Contents
Foreword
Prologue: A Shockproof Future
Chapter 1: Beware the Big Blue Catfish
Shockproof Elements: Leadership, Strategy, Organization, and Talent
The Shockproof Mind-Set and Capabilities
Connections and Calibrations
The Shockproof Difference in Action
Winning Once versus Being Shockproof
The Journey Begins
Chapter 2: Headlines or Tombstones?
After a While, Crocodile . . .
Is It the Shoes?
Neither Snow nor Rain nor Heat nor Gloom of Night . . .
FedEx Delivers
Consultant, Heal Thyself
Could This Be You?
Glatfelter Goes Beyond Paper
Read Your Next Headline, Using Shockproof Lenses
The Future Is Now: Let’s Get Started
Chapter 3: Make Sure the Strategy Is “Not Wrong”
Economic Downturn Provides Juicy Opportunity
Leaders Who Create the Battle Plan Can Adapt the Battle Plan
Breaking Down versus Breaking Out
Strategy IQ Meets Execution IQ
Make Sure the Strategy Is “Not Wrong,” and Make It Stick
Making Technology More Than an Afterthought
Knowing When to Hit Reboot: Every Strategy Has a Shelf Life
Not Wrong, Not Perfect, but Close Enough
Chapter 4: Beyond Boxes and Lines
Nurse, Scalpel Please
Seeing beyond the Chart
Shockproof Organization Design
An Early Warning Sign Triggers Significant Organizational Change
What’s the Work That Needs to Get Done?
Trading Up
Diagnosing Organization Design Issues the Shockproof Way
Chapter 5: Carbon Paper? Really?!
Talent Acquisition: The People Who Got You Here Won’t Get You There
Talent Deployment: Right People, Right Place, Right Time
Talent Development
Shockproof Rewards Try the Veal—or, How Can the Food Be So Good and the Service So Bad?
How to Think about Rewards
Making the Most of Your Most Valuable Resource
Chapter 6: Connections and Calibrations
Shockproof Companies Maintain the Ready Position
Shock Happens. It’s the Response That Counts.
Dynamic Adjustments Build Muscle Memory
Serving an Ace
You Can’t Lip-Synch Success
The Five Cs of Alignment in Shockproof Companies
Zooming In on the Five Cs of Shockproof Alignment
Chapter 7: Be the Leader You Seek
Only Leaders Can Align
Polish Your Lenses
The Extra Power of Shockproof Lenses
The Systems Lens: Do You See What I See?
The Value Lens: Cutting to the Core
The Change Lens: Nothing Will Bring Back the Hour
The Interpersonal Lens: Advocacy and Inquiry
The Self-Awareness Lens: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
Are You Beginning to see Things More Clearly?
Sweating the Way Up the Performance Chart
The Shockproof Leader Difference
Chapter 8: Pass the Salt
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
Prologue
A Shockproof Future
It’s the year 2015. You’re sneaking a quick peek at the cover article in the current Fortune magazine using the latest generation of iPad interactive technology. The article’s headline is simple and compelling:
The Verdict Is In: The Most Successful Global Businesses Are Shockproof
As your eyes scan the iPad screen, the narrative scrolls or stops as you ponder new phrases or skip across familiar terms. The images automatically resize as you need them, the 3-D photos appearing in the tablet’s new holographic display.
The story behind the headline greatly interests you. For months you have been hearing about the remarkable successes of so-called Shockproof companies where leaders dynamically align business strategy, organization design, talent, and management practices to achieve admirable results.
The article showcases dozens of successful businesses that began the quest right around 2010 to develop the habits of a Shockproof enterprise. The results are eye-popping, and the iPad graphics fire your imagination. As you read, you learn that the recession that crippled the global economy beginning in 2008 helped spur numerous leaders to take bold steps to ensure their workplaces would never again be so unprepared to adapt to changing business conditions, whatever the magnitude.
With one move of the eye you extract a chart that summarizes the results achieved by these featured businesses: Some of the names are familiar household names; others are brand new. Almost every industry is represented. You ponder, what made them capable of accomplishing astonishing achievements in the midst of economic, social, and political adversity?
