Is this a or the strategy?

Strategy points to the future, and often strategy talk envisages growth and development. Could we actually say that these two are the elementary elements which establish THE strategy. First, THE strategy, and therefore any strategy talk is prone to revolve around a view toward the future. It could be said that strategy is about future. Secondly in this typical strategy talk the second element is positive growth and development. Typically THE strategy talk advocates the idea that the target or object of strategy work - which can be sometimes part of the world, sometimes our organization or department or perhaps some unit in our organization - is described to become much better than what it is now, thanks to THE strategy.

 

Do these elements encapsulate the essential essence of any strategy? Is this actually THE strategy, the very thing which is repeated in numerous situations in numerous presentations and talks with some minor adjustments and context related words and terms?

 

Let us see. Would it make sense if some strategy talk would not revolve about future but about the past. Sounds a bit odd. Would it make sense if some executives would present a strategy where things go downhill? Again sounds worryingly odd. However, before we completely ignore these odd sounding strategy talk options, we must dare to look what is happening in the real world. Are countries, regions, organizations and all different entities and units constantly climbing towards ever increasing success? Unfortunately not, it almost seems that journey downhill is almost as common event as ascent to the next level of success.

Hence could it also make sense to talk about past and also about problems, possible reasons of not succeeding, when we would talk about strategy. Should we in a way change a tone of whole strategy discussion. In this changed tone we would talk more about real people, real organizations and real challenges on the market place, and perhaps a bit less about plans, goals and aspirations. Here I am first to emphasize that striving towards improvement, and therefore things like Inspiring goals and challenging aspirations are of course elementary part of strategy and sensible strategy work.

So let us first take a setting where strategy discussion would not ignore past, but would actually very carefully analyze what we have achieved and what we may not have reached, why we have done what we have done. It is very likely that a lot what has been real and possible for us so far will continue to be true to us in the future. Many of those things which define us as people and as actors in organizational context, will continue to define us 1st of January, when new strategy season starts. And again I am first to emphasize that change is possible and actually everything is changing all the time. Also genuine decision making and choosing new paths to proceed are elementary parts of sensible strategy work. Yet the arrow of time in strategy talk should not point solely to the future, understanding past which still defines us and  the way we can perform our combined organizational effort is also very, very important.

How about the second element of THE strategy, typically a very heavy emphasize of growth and development and a tendency to gloss over problems and challenges. Certainly sometimes diminishing sales and other downturn features are included into strategy talk, often these are such issues which people already start to see in a similar way. However perhaps we should really try to uncover problems and challenges as early as possible and even raise up issues which are not nice and which are not yet generally recognized and which are also still heavily debatable. That would offer an opportunity to start to create profound new understanding about the changing real world and thus create a basis to start to do corrective measures as soon as possible, well before "the shit hits the fan" as the profound saying evocatively expresses the phenomenon.

 

Hence a neat and clear arrow pointing up and the future is not THE strategy. Strategy is tough work in real world and strategical decisions must be constructed on real world events and complexities. Strategy does not hide, strategy uncovers and reveals. Hiding would mean a movement from a real world into the world of plans and aspirations. Real strategy keeps the complex reality in the front and as clearly visible as possible. In that world strategy is a powerful tool that may eventually mean that the desired movement up and forward becomes really possible, and climbing to the next stratum of success happens in real world not solely in hopeful plans.

EMBA - Star Trek connection

 

We all remember how the adventure starts, the magnificent voice of Patrick Steward as captain Jean-Luc Picard promises that something unforeseen, exciting and often heroic is on its way and the adventure will start soon. Here are the riveting opening words with minor adjustments:

 

to boldly develop what no one has done before

 

 

 

This is what EMBA studies are at their best, they offer a setting where the limits of the usual are pushed a bit further. This is also the setting where the famous connection between theory and practice work as its best, in dialogue theory and practice help the EMBA researcher to reach something new. Here the achieved contribution is both something conceptually new and something concretely real. Both sides of the coin are elementary in real discovery.

In EMBA studies the researcher is both the doer and the scientist. Here the first person perspective is invaluable. It is important to see how the world, ie. organizational reality, opens to a person whose task is to change that world. It cannot be helped but the pressures are different when you are in the driver seat than if you just possess an objective observer status.  When the EMBA student is the captain of change, s/he really feels what organizational warp drive feels.  (Warp drive is a hypothetical faster-than-light (FTL) propulsion system in the setting of many science fiction works, most notably Star Trek - says Wikipedia).

