“If only I had enough time to… (fill in your own blank)”. How many times have you heard someone say those words in the last week? How many times have you thought those words in the last two days? I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone who has enough time to do all of the things they should do, let alone include the things they would like to do. Nor have I ever met anyone who claimed to have too much time. And the reality is each of us has all the time there is… exactly 168 hours a week, no more no less. So then, why is it that some people find a way to get so much more done than others in the same amount of time? Or, why is it that some people are so terribly busy, they’re running here and running there but rarely get anything of significance accomplished? I have a theory and I would love to share it with you.
I’ve come to the conclusion, that for most of us, time management is not the problem. There is little doubt that each of us couldn’t get better in some aspect of time management. I’ve taught time management classes for more than 20 years. And while far from perfect, time management is not my biggest challenge either. So what is the biggest challenge to getting more done and creating more value where it matters most? I believe the answer is a lack of well thought out and clearly defined “strategic targets” which will have a significant impact on your future. Let me explain.
A “strategic target” represents an innovative, strategic idea or initiative you want to pursue. It describes where you want to be or what you want to accomplish at some point in the future. These targets could be personal or professional; they could be linked to your family life or relationships, your career or some aspect of your current job. A target could be as simple as “What are the expected outcomes of a meeting you’re facilitating this afternoon?”, or as complex as “What will the organization look like after the merger?”
Without specific targets to focus our limited time and energy, we spend a lot of time spinning our wheels on things of little strategic value, things that keep us running in frantic, meaningless circles. We’re very busy trying to do everything for everyone, and in the process, getting very little done that really matters or adds value to our lives or the lives of others. It is ironic that very few of us would get in our cars and drive frantically without a clear destination in mind. And yet, most of us have a tendency to go through our projects, jobs, careers and lives in just such a fashion… no clear destination or target in mind. No wonder we find ourselves so tired and so stressed out and yet no farther down our desired path.
Time management is not the problem… a lack of strategic targets is. What targets, if obtained, would make a difference in your life? Where are you going today? Do you know?
Recently I received a call from my husband. The conversation began with him saying, “Don’t get mad…” If you have ever heard those words from a loved one, you know what kind of dread sets in as you anxiously await the bad news. This particular call was no different. He had been in a slight fender bender – his second automobile wreck in a mere 18 months. I was furious, but tried to remain calm as he is fairly new to driving in the U.S. I asked if he had used the process outlined for him in the event he was in another accident, no matter how minor. He proceeded to tell me that he had not done anything and I was the first person he called.
I recalled his first car accident (from 18 months ago) and how afterwards, we had created a step by step process to help him in the future. In addition to creating a process and with the hopes of being as strategic as possible, we discussed plausible outcomes that follow an accident and how he could handle each one. For me, I had thought this was an excellent opportunity to think ahead and plan for the future, as the odds of a car accident repeating itself in his lifetime were not in our favor. I made sure my husband had updated insurance cards in the car, an “accident packet” with phone numbers and our written process for what to do. In my mind, my husband had all he needed to manage such a situation effectively.
Following his second accident I took away three lessons for what now lies ahead:
You can never be too prepared. The path to become an effective strategic thinker does not end when the clock strikes 5 and you go home from work. For example, I could have talked to my husband a bit more about car insurance when we renewed the policy.
Think and re-think possible and plausible scenarios. Time, attitude, and experience changes and thinking strategically by anticipating this ever changing world allows us to be more prepared.
Plan. Execute. Adapt. Repeat. Thinking strategically means having a plan in place and executing the plan as needed. Change is inevitable and you must be proactive to the change, adapting, not reacting to it. Repeating the process is how we grow as strategic thinkers as there will always be a next time.
It was clear to me that day that thinking strategically is not a 9-5 job. Strategic Thinking is an ongoing responsibility that extends beyond work and into your day to day life. As you implement these few points you will be better prepared for the next time you hear the words, “Don’t be mad…” Wrecks happen. Deadlines happen. Obstacles happen. When we learn to think strategically, it makes us better prepared to control the situation, rather than the situation controlling us.
Upon meeting new people, one of the first questions I am asked is often, “Where do you work?” or “What do you do?” This was the case a few nights ago, after being introduced to a colleague of a friend. When I explained that I work for CMOE, which provide leadership and employee development training, he asked me to tell him more about it. I gave a brief list of our services and explained that one of our most popular workshops is on strategic thinking. He said he took a class on strategic management, but it didn’t apply to him because he wasn’t an executive. I explained to him that strategic thinking is not the same as strategic management.
