Piloting Change

Neither studies nor market research nor computer modeling is a substitute for the test of reality.

Everything improved or new needs first to be tested on a small scale; that is, it needs to be piloted.  The way to do this is to find somebody within the enterprise who really wants the new.  Everything new gets into trouble.  And then it needs a champion.  It needs somebody who says, “I am going to make this succeed,” and who then goes to work on it.  And this person needs to be somebody whom the organization respects.  This need not even be somebody within the organization.

Often a good way to pilot a new product or new service is to find a customer who really wants the new, and who is willing to work with the producer on making truly successful the new product or the new service.  If the pilot test is successful-it finds the problems nobody anticipated, whether in terms of design, of market, of service-the risk of change is usually quite small.

ACTION POINT: Make sure the best ideas in your organizations have fierce advocates to see them through a test in the marketplace.

Being Strategic

being "strategic" largely means being less myopic than your undeliberative self.

Being strategic is being less myopic--less shortsighted--than others.  You must perceive and take into account what others do not, be they colleagues or rivals.  Being less myopic is not the same as pretending you can see the future.  You must work with the facts on the ground, not the vague outlines of the distant future.  

Whether it is insight into industry trends, anticipating the actions and reactions of competitors, insight into your own competencies and resources, or stretching your own thinking to cover more of the bases and resist your own biases, being "strategic" largely means being less myopic than your undeliberative self.

ACTION POINT: Work with the facts on the ground to perceive and take into account what others do not.

Myopia

 there is a more fundamental challenge common to all contexts.

Making a list is a basic tool for overcoming our own cognitive limitations.  The list itself counters forgetfulness.  The act of making a list forces us to reflect on the relative urgency and importance of issues.  And making a list of "things to do, now", rather than "things to worry about" forces us to resolve concerns into actions.

Today, we are offered a bewildering variety of tools and concepts to aid in analysis and the construction of strategies.  Each of these tools envisions the challenge slightly differently.  For some it is recognizing advantage; for others it is understanding industry structure.  For some it is identifying important trends; for others it is erecting barriers to imitation.  Yet, there is a more fundamental challenge common to all contexts.  That is the challenge of working around one's own cognitive limitations and biases--one's own myopia.  Our own myopia is the obstacle common to all strategic situations.

ACTION POINT: Be ever aware of your own myopia.

Make a List

...think through the intersection between what was important and what was actionable.  

Making a list is baby-steps management.  Pick up any book on self help, on organizing yourself, or on the nuts and bolts of running an office or organization, and it will proffer this advice: "make a list."  Carnegie's benefit was not from the list itself.  It came from actually constructing the list.  The idea that people have goals and automatically chase after them like some kind of homing missile is plain wrong.  The human mind s finite, its cognitive resources limited.  Attention, like a flashlight beam, illuminates one subject only to darken another.  Given Fredrick Taylor's assignment, some people might have listed the bills they had to pay or the people they needed to see.  One can only guess at Carnegie's list.

Taken seriously, Taylor's injunction was not simply to make a list of important issues.  It was not simply to make a list of things to do.  And it wasn't to make a list of what might be important.  Taylor's assignment was to think through the intersection between what was important and what was actionable.  Carnegie paid because Taylor's list-making exercise forced him to reflect upon his more fundamental purposes and, in turn, to devise ways of advancing them.

ACTION POINT: Reflect upon the important and actionable issues that will advance your business. 

Andrew Carnegie meets Fredrick Taylor

 "if you can tell me something about management that is worth hearing, I will send you a check for ten thousand dollars."

It was 1890, and there was a cocktail party in Pittsburgh.  All of the movers and shakers were there including Andrew Carnegie.  He held court in a corner of the room smoking a cigar.  He was introduced to Fredrick Taylor, the man who was becoming famous as an expert on organizing work.

"Young man," said Carnegie,  "if you can tell me something about management that is worth hearing, I will send you a check for ten thousand dollars."  Now, ten thousand dollars was a great deal of money in 1890.  Conversation stopped as people nearby turned to hear what Taylor would say.

"Mr. Carnegie," Taylor said, "I would advise you to make a list of the ten most important things you can do.  And then, start doing number one."  And, the story goes a week later Taylor received a check for ten thousand dollars.  

ACTION POINT:  Make a list of the the 10 most important things you can do and start with number one.