You realize that a number of these businesses have performed so well that many of their competitors are now out of business or facing bankruptcy. You are eager to dive in and find out more about the choices they made that helped them to so nimbly execute their business strategies and adapt and respond to challenges and opportunities.
A few more blinks of the eye and you find within the article another reference to the Shockproof approach and read that these companies shared a common belief that they had the potential to develop “. . . the inherent capability of evolving to overcome challenges and capitalize on emerging opportunities.”
During the last few years, several studies were conducted to determine which factors were most frequently associated with organizational agility and adaptability, and the results became further evidence that a relentless focus on the connections between strategy, organization, and talent provide a clear competitive advantage in unlocking value. You use an app that compares research findings and it spits out four themes common to all the research cited in the Fortune article.
1. Everyone in the business is in sync with and laser-focused on the same high-priority goals that create value for the business.
2. The business is organized to be the right size and shape so that everyone is able to efficiently and effectively achieve shared goals.
3. People have the right skills and necessary attributes to do the work they have been selected to do.
4. Leaders continually adjust how the business is designed and talent is managed so that both align with changes in strategy.
You wonder whether a discipline as straightforward and pragmatic as this Shockproof approach could actually be the key to execution issues associated with your global business.
Farther down you read that, “Business strategists and leadership experts first coined the term Shockproof in 2008 and it inaugurated an earnest dialogue with leaders about how to intentionally develop the capacity to become a Shockproof enterprise.”
Looking up from the tablet you suddenly remember a strategy execution course sponsored by your alma mater; you and your project team did research on emerging thinking in the area of strategy execution. You also recall a group of straight-talking management consultants who were researching and writing about the relationship between strategy alignment and strategy execution. They shared new ideas about the kind of thinking that helps leaders, anywhere in the organization, better connect strategy, organization, and talent to achieve results. You had meant to read their book, Shockproof: How to Hardwire Your Business for Lasting Success, but the day-to-day grind, putting out fires, and hitting quarterly goals took priority, and you never took the time to do so.
You decide now to shut down the Fortune article and move to the Kindle icon on the iPad. It’s time.
You download the latest edition of Shockproof and start reading. . . .
Chapter 1
Beware the Big Blue Catfish
We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence.
—Charles Darwin
As a business leader you enjoy connecting the dots between your own experience and new ideas. That’s how you’ve always learned. Reading about Shockproof businesses and their successes has gotten you fired up. You begin to think about the last time you had a chance to step back from the daily grind and get a fresh perspective. It was at a conference in New York several years ago; where investment bankers and C-suite executives spoke in mostly Darwinian terms about winning and what it takes to compete. You remember an especially entertaining speaker talking about a predatory, big blue catfish that had wiped out several other species of fish with the relentless focus of a trained assassin. The same charismatic speaker referenced celebrity chef Mario Batali, who regularly quips about humans sitting atop the food chain. He’ll put it this way, the speaker quipped, pointing at a PowerPoint picture of a chef inspecting a table of unsuspecting diners: If you’re slower than me, dumber than me, and you taste good . . . pass the salt!1
He also presented a video clip of the African savannah, featuring a kudu running for its life, having been cut out of the herd by a pride of lions. The speaker’s style was polished and his delivery was engaging, but it was the wide array of stories and examples related to his claims about the natural world that most captured your attention. The message and the intended “takeaway” was clear: “It’s good to be the king!”
The next speaker used different analogies, but the message was basically the same: Everybody wants to win and be the top dog, or lead lion, or big blue catfish—pick your species—but the message is the same. It’s even woven into our popular culture. The song “Only the Strong Survive”2 has been recorded three times since 1969. The songwriter and Darwin seem to agree that certain species have the ability to adapt, survive, and flourish in the face of long odds, whereas others don’t. Size doesn’t always matter. T-rex only comes to life in fantasies like Night at the Museum and Jurassic Park; but those pesky cockroaches? They’ve been around for quite a while, and it doesn’t look like they’re going away anytime soon.
Of course, while you might have a boss whose management style resembles that of a T-rex, and a few annoying, insectlike associates, the blinding flash of the obvious is that the corporate world hotly embraces the concept of survival of the fittest. Take it to the bank. Corporate board rooms, blogs, and conference calls echo daily with various versions of Mario the predator or the big blue catfish or the kudu on the run. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, grow or die are clichés, for sure, but they get lots of airtime.