Strategic Management
Let’s look at Strategic Management in general terms. Wikipedia explains, “Strategy is the art, science and craft of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its long-term objectives. It is the process of specifying the organization’s mission, vision and objectives, developing policies and plans. Strategic management seeks to coordinate and integrate the activities of the various functional areas of a business in order to achieve long-term organizational objectives.”
Applied Strategic Thinking
Applied Strategic Thinking is a way of scanning your environment, finding ways to perform more efficiently, being more innovative, and reacting to outside challenges and opportunities with more confidence because you have already considered variables.
The Difference
Notice that the main difference between these definitions is the timing. Where strategic management is a long-term plan for the future, Applied Strategic Thinking considers the future from the next few seconds to however long the concept will be relevant. In other words, you can consider the best route around an accident or plan for your retirement and everything in between including your influence on the future of your organization.
The second difference is in the number of members. Strategic management usually takes a team to determine the direction of an organization. Strategic thinking is something everyone, as individuals, can do. So a strategic thinking janitor may discover that changing a product will be less expensive, more effective, or perhaps more environment friendly than the current product being purchased. Strategic thinking means an individual looks at his/her environment, evaluates it, and then asks, “What would happen if . . .?”
In a previous a previous post, Developing Leaders for Tought Times – Part 1, I wrote about an article on a study conducted by Development Dimensions International. It was so intriguing to me that I tracked down the entire study and have been looking at it in greater detail. Naturally, I have a particular interest in the topic of leadership as I have built a career on it. I have discovered over the years that not everyone agrees with me about the importance of developing today’s and tomorrow’s leaders. But the evidence in this study is compelling: 37% of leaders fail (42% in Asia and 28% in Western Europe) and if you look further into the sources of a leader’s downfall, Leadership/Interpersonal Skills and Strategic (or Visionary) Skills are at the top of the list of reasons.
From my perspective, this is good news because these are leadership competencies that can be developed through sustained training and development initiatives such as coaching, teamwork, strategic thinking, change management, and fundamental leadership qualities. Despite the economic constraints facing many organizations, my hope is that more businesses begin to recognize that a greater number of leaders can be successful and contribute to a company’s bottom line performance when they have well-developed, and sustained interpersonal and strategic skills.
If you were to take all of the tools you currently posses, your skills, your education, your experience, your laptop, your blackberry, and all other technology, and focus only on tasks, you would probably find yourself to be the most “productive” person on the planet. You could get much more done in much less time compared to everyone else. You could check off items from your daily “to-do” list at exponential rates, creating space for you to do more and more and more.
But wait just a minute, is success and productivity only measured by doing more and more and more? In our world today, this often seems to be the case. We have so many tools to help us get more done in a shorter time frame and it feels good to check things off the proverbial “to-do” list. However, just getting things done quickly isn’t always better. In fact, it is quite possible that we get so caught up in getting things done, that we might be spending our time on things that really don’t deserve our time and attention! When this happens, it means we are getting caught in the activity trap. Our focus is on checking off the “to-do” items, but we become nearsighted to the long-term horizon. Now you must ask yourself the question, “If I lose sight of the horizon, then what am I really doing today?” “If I can’t see the future, then are the things that I am checking off on my daily “to-do” list helping? Or are they hurting future opportunities?”
Question: Why do people get caught up in the magnetic pull of completing tasks?
Answer: Because it feels like forward movement which gives you a sense of accomplishment and can create pride and self-worth. While this is good, I want to suggest that we make sure our daily contributions are going toward the ultimate focus, the big picture in our lives. So when we finally reach that pinnacle and defining moment, we know we were on the right track. Then we truly reap the fruit of our labors. Imagine working thirty, forty, maybe even fifty years down a path that when it comes to an end, it does not align with your ultimate end objective. Wouldn’t that be frustrating and disappointing?
