Why this strategy sometimes causes confusion. And what you can do to restore clarity.
Because we’re a technology group, we always need to explore different directions to keep ahead of our fast changing marketplace.
We’ve found that one of the most effective ways to explore innovative strategies is to do what Jim Collins in his book, Great by Choice, calls, “firing bullets”.
Firing bullets means launching strategies that you consider to be small risks to see if it merits firing another bullet.
If it doesn’t pan out, you fire another bullet in another direction to see if that produces a better result.
Ready, aim, pivot!
Firing bullets is what’s called an iterative strategy. It requires pivots and continuous decision-making as your business ventures into new areas that either prove worthy of further investment or are abandoned.
And this continuous movement is where the challenge to staying a clear, transparent organization begins (and sometimes ends).
When you’re trying hard to be a super transparent organization, you try to keep people in the know at all times. Especially during times of rapid change.
But every strategy carries the risk of unintended consequences. No matter how much you try to be a healthy business. No matter how hard you try to be inclusive.
Gaps will happen.
How gaps happen in iterative discussions
As your leadership team pivots and fires a series of bullets to explore potential new directions, you’ll find that some team members fall out of the loop. Or, they continue to make decisions based on outdated information.
There will also be some personality types that will struggle more with this kind of process.
The continuous motion of an iterative process will create challenges for you to see everyone’s perspective as you simultaneously rely on them to execute whatever part of the mission you set out for them to accomplish.
But as transparent as you’d like to be as a business leader, reality dictates that not every team member can be part of every iterative discussion.
How lack of understanding creates gaps
An example: We had an employee in the past who struggled with the continuous pivots we needed to make to keep pace with our technology marketplace.
This person always had anxiety about taking the actions that were needed.
Because the team member couldn’t be part of every leadership conversation, they consistently felt left out. But this person also executed a role that was important to creating that change.
It caused a lot of difficulty between that individual and the person who supervised him.
But when you’re a leader of a large team effort, you know it’s impossible to take your people into every leadership discussion and continuously iterate in real time.
People are different and how to own it
At the time of the issue we just discussed, we were held back in finding a good resolution because we really hadn’t learned how to understand the different personality types within our organization — and how to best communicate with them.
Compare that situation to a more recent one:
A manager and his employee had trouble communicating. They weren’t on the same page and couldn’t understand each other.
So they pulled out the DISC chart and started by reviewing their individual personality types.
This helped them figure out how to connect with each other better. Both came away totally energized by the experience!
The DISC profile is one tool we use to help us understand the personality types on our team. Better understanding of who your people really are – what they want out of life and how they prefer to relate – sets the stage for better communication, deeper connection and fewer gaps.
5 steps to retain organizational clarity in times of change
- Simplicity is best – As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, Patrick Lencioni explained in his book, The Advantage, that your business should have one clearly stated “why”. This helps everyone get behind whatever your team decides to pursue. Same with goals: Here at Mavidea, we used to set four or five goals, but found we were suggesting that if everything is important, nothing is important. Today, we set only three.
- Repeat. Repeat — I used to think that if I stood up and just announced a goal to everyone all at one time, the team would not only understand what I was talking about, but would remember it weeks or months afterward. Now that I’m 41 years old, I’m struggling with remembering what I ate for breakfast (just ask me!). It’s hit home how unrealistic it is to expect everyone to remember every word I say. You’ve got to repeat those goals, that mission and that vision on a regular basis to keep everyone tracking on the same page.
- Remember that different types of people learn differently — You need to prepare a combination of ways to communicate what you need to say to build understanding among a wide range of people. Analytical people learn differently than visual people. Some people like charts, some respond to statistics. Hand on learners need to experience something to learn about it. A tool like the DISC Profile can help your team member understand each other better.
- Develop trust with each one of your teammates — It’s impossible to share every ounce of information and logic along the way. With a high level of trust you’ll be able to build the necessary communication with your teammates so you can bring them along as your group makes progress.
- Celebrate small milestones and individual achievements — This assures your team members that your organization is making progress. And, that personal contributions are appreciated — even if not everyone sees all of the steps, all of the time.