Also it is essential that EMBA captain does not rein her/his spaceship somewhere in some distant galaxy but tightly connected in some specific real context on our dear planet Earth (Dictionary explains nicely what Earth means: Earth is the third planet in order from the Sun, upon which humans live).  That specific context is the reality which is developed further. A close and insightful understanding of the context is the starting point for an excellent EMBA research.

Perhaps there is a human tendency to overlook the reality which is closest to us and what we can change and develop if we can change anything at all. Often it seems to be easier to offer advices to the others, and often the formula seems to be following:

The less a person knows about the context the easier it is to her/him to offer advices and the clearer and stronger her/his recommendations tend to be.

At the end it is another matter whether such advices given from afar are actually sensible or useful. It seems that here the old saying is often true: instant consulting is constant insulting. Also one Dilbert cartoon made point by depicting a boss standing behind Dilbert and saying something like: think carefully Dilbert before you act. Dilbert's response was: thank you a lot, before that advice I was just hitting my keyboard randomly, but now I really start to think what I do.

One might think that there would be a general understand that executives operate in the complex setting where all the easy solutions have been tried and done years and years ago. Yet, it seems to happen that easy solutions are offered to complex situations. It must be remembered that quite often in any context the cognitive side is only part of the picture, it may be pretty clear as looked from the outside what might be wise to do in some situation but sometimes there is a long and arduous journey before things eventually change for the better.

So EMBA researcher goes deep into real context and acts as a captain of change. This is, however, not enough when we are talking about research. Essential part of the research is the ability to tell others what you see and experience. Perhaps here is also a connection to Jean-Luc Picard, the enthralling speaker who is able to tell others what the situation is and what kind of actions are needed so that journey can continue. The EMBA student is also required to be a story teller, a writer. It is expected that s/he sees clearly and insightfully the key elements which relate to her/his organizational reality. In her/his EMBA report s/he is able to depict to others what the change journey entails, involves and what we all can learn from that journey.

At its best EMBA research operates on two fronts. First, it demonstrates the value of the reality which is closest to us and which therefore is the target of well thought change activities. Secondly, it helps us to develop story telling capabilities, the ability to see clearly and insightfully and to tell about those adventures to others.

Could the EMBA research be depicted as follows (using the opening words of Star Trek as source of inspiration):

 

 

 

Organization reality: the true frontier. These are the actions of the EMBA researcher. Her/his continuing mission: to explore new opportunities, to seek out new customers, networks and new efficient systems, to boldly develop what no one has developed before, but what is now is seen as an inspiring vision to all.


To thank Patrick Steward. Magnificent wit and humour in his reflection:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc1GrGO1j9M

 

Silence and management - part 10

…text about Silence in organization continues - this is part 10.

4.5       New work

 

 

 

4.5.1          New way of working is still in its infancy

In every organization and actually in every situation there is also a lot of silence. This is because there is always a lot that could be shared or said but what remains unsaid and unshared. As we have talked in previous texts it is simply impossible to share everything, apparently sharing everything would stop everything.  Whereas sometimes fear in its different forms may cause that something is not said and silence prevails. Again there are situations and moments of frustration when someone has lost her/his enthusiasm to speak and share.

In addition to these three sources of silence, I wish to add one quarter to the silence pie. That part comes with the name “new work”. 

New work is something which does not exist yet, it is just developing.  The hallmark of new work is professional sharing. This means a mode of working where we think all the time what to share to others.  This means that we learn to see professional sharing as an integral and elementary part of our work. 

I use here the term professional sharing with a purpose. The word professional means that we do the sharing as intelligently and wisely as we can. So we are willing to continuously learn to understand better what to share, to whom to share and how to do the sharing. In professional sharing the goal is to increase to success potential of our organization.

It is proposed here that when the “new work” develops to its full potential it will mean a lot more sharing than what happens today. When looked from the perspective of a new work there is a lot of silence everywhere.  In order to illustrate this point it could be said that from the point of view of “new work” we may occupy the same building but we do not really work together. Hence the level of sharing to which we are used to today is actually full of silence.

 

SWOT to think

 

You think what you think, right? Wrong. As wise thinker you should think what you decide to think. In organizational context you certainly decide to think those things which are most relevant to success of your organization. On your free time you think what you wish to think, or perhaps you just give the thoughts to come to you, or perhaps you just rest. But that all interesting what happens in your free time is out of the scope of this blog.

