STRATEGY CENTRAL

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and think about ways that your organization can become "good enough"?  Probably not.  No one ever really dreams of becoming "good enough".  If you dream of anything it’s usually of cracking a code that gets people talking, creating a new category, or customizing a generic experience to meet the specific needs of a unique target audience.

At least…that’s what most people dream about if they dream.  At the same time, many organizations have fallen into the trap of "good enough".  After all, it’s easier, it’s safer, and it won’t wake you up in the middle of the night.  But…that’s not what most of us really want.  So how do you get out of the trap of "good enough"?  It begins with an objective makeover.  Here’s an example from Seth Godin:

• makes some people uncomfortable
• changes the entire competitive
  landscape
• is truly remarkable in that many of the key people we
  reach feel compelled to talk about it

Can you imagine going there?  What if you devoted a team session to crafting objectives like these but distinctively your own?  Can you do it?  It’d be a great exercise.  You’d be out of the trap for sure.  Of course, there’s always that whole frying pan and fire thing.  But that’s a whole new post.

You can read Seth’s whole post right here.

We’ve talked before about choosing what NOT to do.  There’s a really good series going on over at Lifechurch.tv that deals with the opposite idea:  What would you do if you had 30 Days to Live.  How would you be different?  What would you be sure to do?

Interesting questions, don’t you think?

In the opening lines of the first week this question was posed as a tool for determining what commitments to take on:  "Would you say ‘yes’ to this [commitment or activity] if you only had 30 days to live?"

Now THAT is a very helpful question.

I highly recommend that you watch the video.  Very thought provoking.  You can access week one right here.

What are your strengths?  What are you really created to do?  What do you do really well?  All of these are very relevant questions.  In many ways these are the questions that determine the satisfaction level of your life.  Why?  Because if you don’t know the answers to the questions you can be sure that you only have a chance at satisfaction…and it’s a slim chance.  You can be sure that if you find satisfaction in your life it will be by accident.

On the other hand, if you know the answers to the questions you have a good chance at finding satisfaction.  It’s still not a given…because you will need to proactively move in the direction of doing something that fits who you are.  But, you will have a much higher probability of finding satisfaction.

So the question is, "how will you zero in on how you’re really wired?"  You might read Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham.  That would set you on a good path.  You might take an inventory like  the Myers-Briggs or a DISC Assessment.  You might just begin to do some thoughtful reading, such as Steve Roesler’s Thinking About a Mid-Career Change?

I’m always thinking this way so two recent blog posts that have gotten me thinking have been Roesler’s What’s Your Personal Design Talent and David Armano’s Are You a Synthesizer?

There really are lots of ways to take steps in the direction of figuring out how you’re wired AND THEN beginning to move in that direction.  What have you found that really made a difference?

6:35 pm.  Still 79°F , but hey…it’s August 12th.  When I think back to our Houston days…we’ll take it anytime.

Little bit of Jimmy Buffett playin’.  One Particular Harbour was calling my name at the end of the day.  Good way to end a weekend.  Nothin’ like a little island music.  Check it out.

One of my real passions is music.  Comes from growing up in the Howell family.  And I really do like just about all kinds.  Some time back I heard about Rodrigo y Gabriela.  A regular reader and commenter mentioned the band…and even put me on to a YouTube video.  Very cool stuff.  Couldn’t resist picking it up this week and they’re now one of the most played on the patio.  I know you want to join me…right?  Check out their appearance on the Letterman show.

Como se dice jammin’ en espanol?

A key insight in Carly Fiorina’s session at Willow’s Leadership Summit concerned the power of the right question.  In her interview with Bill Hybels she said that she’d learned that "sometimes knowing the right answer is less important than knowing the right question."

Sounds familiar doesn’t it?   

We missed the anniversary of Magellan’s historic voyage!  On August 10, 1519, Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Seville on what would be the first successful circumnavigation of the earth.  Fascinating stuff.

Imagine what it felt like to sail away from everything you knew!  Think about what must’ve been going through the minds of the crew members as they cast off and sailed out of the harbor…toward the unknown.  Talk about Systematic Abandonment! You can read the rest of the story right here.

Always been my dream…to say "Dohhhhhhhh!" and be a little on the Homer side of life!  You can get your’s done right here.

Thanks to Scott Hodge for the link!

Ever wonder what’s at the heart of true innovation?  When you trip across something that’s really good, do you ever wonder how they came up with that?  What processes are they using to think up such an elegant solution?  Ever think those thoughts and just find yourself stumped when it comes to your own situation?  I do!  And it drives me crazy!

I wonder if our inability to see the innovative path has to do with our inability to successfully abandon things that worked in the past?  In Managing for Results Peter Drucker wrote that “planned, purposeful abandonment of the old and of the unrewarding is a prerequisite to successful pursuit of the new and highly promising.  Above all, abandonment is the key to innovation—both because it frees the necessary resources and because it stimulates the search for the new that will replace the old (p. 143).”

When you think about your own organization, can you remember the last time you laid to rest a program that was still working “good enough”?  Maybe an idea that at one time was really a good one but whose day had come and gone?  Think about it.  In fact, this would be worth a full-day off-site.  Take your key people and wrestle through it.  Drucker’s idea is dead-on correct.  Not without pain.  Not without issues.  But it is in the planned, purposeful abandonment of yesterday’s winners that tomorrow’s can emerge.

Have you discovered ChangeThis yet?  A constant flow of interesting ideas.  The most recent addition is Mind of the Innovator: Taming the Traps of Traditional Thinking.  Great stuff!

Guy has a great outline on the 7 Sins of Solutions, the traps.  What I love about the manifesto is that it goes on to include an excellent exercise tool that can be used to neutralize the 7 sins of solutions.  Based on the acronym IDEA, the steps are:

• Investigate: Conduct the fact finding necessary to fully analyze the situation
• Design: Generate ideas and solutions based on a complete investigation
• Execute: Conduct an experiment to quickly pilot a solution or design prototype
• Adjust: Assess results and improve the design based on user feedback

Well worth a careful read.  Take your time.  Give it some good attention.  Perhaps the key statement to me is that "we’re pretty good at the middle part of the process."  Isn’t that the truth!  We can all design and execute.  But do we take the time to investigate fully on the front end and then adjust based on user feedback on the back end?  Not usually.

Check out the whole article right here.