In order to make sure we have our daily contributions on track, it is important to do a little strategic thinking. That’s right. Just do a little more creative and critical thinking about what to do each day and how it will impact tomorrow. As an added benefit of forward thinking, you’ll be surprised at what items can fall off your daily “to-do” list. I don’t think any of us need more to do, our days are full enough as it is. What we need to do is make sure that what is on our plate belongs on our plate! Gaining control of our daily efforts creates a greater sense of accomplishment in the short and long term, as well as provides a sense of freedom. Freedom to do more with your time and freedom to spend your time focused on the right things. Everyday strategy is a concept that I believe can bring an added-value to you individually and to your organization.
Strategic thinking is a skill that anyone can use in any role. Applied strategic thinking is practical, ongoing, and informal. Strategic thinking is helpful when it is linked and aligned with grand corporate strategy.
Being a strategic leader requires that you first understand corporate priorities and future agendas as well as have a clear direction on how you can contribute to it in a value-added way. Being an active supporter of the organization’s strategy is only one element of strategic leadership. There are two other very important elements.
The second aspect is a personal process to help you think strategically about the role you and your team can play relative to the organization’s strategy– things that are independent and unique to you and your responsibilities. In our book, Ahead of the Curve, we present an easy process for thinking strategically. It is about how you, as an individual, can influence your future in positive ways and contribute to the execution of corporate strategy. This comprehensive process can be used in any type of situation and by anyone wanting to make a difference in the future.
The third and probably most overlooked responsibility of strategic leadership is leading, guiding, and influencing your team members to be strategic thinkers about their own responsibilities. Typically, we think of team members as task executors and tactical players. But, imagine the strategic value your team could generate if each member not only fulfilled their daily operational responsibilities, but also thought about their roles, objectives, and changes needed to satisfy the future requirements of internal and external customers. Innovation would occur, productivity would increase, and team member motivation and self actualization would be unleashed.
The mistake organizations have been making is believing that strategic thinking is something only upper management and executives do. In fact, if everyone in the organization were thinking and acting on their own strategic contributions, the results in alignment with the execution of strategic initiatives would be striking.
A leader’s role is critical in creating a strategic mindset and culture at the working level. To do this a leader needs the skills and tools in place to ensure formulation, execution, and accountability of the strategic performance of each team members’ plans and initiatives.
In the case of my own team, each member is expected to have at least two strategic targets that they focus on in addition to their regular, operational responsibilities. They utilize a strategic thinking planning guide to help identify their strategic target areas, conduct a SWOT, explore scenarios, and build an action plan. In my one-on-one interactions with them, I provide some guidance regarding the selection of a strategic target. Then on a monthly basis, we have a team meeting (actually it is a breakfast meeting) where we review the collective strategies we are working on together. Each team member makes a five minute report on progress with their individual strategic progress. After each person presents, the team checks for alignment and discusses questions, feedback, or ideas with the team members. I, too, present my own leader based strategic targets. This meeting is very focused, efficient, and strategically oriented. We work very hard to keep operations discussions out of the meeting. For me, this meeting is very important because it brings the process full circle. The team is linked and there is some accountability for the strategic thought process. I have found that these more strategic team activities help the team focus their energies on activities that will have a positive impact on the future. The present becomes linked with the future; there isn’t an unknown gap between where we are now and where we are going in the future. While this may not be the perfect approach for you, it has become an important tool for me as a leader to promote strategic behaviors in my team. In addition to having tools and processes in place that I just discussed, a leader can do a lot to create a strategic culture in the team without taking away from operational efficiency and focus. Consider a few of these ideas for unlocking the strategic leadership potential in your team:
• Talk about strategic topics and ask the team to challenge the status quo.
• Frequently discuss what will prevent the team from maximizing its future potential.
• Share your own strategic targets with the team so they can see you aligning your personal strategy.
• Ensure follow-through on strategic assignments and mechanisms.
• When the team or team members identify a strategic opportunity, recognize it and respond rapidly.
• Kick off the new year with strategic “open letter” to all team members.
• Focus decisions and actions (even operational ones) on what is most important for the team to be successful long-term.
• Help team members see how strategic thought processes will benefit them.
• Reward team members for strategic behaviors.
• Give them reading material such as a quarterly newsletter. We offer one titled “Ahead of the Curve™.”
Explore and experiment with these ideas and some of your own to figure out how you can fulfill all three elements of strategic leadership. Operational pressures can certainly divert our attention, but just take it one step at a time as you move towards greater strategic leadership. Your investment in taking care of the future will begin to make a difference for you and your team today. The organization too will find notable benefits when strategic thinking is driven through the organization.