 

 

 

 

Instead our topic is SWOT you decide to think when you operate on your professional mode. What to think is rather broad theme for a blog and therefore I thought that why not use good old SWOT framework in this new context. It helps us to focus on something essential.

 

How that SWOT fits into this picture of thinking? It brings up one angle which is important when you decide what to think. It helps you to see whether your thinking revolves around Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities or Threats. Let us be saved from an executive who would focus almost exclusively on Weaknesses (for those wishing a deeper taste of this are adviced to listen Pínk Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall: intro).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4SKL7f9n58

But similarly, let us be saved from an executive or, God mercy, from a board of directors who would live solely immersed into the beautiful world of endless opportunities. And what is said about focusing solely to W or O, goes similarly with a S and T as well.

 

So, what is point here? You need balance, you need to think, not just O but also S, W and T - right? That is right, that is one point, a relevant point I think. Hence, let us all remember the good old SWOT in our thinking.

 

Having said that I would like to sail back to a bit more troubled waters. Certainly to decide what to think is actually a very challenging task. Balanced use of SWOT is a good start, but perhaps just a star on a life long journey to know what to think.

 

 

At this point I would like to leave you with two thoughts, which on their part suggest that deciding what to think is really a complex task. First, how you decide to balance SWOT in your thinking, to you choose to stress equal amount of every corner or something else. I would imagine that as a leader who wish to create new and inspire people around you decide to be rather generous with O and S. That is just fine. Secondly, are you sure that you decide what you think? What was the most recent issue which thrusted into your mind but which you decide to leave aside or push away? And what was the latest thing which would have never occurred to you unless you had decided to dig it up?

 

Silence and management - part 9

…text about Silence in organization continues - this is part 9.


Change requires vision, energy and action, quite often change also requires voice: new ideas, astute observations and clearly stated facts which must be taken into account. Therefore it is problematic if there is silence where should be a lot of discussion. Understanding reasons of silence opens ways to create more discussion in the future. Let us not give a frustration a possibility to root itself into our organizations, uprooting frustration is everybody's business.

4.4      Frustration

Frustration means here a feeling that for some reason a person has reached a conclusion that it is not worthwhile to break to silence.

4.4.1 Speaking does not provide results

A person can end up choosing silence if s/he comes to conclusion that her/his efforts to raise issues for common discussion do not seem to provide results. Perhaps s/he feels that her/his openings are met with silence or that her/his efforts to change something have not provided results s/he would have liked to see happening.

In case one feels that s/he is being silenced that experience may evidently create even more silence in the future. At the same time we must notice that the experienced disappointment for not getting changes that someone may want is also a complex issue. Perhaps the desired changes are such which are feasible to achieve, then the disappointment of not getting desired changes could be justified. At the same token it is also possible to think that sometimes people wish changes which are very hard to make at least in the short run if not  ever. In both these cases there should be discussions in organizations that why some required changes may not be possible at the certain time, perhaps there are some justifications why even the in principle possible changes are not done at least now. As we can anticipate one problem here is silence, in other words in desired changes are not even discussed openly there is no way to handle these issues. Silence is prone to create more silence.

4.4.2 Lack of genuine interest

Sometimes one reason behind silence is that for some reason a person may have lost her/his genuine interest toward the development and success organization.  When this is a case a person may choose silence also in those occasions where s/he could instead share something valuable with others. Often silence is an easy solution, sharing would require much more, at least you would need to justify your point and make others listen. Sometimes you would have to compete with different views in order to get your voice heard. For someone who has lost her/his genuine interest, this may feel or too heavy burden and s/he just stays silent.

And also here one dictum of this paper rings true - silence create silence. A person who has assumed a silent role is assumed to remain silent by others. So, how s/he might gather the courage and energy to break silence and beat the expectations, not an easy task. In accounting so called zero based budgeting is something which has been proposed in situations where we just build on old expectations and practices without really stopping to evaluate what would be possible now. Could we apply something from zero based budgeting on human encounters, could we always be open for new realities, open that someone who has not been that active could become active today. At least we should check that our expectations towards anyone are not the ones which help the silence to linger.

 

4.4.3 Negative learning

Negative learning is a concept which I have first heard from professor Tapio Aittola, University of Jyväskylä. Negative learning refers to learning experiences which are very different than those experiences which are typically topics of general discussions. Negative learning  means that a person starts to see how difficult and sometimes practically impossible some things really are. S/he may have had, for instance, a basic idea that s/he would like to do something new, for instance s/he would like to change something in her/his organization. S/he may have an idea that when she focus on something and starts to understand it better s/he will learn new things and gradually s/he will be in a position from which s/he can make those planned changes.