Once you hit the airline lounge at LaGuardia on your way home from the conference, you found a moment to think. Over meticulously sliced pieces of cheese and a glass of wine, you began to reflect on what you heard. You realized, even then, that your company’s strategy was not centered around an eat or be eaten growth mentality. For years your CEO had emphasized your company’s high level of customer focus as its “special sauce”—irresistible, and the envy of your competitors. This level of customer intimacy is not a “bigger is better strategy”; rather, it is about your business developing its own winning game and sticking to it, without becoming distracted or derailed by the aggressive tactics of others.
There is something you read about the teaser on “Being Shockproof” in Fortune that recalls the sentiment you experienced in the airline lounge three years ago. A core principle is the belief that every business needs to find its own “best game” and stick to that game, learn to play it better than anyone else, and focus on improving personal best, versus beating the competition at their game. You know you have little personal interest in you or your business turning into “a big blue catfish.” You always liked the idea of your company providing something of unique value, versus being “too big to fail.” After all, so much of your company’s success has been achieved through unique products and services that are hard to mimic, along with a hardwired respect for cooperation and collaboration with your suppliers and customers. Kudus and catfish? Hmmm . . .
There is a very clear and intriguing contrast between the ideas you remember from the conference and the type of thinking that initially got you enthused when you read the Shockproof summary.
You fire up your iPad, call up that Fortune article, and hit the next Learn More link under Shockproof. “That’s more like it,” you whisper under your breath, looking for a comfortable spot to settle in and get to the goods. You have often wondered how Good to Great3 profiled companies, which not too long ago were high flyers and front runners, ended up losing their edge and fell to the back of the pack, or went out of business altogether.
Conversely, you wonder, why are some companies simply more resilient than others? Some businesses that you would have bet against surviving, or assumed would be gobbled up, are still standing. Whether it was cunning or strength or just plain hard work, companies like IBM have somehow survived and thrived, and a revitalized Apple is prospering, with new product launches and stock at all time highs. Jerry Butler wasn’t writing about corporate America when he penned “Only the Strong Survive,” but as an anthem for the businesses that remain high performers in the face of economic, social, and political challenges, it is a highly appropriate sentiment. After all, you don’t want to be the one glimpsing Mario over your shoulder with the salt shaker. Yet, you believe that acquisitive growth for the sake of size is outdated. There must be more; a different way.
You hit the Collapse Themes icon after touching all three of the articles that popped up earlier, and discover a few interesting similarities among them. These are summarized in a text table that shows up in the hologram feature of your device.
You highlight the Definition tab on your reader to get the most recent definition of Shockproof to show up on the Web:
- Agile, and can quickly reprioritize goals and objectives as business conditions change.
- Led by leaders who understand how to mobilize people and deliver results.
- Highly flexible structures and practices that ensure the right people are doing the right work at the right time.
- Staffed with a workforce that is adaptive and inherently motivated because they are performing work that is directly connected to the business strategy.
- Defined by people who are energized by change and the rewards of success.
Reading on, you discover that not all Shockproof companies demonstrate each of these characteristics in equal measure. In some cases, they might have developed the traits organically over the years. Some companies exhibit the traits because their leaders have been paying close attention to value creation and have adopted over the years sound leadership practices and operating principles that are now firmly embedded in their companies’ cultures. In other cases, through pure trial and error, business leaders may have stumbled on the key to becoming Shockproof. But when capability is combined with the intention to focus on these characteristics, it is rare that the results are anything less than potent and sustainable.
Like a race car driver at the front of the pack, who suddenly spins out, only to regain traction and go on to win the race by a large margin, a successful company might lose its way, then regain its sense of direction and go on to be more successful than ever. In some circumstances, businesses that always seem to “qualify to start at the post” continually refine their performance through the efforts of not just talented “drivers of value,” but their proverbial “pit crews” who are able to somehow carve away extra seconds of time to propel the business to Victory Lane. And like the race team who can never seem to put their driver into a position to win, or rarely qualify for a race, we’ve watched as companies continued to stumble, never to regain their balance. We’ve also seen companies breathe the rarified air of success, only to abruptly hit the wall and spiral right out of business.
