Alicia McKay's Blog, page 27

Let go of the good

Are you a hoarder? A minimalist? Or something in between? 

I moved house recently, which is always a pain. On the bright side, every time I move I get to engage in my favourite activity – throwing things away. Every time I shift, I sort through all of our things, and I become merciless with what qualifies for box status. No danger of hoarding around here! 

I’ve always loved the prospect of clean slates, letting go and fresh beginnings. There’s something so mentally freeing about turfing out a box of old things you don’t use anymore. 

If just reading about me throwing away my stuff makes your heart beat a bit faster, you’re not alone. It’s hard to get rid of things we already have and do – even when we know they’re not serving us, or there’s a better option out there.  

We’re inherently loss averse – we value things we already have more highly, simply because we have them. One in the hand, two in the bush and all that.  

“Getting to the next level always requires ending something, leaving it behind, and moving on. Growth itself demands that we move on. Without the ability to end things, people stay stuck, never becoming who they are meant to be, never accomplishing all that their talents and abilities should afford them.”

― Henry Cloud, Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward

I see this at work too. I ran a wonderful Strategic Focus workshop last Thursday where we were racing through the programme – priorities, outcomes, action streams, tick tick tick. Everything came to a screeching halt, however, when I asked the group to make some trade-offs, so we could find the time and money to get change happening. 

Strategy is all about choices, and the hardest part of any choice is the road not travelled (or box of stuff thrown away, or project, relationship or commitment we need to let go of!) 

I hear the same protests all the time - “I have to do everything I’m doing!” “Nothing is negotiable!” But the thing about real change is that it can’t be as well as – we’re already at maximum capacity. Real change needs to be instead of.

Which is fine if we’re releasing things we don’t enjoy, that don’t add value or that we don’t care about – like my boxes of stuff when I move. Those are choices between right and wrong. 

How about when we need to choose between right and right? Or chuck out stuff we’re still using? This is hard, uncomfortable territory. We have to let go of the good, to get to the awesome - or we don’t grow.  

Henry Cloud nailed the best analogy for this issue in ‘Necessary Endings’ when he talked about pruning rosebushes. 

Rosebushes produce more buds than they can sustain and require regular pruning to be healthy and thrive. Cloud distinguishes between three types of pruning – the first is to remove dead branches. These branches are no longer contributing,  and are taking up space that makes it harder for the others to grow. Easy. The second is to remove sick and diseased branches who are unlikely to recover and are taking energy away from healthy branches. Not bad. 

The third type of pruning, though, is the removal of perfectly healthy buds. Having too many ‘good’ buds prevents the rosebush from totally thriving, by directing energy away from the buds that have the potential to be great. Without this critical third type, your rosebush will never be fabulous. 

What perfectly healthy things do you need to prune, to get to great? 

Til next week 

- A 

Only That Which Can Change Can Continue

Remember Pokemon Go? What a sensation! Blowing up from what felt like nowhere, Pokemon Go was the third most popular app download in 2016, behind Snapchat and Messenger, and the number one Google search for that year.  

And who followed the controversy with Lamar Odom? It must be at least some of you because that was the number one global Google search in 2015, (followed closely by Charlie Hebdo...) 

These searches represent the zeitgeist for those years. These examples, which feel like a flash in the plan, were only 2 or 3 years ago. It’s amazing how quickly things can change. 

Zeitgeist comes straight from German – zeit meaning time, and geist meaning spirit – literally, the spirit of our time. These are moments and concepts that are symbolic and relevant– but don’t always have enduring significance.  

We’re not always good at sifting through the material stuff, to figure out the difference between what’s important, and what’s just top of mind right now. It’s not a failing, either. More than anything, it’s a wiring issue. We’re clouded by cognitive biases that put recency, visibility and familiarity first, which can make it hard to know whether we’re judging our context accurately.  

So… we anchor to what’s happening now, we jump on bandwagons, and often do a rubbish job of working out how to change our behaviour in ways that match our ideas about the future.  

This all makes sense – it’s our brains making things easy for us. It’s what Daniel Kahneman calls ‘System 1’ – the part of our brain that keeps us efficient by using shortcuts to make decisions. 

