Make Your Future a Little Less Uncertain
This week I am sharing a case study on how I helped one organization create a strategy to deal with success, staff conflicts and uncertainty.
Hello everyone 👋
This week I am sharing a case study from a recent strategy engagement. Look for the one or two insights that you can take in your business over the next few days.
If you're a Substack user (you would know if you are), be sure to check out my Notes. I have been writing short “decision breakdowns” showcasing how organizations are making great decisions and the lessons for all of us. I recently covered the Stanley cup craze, Chipotle and the viral drinking game from the Wetherspoons pubs.
I. The Price of Success
The organization in today’s case study was facing a common but rarely talked about challenge: the unexpected price of success.
This organization works in the domestic abuse field (shortened to DV) and their field was facing several foundational changes. The pandemic was accelerating how they communicated with clients (beyond phone calls), inflation was forcing more people into divorce due to higher stress and record increases in immigration (in the U.S.) created a higher demand for their services.
I’m fascinated by these inflection points. Some organizations work to create their own inflection while others receive them due to external conditions. Regardless of the source, inflection points demand that organizations think through their strategy carefully.
You can’t just keep taking the same actions as in the past. You need to radically shake up your operating model to adapt to the future that is slowly appearing in front of you.
Success always exacts a price, especially around people. You may discover (like this client did) that some members of your staff are no longer suited for where you need to go. They were critical in the past but the future version of your organization requires different skills.
When it comes to people, you should hire for the future, train for the present and let go of the past.
II. Speed is as Important as Accuracy
Lengthy strategic planning is anachronistic to our modern world. You cannot collect enough data, in a timely fashion, to reduce uncertainty to 0%. Organizations need to make the best decisions possible, based on their current knowledge,
The organization in this case study was excited about the possibility of creating a strategic plan in one day. They could start taking action on their most pressing questions rapidly, instead of drowning in endless conversations.
Here are several of the questions we covered in our session:
How do we deal with the growing divide between the staff who are client-facing (often overwhelmed) and those who are not?
Should we keep offering the same services or add/remove any of them?
What skills are we missing in our staff based on the expected future?
How can we increase accountability during the implementation of the strategy?
An imperfect answer implemented consistently is often better than a perfect answer implemented inconsistently. Making progress on any of the questions above would be better than doing nothing.
I helped them run a powerful strategic conversation where we uncovered differences in perception, differences in how the organization should deal with challenges and differences in the top priorities. One by one, we bridged these differences and came to an agreement or compromise.
I cannot claim that we solved all issues but we tackled the most important ones. Other issues will resolve themselves on their own or become irrelevant as the organization starts to implement the ideas from the session.
III. Making the Future a Little Less Uncertain
Uncertainty is a hot topic these days. I’m constantly seeing ads aiming to assure individuals that uncertainty can be managed or controlled. It is merely something that can be tackled with a better calendar or productivity tool.
Reality would say otherwise.
I don’t think uncertainty is something to be managed. You deal with it by making decisions faster and working in smaller chunks. A five-year strategic plan is ineffective because it is too big of a chunk to tackle at once. A 12-month plan makes more sense for most organizations.
If you pick up the news on any given day, you will see how wrong we are about the future. We predict recessions, wild storms and events that never happen. Instead of trying to improve our ability to predict, we should strive to improve our ability to adapt.
I helped the organization explore the different possibilities in their world. For example, demand for their services could continue to increase, plateau or decrease. We could then explore how actions would differ in each one.
How should they behave in each of these scenarios?
What is the minimum preparation needed for each scenario?
How can they know which scenario is actually playing out?
How can they adapt rapidly?
As humans, we crave certainty but are surrounded by ambiguity. Even the weather can be unpredictable within any given day. Strategy is a fantastic way of learning to live and thrive despite uncertainty.
I’ll leave you with a final comment from the organization covered in this case study. I hope you found some of the lessons useful for your organization.
Strategic planning can feel daunting, but Ruben guided our management team through a two-day, structured process of identifying and prioritizing a handful of critical areas of operation that we could collectively focus on over the next 12-18 months. He patiently helped our group come to consensus, while providing team members multiple ways to share observations, opinions and individual visions for our future. We appreciated Ruben’s professionalism and thoroughly enjoyed working with him.
That’s all I have for this week! I hope you found this case study helpful.
Until next week,
Ruben