Shockproof companies are more resilient and successful for a reason: They get the connections right between strategy, organization, and talent, and calibrate them effectively in response to changing business conditions. Then, like the synchronized cylinders in the winning race car pumping with energy and power, and a team with a singular focus, they figure out how to stay ahead of the field. When they encounter a challenge, they adjust and overcome. When they encounter an opportunity, they are quick to change course and pursue it with impressive focus and discipline. These companies may also lose a few races; but when they do, they learn. They learn what kind of fine-tuning is necessary to their strategy, their organization design, or their approach to managing talent. They learn how to make calibrations or adjustments along the way, dynamically and in real time. Seeing what adjustments need to take place, and understanding how to make these calibrations, is the work of leaders. When leaders act to align strategy, organization, and talent, their businesses get better at winning at their own game, not the game devised by others, with the cards stacked in their favor.
Shockproof Elements: Leadership, Strategy, Organization, and Talent
prioritizing the alignment between strategy, organization, talent, and leadership is the foundation for creating a Shockproof organization. Most organizations are multifaceted, and excelling in one, or even all of these areas fails to address the most critical issue—the issue of sustainability. Alignment among the elements contributes more to ongoing success than excellence in any one area, because the environment changes daily, and can quickly throw organizations out of balance.
In this book, we will describe and illustrate how leaders align strategy, organization, and talent to create lasting success (see Figure 1.1).
a. Strategy: What a company does to meet its objectives and create value.
b. Organization: The roles, activities, business processes, decision-making rights, and structure that must be in place to execute the strategy.
c. Talent: The people in the organization who do the work to execute strategy.
d. Leadership: The role leaders play to align and sustain the linkages between strategy, organization, and talent.
Every book ever written about business uses these terms, often with different meaning. When we use these terms to build Shockproof capability, here’s how we define them:
Strategy
Business strategy is how companies intend to reach their stated objectives, creating value by differentiating themselves from competitors and focusing on the right markets and customers. There are seemingly endless approaches and battalions of business gurus available to companies to help them understand their customers, competition, and markets. Business books, some more readable than others, abound with diagnostic tools that can be used to assess market opportunity and identify relative strategic positioning, as a precursor to developing a plan for profitable growth. Most businesses take advantage of one form or another of the counsel available to them. On paper, many of these businesses have a decent strategic plan. These plans usually outline clear goals and objectives, desired market position, product mix, desired market share, and revenue and profit targets.
A strategic plan is important, but it’s not enough. A thoughtful plan, elegant though it may be, must be absolutely workable. If your company doesn’t have the capability and talent—or chops, as a jazz musician might say about another musician’s ability to play an intricate chart—to execute a plan as written, then the investment in time, resources, and manpower will have been misspent because it is unlikely to work. Effective execution of a strategy requires painstaking realism and objectivity about the gap between where your business is today and what it will take to get it where you aspire to be tomorrow.
Organization
Organization refers to how work is designed at the individual, team, and organizational levels—and the term is responsible for whole forests being cleared to supply enough paper to document thinking on the subject. With a quick Google search you will be inundated with contrasting and sometimes conflicting views on organization and how to get it right. Essentially, organization addresses the processes that are performed to execute the strategy, or as people often put it, “to get the job done.” Organization design can include everything from core business processes that cut across multiple functions to how a particular job is designed in a customer service center, for example. Often grounded in engineering and production control disciplines, management thinkers have for some time been drawn to the idea of designing better work processes to improve the efficiency and quality of the products and services delivered by their companies. Methodologies like Six Sigma or Lean Manufacturing, for example, have been deployed to evolve work processes and reduce variance and waste while increasing efficiency and effectiveness. For most of us, we first think about structure when thinking about an organization. But structure is only one element of organization, and probably not the best place to begin to assess whether a company’s organization design is fit for its purpose.