On a day to day basis, this is useful and important – if we had to analyse every choice we made, we’d be all worn out by morning tea time! 

From a big picture standpoint though, shortcuts can be a problem. When we need to be aware of our context and use that information to make decisions about what things to respond to, and what actions to prioritise, shortcuts can trip us up.   

There’s lots of good stuff we can do about that from a strategy standpoint to challenge our assumptions and test for evidence. Which is great. Ultimately, though, we’re all fallible – and the future is unpredictable. 

So, should we just throw in the towel now? Stop trying to make decisions that shape our future and just go with the flow? 

I mean, maybe. Or… we could stay focused on our big ‘why’ and adapt how we respond as things change, to make sure we’re still on track. 

“All failure is failure to adapt, all success is successful adaptation.” - Max McKeown 

I’ve been playing the guitar since I was a kid – but for the last 15 years or so, my strategy has been rudimentary. Whenever I want to play a new song, I’ve grabbed some tabs from the internet, looked up unfamiliar chords to supplement the ones I know well, and played things I like the sound of. It’s a strategy that works… to a point. I realised recently, since picking the guitar back up after a long hiatus, that I haven’t grown or improved for a long time. So this year, I’ve taken a different tack and signed up for some music theory lessons.  

The difference has blown me away.  

This pivot in my learning strategy has blown open my understanding and appreciation for music. All of a sudden, the musical possibilities seem endless, so long as I stay committed to growing, learning and changing. 

Constant change and adaptation is important for even the best skillset, thinking, fad, or strategy. You might be surprised (or not) for example, to learn that Pokemon Go is more popular in 2019 than ever. The difference? It’s no longer operating at the “phenomena” level and instead has become a more refined, complex challenge, with the added bonus of a community functionality that has been a hit with fans. This is a brilliant example of adapting a strategy in response to changing cultural and popular context. 

“Only that which can change, can continue” - James P. Carse

Don’t get me wrong, change and transformation - particularly inside complex organisations or for tricky problems, takes time. Serious time. It’s often hard won, and the idea of relitigating or pulling it all to pieces again can be exhausting. But only that which can change, can continue. If we want to have real impact, that is. 

Like Pokemon Go, strategy isn’t a ‘one and done’. It’s a living, evolving beast that needs constant iteration – a finger on the pulse, a commitment to figuring out what’s relevant, and an openness to changing in response. Done well, adaptive strategy doesn’t mean starting from scratch, but becoming better, smarter and more focused as we learn and grow. 

Is your strategy keeping up with the times? Or are you still hooked on an old zeitgest?  

….caught a Charizard lately? 

Til next week, 

A 

Only that which can change can continue

Remember Pokemon Go? What a sensation! Blowing up from what felt like nowhere, Pokemon Go was the third most popular app download in 2016, behind Snapchat and Messenger, and the number one Google search for that year.  

And who followed the controversy with Lamar Odom? It must be at least some of you because that was the number one global Google search in 2015, (followed closely by Charlie Hebdo...) 

These searches represent the zeitgeist for those years. These examples, which feel like a flash in the plan, were only 2 or 3 years ago. It’s amazing how quickly things can change. 

Zeitgeist comes straight from German – zeit meaning time, and geist meaning spirit – literally, the spirit of our time. These are moments and concepts that are symbolic and relevant– but don’t always have enduring significance.  

We’re not always good at sifting through the material stuff, to figure out the difference between what’s important, and what’s just top of mind right now. It’s not a failing, either. More than anything, it’s a wiring issue. We’re clouded by cognitive biases that put recency, visibility and familiarity first, which can make it hard to know whether we’re judging our context accurately.  

So… we anchor to what’s happening now, we jump on bandwagons, and often do a rubbish job of working out how to change our behaviour in ways that match our ideas about the future.  

This all makes sense – it’s our brains making things easy for us. It’s what Daniel Kahneman calls ‘System 1’ – the part of our brain that keeps us efficient by using shortcuts to make decisions. 

On a day to day basis, this is useful and important – if we had to analyse every choice we made, we’d be all worn out by morning tea time! 