Go back a few years and think about the things you did on a daily basis to get results and achieve goals. Would you say your daily tactics, assignments, projects are the same today as they were five years ago? In most cases people I talk to said no. In my own work, while some of the tactical aspects of my job have remained, almost every other aspect of my job is different. Now, think about what duties your job will require in the future. One year, three years, or five years from now, will you be doing the same things you are doing today? Probably not.
Managers who operate strictly in tactical mode are not focused on their people, their future success, long term goals and strategies, and have difficulty being a well rounded effective leader. Strategic Thinking is an important tool for success in any organization. I believe that everyone can be more entrepreneurial and can drive more value in contributing to long term personal and business success by improving strategic thinking. If your people focus too much on the day to day operations and just getting through their task lists, what will happen to your future? The first skill to being strategic is what we call “Taming the Beast.” The beasts are those things that keep us from spending some time on strategic objectives, keep us from preparing for the future, and blind us from what is on the horizon.
Successful strategic thinkers understand and develop ways to combat their beasts. They find ways around the roadblocks and are in tune with organization needs and objectives, future opportunities, creative and innovative ideas, as well as worst probable scenarios that might hinder future success.
So what are your beasts? How can you tame them? Beasts are different for each one of us. One of my beasts is email. I don’t know about you but I am quick to stop whatever I am doing just to answer an email that could easily be done later. When that icon pops up on the computer, I tend to stop whatever I am doing to look and see who has sent me a note. Email is a huge distraction in my work day, therefore to tame my beast I keep my computer off for the first 15 minutes of the day. I spend that 15 minutes planning for key strategic objectives that are longer term and need some attention and detail today. When my computer is on, I have established three different levels of distinction for email. Now, End of the Day, and Later files were set up in my email system. Any email that arrives which deserves immediate attention goes in to the Now file and get answered every two hours. Email that is less important goes into either the End of the Day or Later file. At the end of my day I will spend whatever time I need to in answering the email. This system works for me and it is not to difficult to come up with a systematic approach to taming the beast. Here are two suggestions to tame your beasts.
Take some time and identify the beast that is distracting you most from strategic thinking time. Once you have identified the beast create a plan to tackle it.
Try to curb your appetite for activity and regularly schedule some time during the week to focus on long term issues. By doing so, you will be more in tune and prepared for future obstacles and opportunities.
With a little focused effort, you will be surprised at how easy it is.
Recently, one of our clients scheduled a 1-day workshop in Milwaukee, WI, USA. And as usual, our facilitator was traveling to the client’s site a day prior to the planned workshop date. While the weather was clear in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, where our facilitator was departing from, the weather in Milwaukee was about to turn ugly. At approximately 3:00 pm, my client called to tell me a big storm was in route that would potentially bring 4 inches of snow to Milwaukee. At this point my client and I began to put into practice some everyday strategic thinking. We laid out a few different scenarios we could do in order to carry out the training.
Scenario 1 – Perhaps the storm wouldn’t be too bad and our facilitator would still arrive into Milwaukee without any glitches.
Scenario 2 – If the facilitator was delayed and unable to get into Milwaukee that night, we decided that we would start the workshop a few hours later since the participants were in town for an additional day and would be able to work later into the day and evening.
After discussing the two scenarios, we also made a plan to check in with each other 2 hours later to report the status of the facilitator’s flight. The first report, the airline loaded his flight and took off for Milwaukee. We hoped we had dodged the storm. A couple of hours later our facilitator called me to report that his flight had been diverted from Milwaukee to Grand Rapids, MI. He would not make it into Milwaukee that night. The plan was for him to get back on his flight and return to Atlanta for the night, and take the early morning flight and get into Milwaukee at around 8:30 am. If all went well he could still arrive in town and only have a delayed start.
Well, the next morning, I received a call from our facilitator; his flight had been delayed enough that he wouldn’t be able to get to Milwaukee in time to teach the workshop. This is when we began implementing scenario three. Our facilitator would teach the workshop from the Atlanta airport via telephone. This was possible because our client contact had seen the workshop on occasion and while he couldn’t teach the content, he could help keep structure and organization to the “tele-training.”