However, sometimes it may happen that the world reserves negative learning experiences for any of us. This means that a person learns that for some reason it is far more difficult and perhaps impossible to make the changes s/he would like to make. Sometimes the world just is much more complex than the person had thought and therefore making changes becomes difficult. S/he may notice that s/he does not have the needed capabilities, energy or time to learn all that what would be needed in order to make changes. Sometimes there may some other reasons like political, cultural or some vested personal interests on status quo which make the changing impossible.

In sum, negative learning experiences may also lead to silence and the fewer efforts to make changes and develop new things. From the organizational perspective it might be desirable that people would not give up too easily when they encounter negative learning experiences. Quite often new openings feel at first impossible, and no one may believe that those ideas could be feasible but surprisingly they may turn into new opportunities after persistent effort.

 

Silence and management - series of blog texts

Silence and management - series of blog texts

Silence and management is a series of blog texts which examine issues relating to sharing and active collaboration within organization and in different networks.

Sharing and maximal use of social media tools throughout organizations is a vital topic in year 2014. Ability to share, connect and think together are crucial success factors for organizations and also for individuals. At the same time silence is also an unavoidable part of all organizational life. It is proposed here that deeper understanding of silence creates a more rounded understanding how sharing could be nurtured.

This blog starts by table of contents. Then there is a part which connects the table of contents to the published blogs. In this series already 8 texts have been published.

 

       Silence

Hot but quiet topic on the arena of management and control

1.    Hush, shh, … introduction

  1.1 Money, silence and accounting

  1.2 The level of silence as a success factor in organizations

2.    What is silence - three perspectives on silence

  2.1 Impressive nature makes us silent

  2.2 Silence which relates to crimes and wrong doings

  2.3 Silence which relates to internal wisdom

3.    Silence vs darkness
 
4.    Why people choose silence

  4.1 Silence - the whole picture

  4.2   The impossibility to share everything

    4.2.1 We simply cannot share everything

    4.2.2          Modes of communication we choose use, modes of communication we choose not to use

  4.3      Fear based reasons

    4.3.1.        Fears which relates to you (or to me, or to any individual personally)

       4.3.1.1. Fear of making fool of yourself

      4.3.1.2 Fear of getting more tasks

      4.3.1.3 Fear of becoming labeled “difficult”

    4.3.2          Fears which relate to others

      4.3.2.1. Fear of ruining positive atmosphere

      4.3.2.2 Fear that the connection with others fails

      4.3.2.3 Fear that sharing would ruin customer relationships

  4.4      Frustration

    4.4.1 Speaking does not provide results

    4.4.2 Lack of genuine interest

    4.4.3 Negative learning

   4.5       New work

    4.5.1          New way of working is still in its infancy

  4.6      Whistle blowing

5.         Discussion

Next time when you are just about to choose silence, please think again.

 

 

Table on contents and connection to published blogs.

 

Silence and management - part 1 (chapter 1-1.1)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/05/silence-and-management-part-1.html

Silence and management - part 2 (chapter 1.2)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/05/silence-and-management-part-2.html

Silence and management - part 3 (chapter 2-2.3)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/05/silence-and-management-part-3.html

Silence and management - part 4 (chapter 3)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/06/silence-and-management-part-4.html

Silence and management - part 5 (chapter 4-4.1)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/08/silence-and-management-part-5.html

Silence and management - part 6 (chapter 4.2-4.2.2)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/09/silence-and-management-part-6.html

Silence and management - part 7 (chapter 4.3-4.3.1.3)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/11/silence-and-management-part-7.html

Silence and management - part 8 (chapter 4.3.2-4.3.2.3)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/12/silence-and-management-part-8.html

 

This blog series continues with couple of more texts in 2014. Happy New Year.

Silence and management - part 8

…text about Silence in organization continues - this is part 8.

Best organizations are quick to adopt newest technologies and equipments. That is first step to success in our digital, global era. At the same time the path to genuine sharing in organizations is a demanding route for each of us to proceed. This blog (and other relating blog posts) examines the issues which are important when individuals and organizations strive to develop sharing culture. You find more below:

 

4.3.2          Fears which relate to others

4.3.2.1. Fear of ruining positive atmosphere

Apparently we all wish to work in a pleasant environment, in a nice atmosphere with collaborative colleagues. And certainly nice and supporting atmosphere can be a success factor of its own right, it nurtures creativity, innovation, it energizes and it provides many other positive things to all involved and to whole organization.