From a big picture standpoint though, shortcuts can be a problem. When we need to be aware of our context and use that information to make decisions about what things to respond to, and what actions to prioritise, shortcuts can trip us up.   

There’s lots of good stuff we can do about that from a strategy standpoint to challenge our assumptions and test for evidence. Which is great. Ultimately, though, we’re all fallible – and the future is unpredictable. 

So, should we just throw in the towel now? Stop trying to make decisions that shape our future and just go with the flow? 

I mean, maybe. Or… we could stay focused on our big ‘why’ and adapt how we respond as things change, to make sure we’re still on track. 

“All failure is failure to adapt, all success is successful adaptation.” - Max McKeown 

I’ve been playing the guitar since I was a kid – but for the last 15 years or so, my strategy has been rudimentary. Whenever I want to play a new song, I’ve grabbed some tabs from the internet, looked up unfamiliar chords to supplement the ones I know well, and played things I like the sound of. It’s a strategy that works… to a point. I realised recently, since picking the guitar back up after a long hiatus, that I haven’t grown or improved for a long time. So this year, I’ve taken a different tack and signed up for some music theory lessons.  

The difference has blown me away.  

This pivot in my learning strategy has blown open my understanding and appreciation for music. All of a sudden, the musical possibilities seem endless, so long as I stay committed to growing, learning and changing. 

Constant change and adaptation is important for even the best skillset, thinking, fad, or strategy. You might be surprised (or not) for example, to learn that Pokemon Go is more popular in 2019 than ever. The difference? It’s no longer operating at the “phenomena” level and instead has become a more refined, complex challenge, with the added bonus of a community functionality that has been a hit with fans. This is a brilliant example of adapting a strategy in response to changing cultural and popular context. 

“Only that which can change, can continue” - James P. Carse

Don’t get me wrong, change and transformation - particularly inside complex organisations or for tricky problems, takes time. Serious time. It’s often hard won, and the idea of relitigating or pulling it all to pieces again can be exhausting. But only that which can change, can continue. If we want to have real impact, that is. 

Like Pokemon Go, strategy isn’t a ‘one and done’. It’s a living, evolving beast that needs constant iteration – a finger on the pulse, a commitment to figuring out what’s relevant, and an openness to changing in response. Done well, adaptive strategy doesn’t mean starting from scratch, but becoming better, smarter and more focused as we learn and grow. 

Is your strategy keeping up with the times? Or are you still hooked on an old zeitgest?  

….caught a Charizard lately? 

Til next week, 

A 

Internal Functions Are The Strategy Engine Room

Wednesday Wisdom 27 June 2019 – Internal Functions: The Engine Room

Have you ever heard that cliché about the janitor at NASA?

You know, the guy who knew his job was putting astronauts on the moon? Like most over-repeated stories of dubious accuracy, it carries a powerful message.

Do you think your internally facing teams feel connected to the big picture, like Old Mate NASA Janitor? If the work I’ve been doing over the last few weeks in Wellington is anything to go by, I’m picking the answer is no. They’re not doing the fancy public-facing work, they don’t see themselves reflected in the aspirational goals and values on your posters, so they just get on with ‘doing the work.’

This is a problem – a big problem. Because it couldn’t be further from the truth.

I worked with one large public agency recently who were driving a partnership strategy, all about empowering stakeholders and communities to deliver their own services and initiatives. This was a great strategy that aligned neatly with their big picture. The problem? Internal procurement policies required that all of their community suppliers, no matter how small, should hold large insurance policies and jump through a series of complicated stages in order to satisfy payment requirements. Oops.

Totally out of line with their ‘make it easy’ and ‘community-led’ values and a good example of how things can come to a standstill if we neglect the process piece of strategy development.

“The capacity of the plant is equal to the capacity of its bottlenecks”
– Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

In vintage management opus The Goal, the central protagonist struggles to understand why his factories aren’t making money. He quickly realises that the easiest way to improve productivity isn’t to expand – but to find the things that are blocking the fast and easy operation of the plant.

While I don’t tend to work in many factory environments, the lesson is the same – enabling and support functions can be strategy’s best friend, or greatest foe.

