Avoiding the disaster that is ‘solution-driven’

Organisations live with the status quo (old or new) or with failing or disappointing solutions because they let solutions replace strategy. Whatever goals they might have had, implementing the solution became the thing. Solution-driven, change-managed – call it what you like, it’s a disaster. And because a generation of leaders has been taught that this is “doing it properly”, they can’t see it!

In the following, solution refers to anything we’d like to implement (or at least try to implement) in pursuit of our goals. Products, tools, technologies, practices, frameworks – they all apply. With that broad definition in mind, what does progress look like? Framed as a series of questions, it looks something like this:

Are there solutions that might work for us here?Is that solution feasible here?Now that we’re implementing that solution, does it seem to work, at least on its own terms?Does that solution deliver the outcomes we expected?Are we making the progress we expected on our wider goals?

There are hazards at every step:

Moving on from a “solved problem” (solved only in your head, that is)Abandoning the strategy, because the one solution you thought of (or were sold) isn’t feasibleAbandoning the strategy, living with a failing solutionAbandoning the strategy, living with a disappointing solutionAbandoning the strategy, when it seemed to be going so well

Organisations live with the status quo (old or new) or with failing or disappointing solutions because they let solutions replace strategy. Whatever goals they might have had, implementing the solution became the thing. Solution-driven, change-managed – call it what you like, it’s a disaster. And because a generation of leaders has been taught that this is “doing it properly”, they can’t see it!

To be fair to them, taught to think one way, most people won’t immediately see that the answer is to flip things around, to turn them on their head. Paradigm shifts are hard! But let’s try. Working backwards, or right to left, as we call it:

What are our goals and measures of success (outcomes both)?What are our progress indicators (more outcomes) telling us?On what particular areas of opportunity (outcomes again) are we currently focussing, and where do we think they will lead?What have we learned from recent experiments (prototype solutions or smaller probes)?What are we learning from current experiments?What do we hope to learn (and to gain – outcomes again) from our next experiments?

Not solution-driven, strategic thinking quickly abandoned in the implementation of monolithic, ill-fitting solutions, but (quite literally) outcome-oriented, our direction given by the outcomes we have chosen to pursue. Outcomes before solutions, strategy both developed and pursued in the language of meaningful outcomes. No solution too big to fail, solutions of appropriate granularity emerging at the right time from the people closest to the problem, engaged people finding solutions they are motivated to implement. The strategy process and the innovation process properly wired up, working backwards from impact and learning.

There is some skill to be learned in the practice of outcome-orientation. Mostly though it’s a language that leaders at every level of experience and responsibility can easily learn. Acquire that language (it’s not hard) and practice it a bit (it’s an everyday thing, not only for set piece events) and the thinking quickly follows.

Related:

Picturing Foundation (May) Right to Left: Implementing Agile Strategies That Deliver Real Business Outcomes (video, May)

Breaking:

For a more organisational perspective, optional pre-reading for the upcoming Leading in a Transforming Organisation is a draft white paper with the long but quite descriptive title Everywhere all at once: Introducing the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation, an accessible, situational, and complexity-aware presentation of the Viable System Model. Mailing list subscribers will be offered the PDF to download today; alternatively you can request your copy here. Agendashift Academy subscribers have access to the source Google Doc for comment (see the Adaptive Organisation space); your access can be arranged if you have constructive comments to make. Or just send them to me!

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Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its four modules in the recommended order:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy: Fit for maximum impact Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success Adaptive Organisation: Business agility at every scale (parts I and II, a certificate for each)

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To deliver Leading with Outcomes yourself, see our Authorised Facilitator and Trainer Programmes. Our next TTT/F trainings take place in September (online) and December (Bengaluru, India).

Upcoming events

With me (Mike Burrows) unless otherwise indicated.

June:

20-22 June, London, UK – 1-day, 2-day, and 3-day tickets available, each day certified:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation
(Leading with Outcomes: Foundation and Adaptive Organisation I & II)27 June (TBC, watch this space), online meetup:
Between spaces, scopes, and scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you

July:

06 July, 18:30 BST, Nottingham, England:
Between spaces, scopes, and scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you 11 July, online, 15:00GMT, 16:00CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: Where to start? Where next?

Later:

12-20 September, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer/Facilitator (TTT/F) 09 October, Melbourne, Australia:
Kanban Australia 2023 09 November, online meetup, 11:30GMT, 12:30CST, 06.30am ET:
Between spaces, scopes, and scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you 1-2 December, Bengaluru, India:
Kanban India 2023

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At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.