When Shockproof companies are fine-tuning or calibrating their organizations, they tackle areas of much greater impact than can be addressed by simply redrawing the boxes and lines or changing the players who occupy the boxes within a typical organization chart. Organization is about how people, functions, and processes interact to make products and deliver services. Clarifying the interactions that occur between people and functions in the white spaces between the boxes and lines often has a far greater impact on performance than redrawing the organization chart. How people work together, how decisions are made, how leaders lead, how customers are served, and how the processes can ensure effective execution are far more important than the organization chart. This white space between the boxes and lines is the “real estate” where the work of building effective organizations often takes place.
Talent
Talent refers to either individuals who have unique and valued capabilities, or the collective skills and capabilities of a workforce. Over the years, management practices and theories have focused heavily on the people inside and outside organizations who are charged with carrying out the work necessary to successfully implement strategy. Important research has been conducted on the subject, including that by McKinsey & Company, published in 2001 as The War for Talent.4 The authors advised companies “to recognize the strategic importance of human capital because of the enormous advantage that talent creates.” That might seem to be a blinding flash of the obvious, but as with strategy and organization, there is an abundance of how-to resources available for organizations to learn how to better manage talent, who, after all, are people! Add to this a flood of talent management software applications that companies can use in an attempt to manage everything from employee sourcing and hiring to performance management and rewards. Many of these applications are promising; others are long on style but short on substance. Some applications make the strategic mistake of focusing on efficiency rather than effectiveness. They encourage leaders to focus on performance measures like “cost to hire” without assessing the effectiveness of new hires on the job. Ultimately, the way in which leaders manage talent has a tremendous influence on the extent to which they are Shockproof. Being Shockproof is about executing strategy effectively. And, since it is people who execute strategy, take author Jim Collins’s advice and “make sure you have the right people on the bus.”5
Leadership
Shockproof leaders are transformational leaders. They are focused on how they and those they lead can grow and learn every day to improve strategy execution and results. They establish norms that encourage people to discuss successes and failures, and make it comfortable for them to ask for help from others on the team, not just the designated leader. These leaders encourage dialogue about what good leadership looks like, and they make sure that people are engaged in meaningful ways while adding value to the business. They value a feedback-rich culture, the benefits of change, and the growth that comes from understanding their own capabilities, motivations, and aspirations. They think systemically about the external competitive market and the internal capabilities needed to capitalize on opportunities and overcome challenges.
Shockproof leaders focus on breaking down the complexity in business today and helping colleagues and employees see the connections between what they do on a day-to-day basis and the company’s path to success. These leaders ensure the ongoing alignment among strategy, organization, and talent. It’s a significant responsibility, and not all leaders are naturally “tuned in” to see the connections or identify when they are out of sync. Shockproof leaders understand what creates value, and they know how to lead and manage change. They value and invest in building relationships. They appreciate the criticality of developing their own emotional intelligence and are comfortable with deep self-reflection. They exhibit five key capabilities, which we call the Shockproof Lenses. These will be briefly introduced here, in Table 1.1, and will subsequently be fully explored in later chapters.
Table 1.1 Shockproof Lens Definitions
The Systems Lens enables people to see patterns and polarities in information that help to identify opportunities for improvement. |
The Value Lens helps people continually attend to the true drivers of value and to revise their strategies and tactics as strategy evolves. |
The Change Lens aids people to pay attention to the complex mechanics and dynamics of change situations. |
The Interpersonal Lens assists people to inspire trust and respect through the skillful use of various communication methods. |
The Self-Awareness Lens keeps people authentic, yet conscious of how their behaviors and actions are perceived by others. |
The Shockproof Mind-Set and Capabilities
Three-dimensional glasses enhance the viewing experience for the moviegoer; similarly, business leaders must look through different lenses to create a Shockproof business or to effect real change. Leaders can train these lenses on the external competitive market and on every level of the organization and its people to assess necessary adjustments.