When the way we do business doesn’t line up with the goals of our strategy, it’s hard to make real progress. Eliminating all the points of friction inside your operations and getting real alignment in policies, processes and systems means bringing your internal functions on board and getting internal teams engaged in the strategy process. HR, legal, finance, customer service, ICT, research, policy – all the cool guys.

How to align internal functions with strategy

Take the time to meaningfully connect teams Don’t leave your support functions out of your engagement planning – or assume that the same messages will resonate for everyone.

Engage early – Bring key support functions into the room early when you’re pulling together new projects, programme or change initiatives. This isn’t just great for building relationships and engagement, but can also improve planning quality. Just like construction contracts bring the builders and the architects into the same room at the design phase, pressure-testing ideas across teams means you spot issues early and spark good ideas.

Bonus tip: How do you find the friction points?

Ask people what’s broken! You don’t need a complicated strategy map or expensive consultant. Just ask people what support they need to make strategy happen, and they’ll tell you. Loudly and repeatedly!

Til next week

- A

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

It’s budget time again – how’s yours going? Do your budget conversations sound at all like your strategy conversations?

In my experience, they don’t.

When I worked in local government, my job was to write and project manage the Annual Plan. Every year it was the same story – line-by-line budgets with Council, only to get to the end, tally up all the ad-hoc decisions and find out it led to a budget increase or rate rise we didn’t like. So we’d go and slash, try to find some ‘tricks’ to help us out (plundering a quiet reserve, messing about with depreciation, seeing what could be deferred or capitalised) to get it over the line.

Not at all strategic and a far cry from the idealism of the planning sessions held only a few weeks earlier.

“Never ask anyone for their opinion, forecast, or recommendation. Just ask them what they have – or don’t have – in their portfolio.” Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Spending our money in ways that align with our objectives is a critical part of the ‘how’ of strategy. When we view strategy as separate process to setting budgets, we lose a huge opportunity to convert our thinking into action..

This is walking the talk with a price tag. Yet, right across the public sector, I see alignment to strategy go out the window in the budget scramble.

Do any of these sound familiar?

-        Keeping stuff in there for years without testing it, because it was hard to get it in there in the first place

-        Cobbling a bitsy wishlist together from across the exec

-        Working towards arbitrary targets, increases or rate rises

-        Throwing objectives out the window once we start scrambling

-        Keeping the finance team separate from the decision makers and strategy people.

Take heart, 60% of organisations don’t link strategies to budget. But those that DO are significantly more likely to execute their strategy (makes sense, doesn’t it…)

How to put your money where your mouth is:

-        Think multi-year. The scramble of annual planning can mess with our long-term goals. Be clear about the impact on medium and long term targets of changing this year’s spend.

-        Be realistic. We overestimate how much we can achieve in a year, and underestimate what it will cost. Instead of trying to save the world in FY20 (using less than half of your capex and twice your opex...) use the timing and spending of similar past projects to guide achievable commitments. .

-        Early engagement. Involve senior leadership and governance early, not at the end, and use strategy as the pivot point for budget discussions.

For the advanced:

-        Consider presenting your budget in accordance to your strategic objectives, instead of your functional areas. 

Hint: The introduction to the Wellbeing Budget is a great example of this – spending and initiatives are presented together, in terms of priorities, rather than having a section of the plan devoted to narrative, and an unrelated wad of spreadsheets up the back. You can view this here.

 

Strategy Is Everyone's Job

Ever heard of Not My Job (NMJ) syndrome? There are some particularly hilarious examples of this on the internet…

This is an extreme example of what can happen when people are focused on the details of a specific task, rather than connected to a bigger purpose or outcome. Because as far as the research goes, that’s what people are looking for in their work – a sense of meaning and connection to purpose.

Strategy is everyone’s job.

It’s a bit like a rowing crew, if everyone isn’t rowing in the same direction, it’s very hard to build momentum and get results. Your teams know this too – 70% of workers surveyed in a 2016 BetterWorks sponsored HBR report believed that a lack of alignment prevented them from fulfilling organisational objectives.  

“People at work are thirsting for context, yearning to know that what they do contributes to a larger whole.” – Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Strategy shouldn’t be a pretty but abstract document that sits around a board table. Setting and communicating a big picture direction is a senior responsibility, sure – but making strategy meaningful and delivering on change is all about everyday decisions and actions.  