In this setting you may anticipate that taking up certain matters might for some reason mildly or perhaps drastically harm the positive general atmosphere. Therefore you may decide to go with the silence and avoid taking up certain matters.

Apparently selecting silence can a reasonable choice if you have reached that conclusion by applying   special kind of a “cost-benefit analysis”. In other words you have estimated what would happen if you would raise certain topic and how things would most likely continue in case you would choose silence. And you have reached a conclusion that in this particular case you go for a silence. That is a decision, and like with all decisions you may have made an excellent or not so excellent decision.

On the other hand when choosing silence relates heavily to maintaining good atmosphere, it can be counterproductive. Often genuine development requires also critique, and in case the need to preserve good atmosphere hampers a possibility to criticize it is time to evaluate what is important what could be less prominent role in organizational life. Perhaps a lot of efforts could be put up so that the capability to give and take constructive criticism would reach a higher level in organizational discussion culture.

 It is, however, understandable that there are situations where any of us might predict that bringing something up might cause a mess and confusion in our organization. We all know that organizations are pretty delicate creatures on what comes to the maintaining trust and keeping discussion channels between people open. It has been said that individual is strong but organization is fragile. This suggests the idea that organization is a trust based network and the trust between actors may brake easily and it is very difficult to restore. So also here we have to conclude that sometimes some level of silence is perhaps the best solution. Perhaps this is no true in ideal world, but it can be very true in real world.

 

4.3.2.2 Fear that the connection with others fails

In his excellent book about relationship marketing (From the 4P’s to 30R) Evert Gummesson writes how he noticed what is the essence of marketing is in professional organization. The crucial challenge is to find a place, position and acceptance among colleagues. Only after adequate acceptance as new member of the network your new colleagues will ask you to join to different projects and you can gradually become part of the functioning network.

In fact, it would be touching (and difficult) to study how many executives and other professionals on different levels of organizations are not really part of the functioning organization. Perhaps, for instance, a boss was fired a long ago, not officially, not publicly but in a way which almost all seem to know - at least silently. Here firing means that working collaboration with others has severed, perhaps not totally but to the extent which seriously reduces the real working possibilities. Also these lines lead us to suggest that sometimes in some organization it may happen that people in a way have gradually fired each other, as a result they inhabit the same organization but the genuine connection between people may have been lost on the way. How could they reach a situation where they in way could recruit each other back to work?

Thus a genuine connection with a network is very important, often a necessary factor before you can actually do anything productive in any organization or in business life in general. Sometimes the network could be a colleague, sometimes few colleagues, sometimes a team or a department, sometimes the whole organization, sometimes some other formation of people. Typically in order to maintain and strengthen your position in any network you are expected to show some loyalty towards your network.

Hence, quite often the deepening collaboration with any network creates also complex configurations which cunningly start to suggest that member of any network should be silent about something. Typically some kind of we-them - setting emerges. Often organizations are divided to different departments and units. It is not rare that these different units start to compete with each other. One negative result of the rivalry which grows intensive is that flow of information between the competing units may not stay at the level where it could be. As a result for instance some new business opportunities may be lost because of unwarranted silence between different organizational units emerges.

In general a person may fear that sharing something which is somehow considered as a secret in her/his network might result in negative reactions and actions by others. Hence a person would be prone to resort to silence on those occasions. In the mild form this can mean that organization does not learn as quickly as it could if information were shared more openly. In a strong form we are talking about more difficult situations where cover up can be serious thing (a short discussion about whistle blowing is in the later blog post).

4.3.2.3 Fear that sharing would ruin customer relationships

It is also important to emphasize that there are a lot of occasions where silence is actually part of proper professional conduct. For instance, even law may require silence about some customer related matters in some businesses. Also, in general prudent handling of customer information is part of any laudable work.

Again we notice that silence is a complex issue. Quite easily there would a tendency to think that silence is something negative and we must get rid of all silence. However, often silence is unavoidably part of the professional work. It is easy to see that some work would be actually impossible without silence, for instance in some cases you have to trust your strategic plans to outsiders and you could not do that if you feared that they would not obey very prudent silence concerning your vital business secrets.