In addition to creative, nontraditional thinking, leaders need to develop deep business acumen to understand what actually creates and sustains value. Extending far beyond being able to understand the company’s P&L, this requires an understanding of the activities and capabilities that must be executed to unlock and sustain value. Knowing what to focus on and what not to focus on, in equal measure is a strong sign of business acumen. And the top of the house can’t be the only place where this acumen resides. It must be woven tightly throughout the depth and breadth of the organization to ensure an almost maniacal concentration on what drives the ultimate measure of value, whether it’s total return to shareholders, EBITDA, or other concrete results. In some companies, the definition of value has evolved beyond financial results and value created for customers and employees to include consideration of the company’s impact on the communities in which they operate. They must also understand how to successfully implement and manage change inside the company’s four walls, as well as in the markets where it competes. Shockproof leaders also require a high degree of interpersonal competence and self-awareness. They need to be able to effectively communicate their ideas, get in touch with their own strengths and weaknesses, motivate their colleagues, become comfortable working collaboratively, and, ultimately, create a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen.
When leaders consistently apply the Shockproof lenses in an effective manner, the company becomes hardwired to expect adjustments and calibrations, all aimed at creating value.
Connections and Calibrations
Strategy, organization, talent, and leadership are the building blocks of a Shockproof company. Companies falter when they overinvest time and resources in one or two of these building blocks at the expense of the others. Leaders can avoid this faltering by intentionally engaging the right connections between the three building blocks. They also risk failing when they rest or stay “flat-footed,” assuming that the connections require no further calibration or adjustment. The fact is that Shockproofing a business requires dynamically assessing and adjusting the connections to create alignment in response to challenges or opportunities. When this mind-set becomes hardwired, people in the company won’t even blink when a needed adjustment is suggested. In fact, they get used to change. They expect it and accept it. They accept change because leaders throughout the organization are on the same page about what the priorities are for customers and the business. They accept change because they would rather deal with dynamic changes and adjustments than unforseen chaos. They accept change because they have experienced the incredible results that can be delivered by Shockproof companies, whether they are in turnaround situations, making course corrections, or, for the enviable few, sustaining profitable growth.
The Shockproof Difference in Action
The exciting glimpse into the future offered in the Prologue is not that far away from being realized today by leaders committed to calibrating the links between strategy, organization, and talent in their companies. These businesses are seeking and achieving better outcomes for shareholders, the planet, and for all people associated with the enterprise.
Qualcomm Inc: Where Leaders Are Hardwired to Align Strategy with Organization and Talent
Qualcomm Incorporated is one of the best technology companies in the world. As of this writing, it sits shoulder to shoulder with Apple, Oracle, Accenture, and IBM as a top stock pick by Wall Street’s most critical analysts. Though technological breakthroughs and rigorous intellectual property protection remain at the heart of the Qualcomm story, the rest of the story hinges on the thoughtful and intentional way talent has been managed and the organization has been designed over time to support Qualcomm’s enduring sources of value creation. During Qualcomm’s 25 years of climbing to the top of the NASDAQ, talent and organization strategies have also stretched and bent a bit, but not too far. Tamar Elkeles, PhD, in her role as the head of Learning at Qualcomm, comments that the “perseverance of a Qualcomm culture has been important to Qualcomm’s success. The culture is one that is highly engineering-centric with a very heavy emphasis on promoting product and process innovation.” 6 It is well documented that Qualcomm engineers are carefully selected not only for the match of their credentials and accomplishments with the current and emerging business needs, but for their ability to thrive in an environment that allows room for, and even demands, ambiguity, collaboration, and adaptation. “The business is organized around technologies to ensure depth of talent, at all times, within each technology group,” Elkeles continues. Since Qualcomm grew so rapidly, most of its engineers were brought in from the outside, versus grown on the inside. After new engineers are signed on at Qualcomm, they are on-boarded, deployed within their assigned technology group, mentored, and grown within their talent pool as preparation for new responsibilities. The goal has remained constant over time: “Develop the bench.”
In its Finance Department, Qualcomm invested in a rotational program available to everyone in the talent pool, moving them through assignments in strategy, accounting, and tax. This has resulted in very well-rounded contributors who can be readily moved to a variety of roles as the business continues to expand. The Qualcomm way is to remove barriers to people performing at their potential. Learning is typically on demand, with few, if any, mandatory learning events. Experiences and spaces are created to help people collaborate and pursue innovation; and when practices or expectations creep up that interfere with the goals of the initiative, the culture is so strong the roadblocks are blasted through. People peak at different times in their careers, so talent pools allow for folks to either “bake” a bit longer or jump out of the frying pan and into a ready role. It is the role of HR to support the learning needs of those they serve. As needs pop up through affinity groups, climate surveys, and discussions with leadership, the HR organization explores the scope of the needs and then mobilizes the right cross-functional team to explore systemic solutions.