Progress toward a meaningful goal is the number one motivator for employees. People want to know how to prioritise, how their work makes a difference to the big picture, and that they will be recognised in ways that reflect that. Making progress toward big picture goals is satisfying – it enhances culture, boosts retention and underpins organisational performance.

Quick tips on how to make strategy everyone’s job:

·        TELL – Use plain, consistent, shared language and be clear about priorities and expectations. Repeat it over and over again. Make strategy visible.

·        ASK – Connect with good questions - what changes will be needed in your team to make this real? What will people need from you and each other to support change?

·        SUPPORT – Remove friction and walk the talk! Celebrate short term wins and reward alignment with strategy – instead of short-term, conflicting KPIs.

Is there a Not My Job approach to strategy in your organisation?

Stay tuned for more on this as I delve deeper into the world of strategy 101 and work on my mission to build strategy capability across community facing organisations.

PS – Do you have a burning strategy question? To celebrate the upcoming launch of my new Strategy 101 programme, I am running a FREE Q&A video series, which I will publish on LinkedIn (and link you all to the following week) every Wednesday.

Send your questions through and follow along to hear what other people are asking.

Til next week

-A

Strategy Is Simple

If I met anyone from your senior leadership team in the lift, and asked what your strategy is – how many different answers would I get?

It’s hard to answer complicated questions with simple answers.

It’s even harder to answer simple questions when all we have are complicated answers.

Somewhere along the way, we let the buzzwords take over. Senior leaders and CEs are walking around talking about objectives, missions, visions, purpose, strategies, approaches, principles, values, action plans and initiatives – it’s enough to give anyone a headache.

Don’t try googling “strategy definition” either. It’s a nightmare.

“Good writing is clear thinking made visible. “– Bob Wheeler

Have you ever heard the saying “if you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself”? This is a lot like that. Using jargon and complicated phrasing is a clear sign we don’t know what we’re on about.

A central agency I’m working with on a strategy rollout has put together an organisational strategy that’s had about half a dozen name changes this year. It’s been a plan, a common purpose, a strategy, a mahi…. With all this energy going into figuring out what it’s called, it’s no wonder they need a hand to get traction or engagement.

The problem here is not with having a strategy – direction is critical. The problem is when we focus on the words, or pile more things on because we don’t know how to answer the hard questions.

This isn’t usually because we don’t understand the why – most leaders understand the big picture. It’s not with the what either –we’re usually overflowing with passionate people driving fantastic work programmes and initiatives.

The problem is in the middle – with being clear about how we make decisions and allocate resources. This is strategy. The connecting piece that brings together our aspirations and operations. Boiled down, strategy is about how we make choices that take us closer to our big goals.

Strategy is about how we make choices that take us closer to our goals.

A simple approach is good for business, too. Paul Leinwand found that organisations with 1-3 key priorities were significantly more profitable and effective. Simple strategy drives alignment, creates meaning and connects with people.

So, it’s time to bust the myth – strategy isn’t complicated. It’s simple.

But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Do you need to strip away the buzzwords and get clear on how you make choices that take you closer to your goals?

Stay tuned for more on this as I delve deeper into the world of strategy 101 and work on my mission to build strategy capability across community facing organisations.

PS – Do you have a burning strategy question? To celebrate the upcoming launch of my new Strategy 101 programme, I am running a FREE Q&A video series, which I will publish on LinkedIn (and link you all to the following week) every Wednesday.

Send your questions through and follow along to hear what other people are asking.

Til next week

-A

 

The Future of Work

ATMs and Strategy

When ATMs were first rolled out, economists, politicians and the media panicked. Automation was to rob bank tellers of their jobs! With people no longer required to give the correct change and stamp deposit slips, the world was tipped to be experiencing the early stages of the robot revolution.

The reality, however, is more nuanced. There are more bank tellers than ever. Rather than widespread job loss, the introduction of technology for routine tasks instead changed the job focus for bank tellers to higher value tasks like customer and relationship management, financial services and sales.

