on masses of data as being 'the decision points' for investments, marketing, customer values, and growth plans as correct measurement. It is very concerning to see 'old-guard-protective' modelling persistence when we have more variable inputs and layers of measurements present [and available to use] than ever before in human history.

The 2-prong basis for decision-making is no longer applicable and consistently fails (eg, average ARPU will not tell you anything about the underlying top end customer intentions to move on . And, any plan to deliver a service +6 months and +1 year based on minor variable models will fail six month through to years from today, again with sufficient case-evidence available.

What to do: 'Sensemaking' needs your attention...immediately. It's OK if you have never heard of 'Sensemaking.' By a simple definition, Sensemaking is "the process through which people work to understand issues or events that are novel, ambiguous, confusing, or in some other way violate expectations." (Source: Academy of Management 'Sensemaking in Orgs; 2014).

Accepting and Embracing Sensemaking: Picture This: A stranger walks into your org and without knowing anything about your strategy, data, analysis, hypothesis and business, tells you the reason you are loosing customers is directly due to the way your org approaches business is incorrect. and reports that it has been for years in sizing, predicting and reviewing customers, markets and competitors and wasting time in numerous PowerPoint iterations.

Would you consider her/him a lunatic, or will you listen? How would you react? Would the person differ if it is your ‘key’ customer or your competitors’ key customer? Would you differ in accepting the latter question? And what would you immediately do?

9 Considerations

1. Seek Sensemaking Real Problem-Solving Energized People:

HBR article quote "Sensemaking is the artful skill 'without a preset hypothesis' that provides insights" . Sensemakers come from all walks of Life including anthropologists, non-traditional observer(s), or customer(s) that turn 'dogmatic old guard’ traits and poor presentations and findings on their head.

Fact: What worked ten, five, or even six months is out of touch with today's disruptive realities, especially when considering recent disruptors (Uber; Air B&B; MOD Pizza; Domino’s NZ; Macy’s; Tesla; and Atlassian) that slapped traditional thinking and data only angles. Sensemaking questions the questions. and everything you see.

2. Ask Different Questions with New Perspectives: a) In the present, and into the next Quarter - not the next 6 / 18 months - am I asking the right question(s)?; b) Will these questions attain the true cause(s) and effect(s) to make right decisions?; c) Are we asking people with the right skills and mindset to present fact-based responses?; d) Am I and everybody around me realistically thinking and feeling like my customer(s); e) Do I know my customer(s)?; f) What is my business and customers at different points in Life?; g) Is everything treated with the same single [market] view?; and h) What is/are my market(s)?. Fact: every customer is as unique as a snowflake. Period.

3. Know the providers of findings – Take a cold look at who and what they are providing. Ask are they skilled with updated skills or am I just receiving the same old repetitive deliverable(s) - And, not someone else’s work that is presented as theirs!

Ask: Are they are objectively driven, show initiative and deliver dive deep analysis, provide new ways of thinking, and have the energy and willingness to enter unbroken | untested grounds. If anyone else catches your eye that present 'things' differently vs. the same monthly mechanical format, pay acute attention to these sensemakers! they hold massive value.

4. Listen to All people whatever title they have: Invite true dialogue, and encourage exploration. Are people allowed to ask open questions?... maybe they will provide the golden niche and outlier views they constantly want you to look at that sole your problems. And, disregard who they report to or title...invite them in, read their email / paper and hear them.

5. Get rid of ingrained traits that limit currency and real-time creativity. Cast questions to wider audiences that covers more than the immediate circle of friends: A response of ‘take it offline’ when a question was invited, should be encouraged to “Let’s hear it now rather that wasting offline energy”.

6. Ask for field video #vlog findings; A couple of random and raw customer filmed testimonials from a range of field visits will provide new and valuable insights, much more value than a two-line executive summary

7. Know Cause and Effect as Strategy without clear objectives and correct measurement fails: One of the great learnings available from Google Digital Analytics [from various points] is firstly to have an Objective before a Strategy and if that objective is per se purely ‘market growth’, you need to define and segment market(s) within the market(s). Rolling up a market as an all-inclusive set is ‘the’ disaster recipe.

8. Embrace new data-driven predictive softwares and technologically driven people. Check out #Alteryx; #Salesforce #Einstein; and for SQL driven fast results in minutes = #Looker .

9. Time to deliver reviews: If you ask for reviews and it takes 3 to 12 months to deliver the results as the standard strategy answer, you have a massive problem because: a) Nothing in this technology driven world can take that long, even if it is a #CLI dev command or script to pull data across the globe, and; b) It means that the long-standing 'talkers' or people do not have the skills or creativity to problem-solve - and will stop anyone else from solving it for you too - check for fact-based answers.

Unless you are in genome research or Anthropoly results it cannot take long for the results for your corrective actions.

How To Attain Success Suggestions:

1. Ask Driven and Action Based Questions:Next time you attend review sessions, question where the sources of information (numeric and non-numeric) are coming from, which business sub-segments make up the findings and measures, and simply ask "what else is missing ?" and table actions for review at every meeting
2. Look for Game Changers: If anyone sends you a passionate off office hours self-written article and is trying to grab your attention to read it, then read and hear what they have to say. Invite them in! and be open-minded. Listen to their calls for action...you may have a GEM sitting in there...remember Einstein was a clerk for +7 years!
3. Seek to change the norms and long time attitudes "we've always done it like this" is dead and people that say "it's not my job" comments are unacceptable. Get them out of your business.

Let me know your thoughts and thanks for reading.

Chris Lira

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