7
Winning Once versus Being Shockproof
We all know organizations that at some point in their life cycle win big and have a great success, fail outright, or make a comeback. Maybe the market conditions were favorable to their strategies, products, and services. In other instances, careful orchestration, planning, and alignment won the day. While winning once is worth a tip of the hat, consistently adapting to survive and thrive is the real prize.
Driving an automobile that isn’t in alignment over a prolonged period can result in a variety of short-term and longer-term negative effects: difficult steering, tire wear, poor fuel mileage. You might even have a blowout or, worse, an accident. A business’s alignment between strategy, organization, and talent, once put in place, also requires constant vigilance and maintenance. It’s a difficult leadership task for any company, large or small. And it requires a special mind-set that isn’t taught at B-school, and rarely, if ever, developed within most organizations. Having leaders align strategy, organization, and talent requires a seismic shift in traditional, discrete, mechanical “old-world” thinking about how businesses operate. It requires a more holistic and systemic understanding of the interplay between strategy, organization, and talent. It is much more than thinking outside the box. There is no box.
Ultimately, Shockproof is about the journey that leaders in organizations take to shape themselves and their organizations. It isn’t an easy or simple path, but it is well worth taking. Organizations that take this path continually evolve to overcome challenges and capitalize on opportunities. The customer-facing organization becomes more agile and responsive in the best sort of way—meeting customer needs and the needs of the organization at the same time. R&D becomes immediately relevant, and picks up pace because of a strong link to what customers actually want, versus what engineers would like to create. Leaders’ lives are both easier and more challenging: Their organizations are increasingly self-led and accountability-driven; but at the same time, people challenge their leaders. The leader is joined on his or her journey by everyone in the organization, sharing ownership and holding the leader’s feet to the fire to live up to standards they themselves set.
Many entities, public, private, or not-for-profit, routinely rely on the talent of experts to achieve their objectives. It’s only well-intended human nature that leads people to develop expertise so they can contribute to their workplaces and communities. As a result, we often build our identities around what we know and do best, and design organizations and work processes accordingly. Or, we create corporate strategy teams and hire consultants to craft the optimal strategy. We focus on process improvements or change strategies to reduce errors and speed up time-to-market. We build world-class corporate universities and hire the best faculty to teach our employees. Then we “spin” the business media, feeding them the easy-to-tell type of story they love, about the corporate silver bullet we used to solve a thorny problem, all in the hope that the subsequent publicity will garner us “great place to work” or “most admired” status.
The problem with media-driven image making is that it is, at best, an incomplete or one-dimensional perspective, if not self-serving. By focusing on the individual elements of strategy, organization, and talent, rather than on how they are interconnected, and relying on experts in each discipline or element, organizations risk missing the opportunity for long-term success. Like the blind man and the elephant, they fail to see the whole picture. Thus, as the environment changes, most companies fail to change holistically. People in Shockproof companies, however, realize that new challenges require them to constantly consider what they need to do, how they should do it, and who should do it. Rather than fighting to survive the forces of change, they welcome change as the lifeblood of their organizations. These companies thrive on uncertainty, while others wither; they overcome when others stumble; and they are held up by their peers as examples of resilience and sustainability.
The Journey Begins
In Shockproof: How to Hardwire Your Business for Lasting Success, we outline an integrated approach to help leaders make the right connections between strategy, organization, and talent. We equip leaders with a new way of thinking about and seeing their businesses in a more integrated and holistic way, through a set of five unique lenses.
We provide practical insights, examples, and anecdotes describing how leaders connect the elements and adjust or calibrate the connections. Our hope is that you will come away with a belief we share: That resilient trumps disposable, and that incubating and propagating the Shockproof mind-set to build sustainable, profitable organizations is the new responsibility of leaders.
So read on.
Keep the big blue catfish at bay. Let him circle and then watch him give up and dart away.