Bank tellers are just one example of an industry where the changing nature of work, technology and society demand a different set of skills from our workforce. I’ve been reading about this a lot lately, to get my head around the nature of human work, teams, leadership and strategic change that complements the coming wave of AI and big data.

The big thing that stands out to me? The skills and capabilities most required, moving into the future, all centre around some core themes:

Critical thinking, engagement and influence and contextual/tacit knowledge

…. aka: the stuff that we aren’t aware enough of, or too inconsistent or ambiguous about to automate.

… aka: strategy, change and influence.

 “We know more than we can tell.” – David H. Autor

The Human Value Chain

Only humans are strategic. Ironically, even getting to a machine-led future, which requires meaningful and intentional integration of technology into our lives and organisations, demands the strategist to understand context, set direction, align social and cultural norms and change hearts and minds.

It’s a bit like when you buy a new piece of technology or software to solve all your problems (I’m looking at you, Apple Watch gathering dust in my bedroom) and realise you actually need to change something about yourself or your life to get any value from it.

Renowned economic historian J. Bradford DeLong talks about the ten categories of human productive value, tracing their evolution over time.

The first two levels involve manual, physical labour and manufacture – while the third and fourth capture the control of machine-driven production.

In the fifth and sixth categories, we move through to jobs requiring us to use and exchange information and communication – like accounting and communications. At the seventh, we are creating meaning and systemising tasks (such as writing code and developing software.)

The eighth level sees human connection introduced, while in the ninth we become more relative in our significance (acting as “cheerleader, manager, or arbiter for other humans.”) The tenth and final level sees us thinking critically about complex problems, then inventing ideas and solutions in response.

Technology has been working itself through the bottom levels at pace.

According to Delong, “over the next few generations, this process of technological development will work itself out, leaving humans with just four categories of things to do: thinking critically, overseeing other humans, providing a human connection, and translating human whims into a language the machines can understand.”

Investing in Strategy

It makes sense, then, that these are the capabilities we invest in for our future!

Except… we’re not. While employers are asking (crying out for?) for strategic thinking, and graduates assure us they know how - the evidence suggests there’s a real mismatch.

 ATMs did not spell the end for bank tellers, and machines are unlikely to spell the end for strategists any time soon – in fact, the demand for jobs with critical analysis, meaning making and leadership skills is predicted to skyrocket.

Are you and your team up for the challenge?

Stay tuned for more on this as I delve deeper into the world of strategy 101 and work on my mission to build strategy capability across community facing organisations.

PS – Do you have a burning strategy question? To celebrate the upcoming launch of my new Strategy 101 programme, I am running a FREE Q&A video series, which I will publish on LinkedIn (and link you all to the following week) every Wednesday.

Send your questions through and follow along to hear what other people are asking.

Til next week

-A

Is Strategy The Future of Work?

ATMs and Strategy

When ATMs were first rolled out, economists, politicians and the media panicked. Automation was to rob bank tellers of their jobs! With people no longer required to give the correct change and stamp deposit slips, the world was tipped to be experiencing the early stages of the robot revolution.

The reality, however, is more nuanced. There are more bank tellers than ever. Rather than widespread job loss, the introduction of technology for routine tasks instead changed the job focus for bank tellers to higher value tasks like customer and relationship management, financial services and sales.

Bank tellers are just one example of an industry where the changing nature of work, technology and society demand a different set of skills from our workforce. I’ve been reading about this a lot lately, to get my head around the nature of human work, teams, leadership and strategic change that complements the coming wave of AI and big data.

The big thing that stands out to me? The skills and capabilities most required, moving into the future, all centre around some core themes:

Critical thinking, engagement and influence and contextual/tacit knowledge

…. aka: the stuff that we aren’t aware enough of, or too inconsistent or ambiguous about to automate.

… aka: strategy, change and influence.

 “We know more than we can tell.” – David H. Autor

The Human Value Chain

Only humans are strategic. Ironically, even getting to a machine-led future, which requires meaningful and intentional integration of technology into our lives and organisations, demands the strategist to understand context, set direction, align social and cultural norms and change hearts and minds.

It’s a bit like when you buy a new piece of technology or software to solve all your problems (I’m looking at you, Apple Watch gathering dust in my bedroom) and realise you actually need to change something about yourself or your life to get any value from it.

