Overcoming “Fog and Friction” in Strategy Execution

Fog

The external operating environment —global and national economies, the market , competitors, demographics, and so on creates the ‘VUCA’ environment we all work within (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity —a term business writers recently borrowed from military thinking).  This may be more simply described as ‘the fog of war’.

Friction

Internally, organizations are  often full of the ‘friction’ which makes getting things done difficult.  The sources of friction include:

• Imperfect decision-making and planning practices

• Imperfect design resulting in leadership practices which fail to promote clarity and precision of thought —the right questions about ‘higher intent’, desired effects and purpose, factors affecting achieving the aim (and deductions about tasks, projects and the priority of work), the overall options to achieve the aim/purpose and their pros and cons and so on, are not asked.  These leadership practices are also not inherently dynamic, so they fail to adapt plans to actual progress and changed circumstances.
• Unclear modes of thinking by leaders, so they may make false assumptions rather than valid deductions from the information that is available, and unclear, ambiguous and imprecise language is used to express thought.
• Leadership practices and behaviours lacking the ‘social process’ which engages people, secures their emotional commitment and exploits their expertise and innovative ideas —facilitated discussion and regular dialogue is absent.

• Imperfect communication practices

• Imperfect design or ‘structure’ of the message, and failure to reach the people who need to be reached.
• Ineffective means of disseminating the message —relying on emailed 40 slide presentations rather than briefing people face to face or over the telephone.
• Unclear, imprecise and ambiguous use of language.
• Wrongly interpreted information, and failure by the 'sender'  to check for mutual understanding.
• Stress —fear, worry, anxiety, mental and physical exertion, and emotion (which research shows is the basis of up to 70% of decisions!).
• A working environment which hinders —research shows that environment is responsible for up to 70% of behaviour in organizations.

The Gap

The combination of ‘fog and friction’ results in a gap between actions on the front-line as desired by executives, and the actual actions of people on the front line.  In turn, this leads to a gap between expected business performance and actual business performance.

Clarity and Emotional Engagement

 The challenge of leadership then, is to create dynamic ‘clarity’ and 'emotional engagement' at all levels and across the matrix.

 Clarity = Effective Understanding of Context, 'Higher Intent' & Strategy  + Dynamic Alignment of Tactical Plans & Priorities to that Higher Intent + Defined Role Relationships

Emotional Engagement = Willing Accountability + Commitment + Discretionary Effort to Think, Act, Follow Up & Follow Through

Clarity means creating an effective understanding of context and  'higher intent' —the higher level mission, or desired 'end state' and its purpose, the intentions and plans of your boss and your boss's boss— and what this means for the priority of work and resource allocation; and alignment of thought and activity to that higher intent.  It also includes having clear role relationships and the alignment of accountability and authority —not just vertically but laterally to ensure effective co-ordination (this is so often absent in ill-defined matrices).  The approach to creating clarity needs to be dynamic to adapt plans to actual progress and changed context, and systemic to ensure alignment throughout the enterprise.  This is what makes organizations agile.

 Emotional engagement with the 'plan' and one's role in that plan, and the commitment to follow-up and follow-through, and release the discretionary effort that makes the difference is largely a result of:

• The leader creating ownership and accountability for the task.  This may be done most effectively through dialogue and facilitated discussion during problem-solving, decision-making and planning (harnessing team members’ experience, expertise and innovative thought, clarifying roles and responsibilities, delegating tasks and authority and so on) —and which is enhanced by the nature of the relationship and ‘history’ between ‘leader’ and ‘led’ (past leadership behaviour).
• Commitment to the organization (created in large part by ‘past experience’ of the organization and faith, trust and confidence in the organization and its senior leaders).

A Systemic Leadership philosophy

An effective approach (let’s call it a 'leadership philosophy' or 'leadership system') must therefore:

• Break strategy into smaller, more manageable objectives with clear priorities,  which when achieved aggregate to realize the whole —at every level focus is on a clear ‘mission’ (overall aim and its purpose) and desired effects.

• Integrate levels of leadership and produce line of sight from CEO to frontline actions.
• Limit the impact of fog through the use of “intelligence” (targeted information gathering and processing; and systematic, evidence-led, diverse thinking, discussion and dialogue).
• Engender mutual trust and confidence on a systemic basis —without this cross department co-ordination is difficult.
• Minimize internal friction with distributed leadership and a systematic, dynamic and engaging suite of leadership practices for the clarity-creating leadership functions of decision-making, action planning and briefing.  These practices muse ensure that everyone understands the higher level plan in meaningful terms, that everyone is engaged by contributing their expertise to defining their own team’s plan, and that everyone understands their individual role and priorities in achieving the higher intent and may act decisively to add value.
• Promote initiative in the absence of higher level direction.

• Adapt plans to actual progress and changed circumstances on a dynamic basis.

 Additionally, the approach must deliver that which research shows is sought by people, especially clever people, at work:  purpose (meaning), autonomy, mastery (expertise), and trust.  

 Tozer Consulting's leadership philosophy does indeed achieve all this and our results are proof!