a Series of 10 — the myth of readiness

By my count I am 5 blogs away from having written 500 blogs on my two websites. I thought it might be an interesting idea to write these remaining blogs based on the common threads that have woven themselves through the last 495 I have written — and with that said, “a Series of 10” will continue with a blog on being ready.

Let’s start with a quote from Helmuth von Moltke the Elder who was a 19th-century Prussian field marshal to frame this. He said (or wrote), “No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy” or if you need something more meme-ready, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy because inevitably it goes to shit”.

Another strategist, American General Dwight D. Eisenhower more or less alluded to the same thing when he said, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy”. Almost more importantly, he also said, “Plans are nothing; planning is everything”.

They were saying that the moment you started an initiative, the act of starting makes your plan obsolete because the real world you come up against changes everything you planned for. The context was war in the case of these two strategists but it also applies to anything you may plan to do.

So, by its very definition, you will never be truly ready for what happens after you initiate your plan.

I think what Eisenhower said, “Plans are nothing; planning is everything” is the most important for readying you to drive action — it’s not the plan itself but the act of planning that readies you to take action. The act of planning will have you analyzing the situation, identifying what’s needed for success, allocating the resources, developing objectives and creating measurements of success. It will also identify a time to begin.

You will develop competencies, objectives and confidence to start with planning, and when the world pushes back, you can put your competencies in motion and work through what happens. You will never be ready until you are in motion, and only then will you know how ready you were.

And with that, I will offer a quote by Mark Twain, “A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way” — paraphrasing… there are some things you can only learn when everything goes to shit, and it’s uncomfortable, and hard.

Planning will develop your competencies to be sure but being in the shit will start to develop aspects of character such as grit, adaptability, and being resolute. So don’t spend too much time ensuring you are absolutely ready (because you will never be) — and whatever you do, don’t avoid starting because it’s going to be hard.

No one learns anything worthwhile when it’s easy.

iamgpe

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a Series of 10 —Authority Without Noise

By my count I am 6 blogs away from having written 500 blogs on my two websites. I thought it might be an interesting idea to write these remaining blogs based on the common threads that have woven themselves through the last 494 I have written — and with that said, “a Series of 10” will continue with a blog on authority, and maybe even leadership.

I want to start with a layman’s definition of authority — it’s the recognized power or expertise to control and/or influence people. It is generally categorized as either Traditional Authority (custom, inheritance), Charismatic Authority (personal magnetism) or Legal-Rational Authority (law, bureaucracy).

Basically, authority comes with a title or personal magnetism and is validated with power or expertise. The clearest authority is when you are blessed with being a monarch or a VP of Operations because it’s on your business card (one of the reasons people get hung up on titles when they get a promotion). Charismatic authority is where most of us play because there are so few Lords and Ladies and even a VP of Operations gets fired occassionally.

Charismatic authority has muddied the waters with regards to what true authority or expertise is because there is a confusion that visibility, noise, showmanship and good production values are a proxy for authority (and particularly expertise) — if they look good, and they say all the right things, as well as being a little entertaining, they must know what they’re talking about. Right? Not at all.

There is a truism that says, and I am paraphrasing: validation of real authority is action and the success that comes from what you are doing — how does that old saying go again? “Less talking and more doing”. If you want to stretch your authority, take action that will move your objective forward. The more you are noticed for accomplishing successful things, the more you will be asked to do more. Ultimately your expertise and influence expands because of this.

Remember when you are striving for authority to raise your hand and volunteer, propose ideas to meet objectives, meet your deadlines, take on challenges with solutions not complaints, and network and build relationships to get things done — these are some of the good habits of authority.

Robin Sharma wrote a book called “The Leader Without a Title” which in this context is a nice reminder that you can have authority without officially having the authority. For me, quietly and with intention, driving action is a means to authority. Trust me, people will notice the quiet woman in the corner who is garnering everyone’s attention because she gets things done — particularly the attention of people who can help make things happen and champion the efforts.

And hey, if you want to be noisy about it, just make sure you are doing something other than making noise.

iamgpe

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a Series of 10 — the seduction of optimization

By my count I am 7 blogs away from having written 500 blogs on my two websites. I thought it might be an interesting idea to write these remaining blogs based on the common threads that have woven themselves through the last 493 I have written — and with that said, “a Series of 10” will continue with a blog on the seduction of optimization.

This is somewhat counter intuitive for me because I have enough Six Sigma training under my belt to be annoying in meetings — I love the DMAIC model for solving problems, enjoy a good Fishbone diagram and can get lost in developing a process map. Reducing errors, streamlining processes, driving efficiency and optimization is very seductive, as well as very satisfying.

I am not suggesting optimization isn’t a crucial activity in whatever you are doing, be it optimizing a production line or optimizing your health but there may come a point where diminishing returns come into play and maybe even stagnation. Optimization focuses on what you are familiar with and can be very action oriented — it will keep you busy and it’s easy to illustrate effort. Quietly, it’s perceived there is no real consequence or risk from optimization because even the most minimal improvement is a victory.

The siren’s call of optimization becomes a concern when it’s preventing you from addressing the possible problem that the thing you are trying to optimize is so broken, too dated or simply misaligned with your goals. Optimization can’t address these situations in any material way because that is not the issue.

Is the seduction of optimization preventing you from seeing the need for change? Change brings risk, uncertainty and consequence, and it is messy — something that optimization is not (remember all of those efficiency models). I am suggesting that focusing on optimization may prevent you from questioning why you are doing what you are doing — is there an alternative to what is being done or should you even be doing what you are doing?

I call it questioning the Sacred Cow. This line of questioning is about ensuring optimization doesn’t stop us from asking the simple question, “Should we even be doing this and is there a better alternative?”.

iamgpe

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