Renowned economic historian J. Bradford DeLong talks about the ten categories of human productive value, tracing their evolution over time.

The first two levels involve manual, physical labour and manufacture – while the third and fourth capture the control of machine-driven production.

In the fifth and sixth categories, we move through to jobs requiring us to use and exchange information and communication – like accounting and communications. At the seventh, we are creating meaning and systemising tasks (such as writing code and developing software.)

The eighth level sees human connection introduced, while in the ninth we become more relative in our significance (acting as “cheerleader, manager, or arbiter for other humans.”) The tenth and final level sees us thinking critically about complex problems, then inventing ideas and solutions in response.

Technology has been working itself through the bottom levels at pace.

According to Delong, “over the next few generations, this process of technological development will work itself out, leaving humans with just four categories of things to do: thinking critically, overseeing other humans, providing a human connection, and translating human whims into a language the machines can understand.”

Investing in Strategy

It makes sense, then, that these are the capabilities we invest in for our future!

Except… we’re not. While employers are asking (crying out for?) for strategic thinking, and graduates assure us they know how - the evidence suggests there’s a real mismatch.

 ATMs did not spell the end for bank tellers, and machines are unlikely to spell the end for strategists any time soon – in fact, the demand for jobs with critical analysis, meaning making and leadership skills is predicted to skyrocket.

Are you and your team up for the challenge?

Stay tuned for more on this as I delve deeper into the world of strategy 101 and work on my mission to build strategy capability across community facing organisations.

PS – Do you have a burning strategy question? To celebrate the upcoming launch of my new Strategy 101 programme, I am running a FREE Q&A video series, which I will publish on LinkedIn (and link you all to the following week) every Wednesday.

Send your questions through and follow along to hear what other people are asking.

Til next week

-A

Community, not Competition

There’s a common cliché about working parents – we’re expected to perform our job as though we don’t have children, and parent as though we don’t have a job.

Working in the public service is a bit the same – we’re expected to deliver community outcomes as though there’s no financial imperative, and perform as though we aren’t community-driven.

The guidance on how to tackle these challenges is thin on the ground. Popular strategy literature provides useful tips, but the focus on market competition falls short for public servants.

For the public organisation, as much as the private company:

·       Strategy is all about the way we choose to achieve our big picture goals, rather than getting lost in big-picture vision, or tangled inside detailed plans

·       Our strategic position should reflect our key capabilities and unique ability to deliver value

·       Key systems should align to this position and be both complementary and reinforcing

·       Strategy is all about trade-offs and choices.

The central difference between a private and public sector strategy is in the purpose:

While private companies aim to produce maximum profit through competitive advantage, public organisations aim to produce maximum value through community impact.

This means the shape of our trade-offs and choices are quite different. Public agencies face a constant tension between worthy causes, and commonly find themselves choosing between right and right – not right and wrong. The question sometimes feels like “which deserving initiative, programme or group should miss out?”

The paradox here, just like the working parent, is that the stakes are high, and the outcomes matter. Which makes those rade-offs more important than ever, as we use our limited resources to make as much difference as we can.

“Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.” – Michael Porter

The public organisation should have no desire to compete. In fact, if there are others willing and able to operate in our space – great! We should get the heck out, or support that behaviour if there are gaps in the public good that won’t be managed by private enterprise.

Being different in this context, then, means more than crafting a market niche. It means meeting otherwise unmet community needs, that generate public value. Make no mistake, operational excellence is important – we need to be efficient and effective in the way we serve the public. But when it comes to strategy, we need more.

Auckland Council Community Places faced this exact tension last year. For this team, pressure to increase non-rates revenue almost sparked a new strategic direction which would have included competing in the private events market, and eroding the unique value offered to communities.

Instead, the unit chose a strategic position to add more value which reflected the community good and leveraged existing capabilities around connection and equality of access, and the results speak for themselves. Read more about this here.

I speak about this tension in my Public Sector Strategy 101 seminar – for more information about running a workshop with your teams, or to organise a taster session, email info@aliciamckay.co.nz with the subject line “Strategy 101”

Til next week!

A