This created some additional everyday strategic thinking to take place. Since Atlanta is a busy airport, our facilitator was faced with a challenge to find a quiet location, that also had an outlet for power where he could keep his phone plugged in as well as his computer. With a little searching he was finally able to find a location, create a mini-mobile-workstation, and subsequently deliver a training session over the phone. The great part about this whole story is that it was a success. The company’s representative was amazed at the efforts that our team went through, from discussing the options to the final way we were forced to teach the workshop. While we couldn’t control the weather, we could control our focus and attention for how to cope with its inconvenience and put together a collaborative and strategic effort to make sure that the show went on, and pull it off successfully.
A few years back, a friend of mine was laid off from his high paying corporate job. Prior to this, he was living the good life, as they say. A very expensive home, a new luxury car, vacations to the best places, and it seemed as if my friend had money growing on trees. I was very happy for him.
Because he was a go-getter, he had climbed the corporate ladder quickly, he never settled for anything less than being the best. He enjoyed playing corporate politics and found allegiances in the organization that assisted him in his progression. But, as my friend was heading for a very prestigious position in the organization, reports of company problems began to surface in the news papers and news channels. Stock prices began to decline. I assumed my friend was going to be okay considering his lifestyle and his aggressiveness.
A few months after I had heard the reports of the company financial problems, my friend called and asked me if I knew of any jobs out there for him. I was surprised to hear that he had been laid off with two weeks severance pay. Unfortunately, he was more surprised than I was. He said “it was a complete shock to him” and that he “never saw it coming.” This really surprised me. I wasn’t an employee of this organization and yet I read the paper and watched the news and heard months prior to his layoff that the company was struggling. Two questions went through my mind. Could the signs of impending layoffs have been out there for my friend to pay attention to? If the signs were there, what could my friend have done about it? The bottom line was, my friend was out of a job and according to his admission, he never saw it coming.
In CMOE’s workshop on Applied Strategic Thinking, we discuss the importance of being able to manage the stumbling blocks that may appear in the future. The ability to navigate through future impediments is critical to any successful strategy. The most important aspects of the navigation is gathering intelligence and then the expertise to scan the environment and analyze what could help or hinder future success. Additionally, having the ability to sort through clutter and use information that can lead to proper action is vital. I believe that if my friend had spent a short amount of time looking at the intelligence available months before, he may have been able to ask questions that could have prepared him for the job loss. More importantly, he would have been able to plan and prepare in the event that his job was eliminated.
There is no question that when you ask yourself better questions you are going to get better answers. The same exists with intelligence. The better you are at intelligence gathering, the more informed you are. Establishing regular intelligence gathering better prepares you for the future and helps you anticipate trends and patterns that exist, or will exist.
I’ve come to the conclusion, that for most of us, time management is not the problem. There is little doubt that each of us couldn’t get better in some aspect of time management. I’ve taught time management classes for more than 20 years. And while far from perfect, time management is not my biggest challenge either. So what is the biggest challenge to getting more done and creating more value where it matters most? I believe the answer is a lack of well thought out and clearly defined “strategic targets” which will have a significant impact on your future. Let me explain.
I recalled his first car accident (from 18 months ago) and how afterwards, we had created a step by step process to help him in the future. In addition to creating a process and with the hopes of being as strategic as possible, we discussed plausible outcomes that follow an accident and how he could handle each one. For me, I had thought this was an excellent opportunity to think ahead and plan for the future, as the odds of a car accident repeating itself in his lifetime were not in our favor. I made sure my husband had updated insurance cards in the car, an “accident packet” with phone numbers and our written process for what to do. In my mind, my husband had all he needed to manage such a situation effectively.
The Difference
In order to make sure we have our daily contributions on track, it is important to do a little 
Go back a few years and think about the things you did on a daily basis to get results and achieve goals. Would you say your daily tactics, assignments, projects are the same today as they were five years ago? In most cases people I talk to said no. In my own work, while some of the tactical aspects of my job have remained, almost every other aspect of my job is different. Now, think about what duties your job will require in the future. One year, three years, or five years from now, will you be doing the same things you are doing today? Probably not.
Well, the next morning, I received a call from our facilitator; his flight had been delayed enough that he wouldn’t be able to get to Milwaukee in time to teach the workshop. This is when we began implementing scenario three. Our facilitator would teach the workshop from the Atlanta airport via telephone. This was possible because our client contact had seen the workshop on occasion and while he couldn’t teach the content, he could help keep structure and organization to the “tele-training.”
In CMOE’s workshop on 
