Thinking-Action-Results
Evelyn had a BS Degree in Computer Engineering. Plenty smart, she was a team leader in a global technology company and managed a group that was responsible for responding to internal technical problems – emergencies (fires). Her team was considered skilled hands driven by brains that knew what to do to solve technical problems.
The process was to show up when called, fix the problem and then wait to be called the next time. Good value to the client, good accolades to the tech person who rode in on a white horse and solved the problem. Value to the business was significant but there was an untapped opportunity hidden in their success.
Evelyn and her team learned to be active business partners with their clients and by doing so made huge improvements in their internal client's service to external customers. The ability to think strategically was an essential component of this profound improvement and resulting cost saving to the business. As business partners their technical expertise was now on the front end of preventing fires (60% reduction in first 6 months) rather than the back end of putting them out.
How did they do that?
Changed perspective – The capacity to solve emergent technical problems remained but the perspective changed to one where the application of knowledge to overall improvement of client business results became the real value. The team learned to think strategically about their clients business and new high value ways to apply their expertise to avoid emergencies.
Learned customer business – Being a true business partner required the team members to expand their business acumen to understand both their client businesses and their client external customer needs.
Gained skills – Greater communications skills helped them ask better questions and hear the answer within the answers. Stronger interpersonal skills helped them build a level of trust that resulted in a business process partnership with clients. The combination of communication and interpersonal skills allowed their technical knowledge to be applied in ways that prevented many technical emergencies.
We are likely to miss opportunity when heads and brains don't emerge from the trenches of day to day. Learning to think strategically as an individual is one thing. Learning to lead a team in thinking strategically is yet another.
What do you do to get better? Here are a few thoughts and they can work to improve your effectiveness and results regardless of your role or level in the business.
Stop:
- Being totally absorbed in the routine of your job
- Doing stuff tomorrow just because you did it yesterday
- Doing what everyone else does
- Reading just the stuff that everyone else does
- Thinking that winning always follows a linear progression
- Accepting what's not right
- Limiting the capacity of smart people with unessential controls, rules and policies designed for the lowest common denominator
Start:
- Defining and persistently showing a clear picture of the desired future
- Asking yourself, "What if?" and deliberately devoting time to go beyond a cursory answer
- Expanding your knowledge base to include what's going on outside of your business and your routine that provides opportunity or threat
- Asking questions that cause new discussions with colleagues, customers, suppliers, your team
- New sometimes uncomfortable actions to implement change for better results
- Improving the level of business acumen (both your business and your customers)so people have the foundation for better thinking
Continue:
- Doing the stuff that you are the absolute best at
- Learning and helping others learn
- Maintaining the structure that is essential for communication, measurement and accurate feedback
- Challenging status-quo
- Leading your team to learn
Every leader we know in every business we know is maxed out in terms of time commitment, responsibility and accountability for results. Making changes is usually front-end-loaded with learning new skills and tools and changing perspective. It is not easy, but if it were everyone would be doing it and most would be more successful. The Reality Show here is that high achievers figure out how to get results, learn, grow and change in the process and they always have too much on their plates.
"In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth,
while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped
to deal with a world that no longer exists."
Al Rogers |
