Planning to Win with People in 2023, How will you make your team a team, The Doom Loop & How to figure out where you’ll be in 10 Years
25 December 2022 Newsletter
“The costs of your good habits are in the present. The cost of your bad habits are in the future.” James Clear
Hope you’re Thriving!
Over the holiday season, I’ve collected some of my favourite articles from the year to share with you. Kind of like a best-of from 2022.
Couple this with my recommended reading list and hopefully, there is something of real interest and value for you each week.
I’m keeping them short and sharp.
Enjoy your holidays, stay safe, and I hope you enjoy.
See you in 2023!
How will you make your team a team?
This week I came across an interesting article about the way leaders think about a team.
From the article:
“Begin by considering this seemingly simple question: Does the group you have assembled view itself as a team?
Often, executives “have recruited and promoted a number of executives, all with specific goals and objectives. Whether these individuals see themselves as a team is another thing.
Perhaps they have non-complementary goals and are encouraged to compete with each other for resources and recognition.
So a leader’s first step is often to declare that a team exists and to support that assertion with clarity as to how the participants are to interact and support each other.”
Read the article here: How Will You Make Your Team a Team?
The Doom Loop
Of course, the ant mill reminds me of the doom loop, a painful cycle of decline that firms fall into, which is the opposite of the flywheel.”
As Jim Collins explains the Doom loop from his study:
“We found a very different pattern at the comparison companies.
Instead of a quiet, deliberate process of figuring out what needed to be done and then simply doing it, the comparison companies frequently launched new programs—often with great fanfare and hoopla aimed at “motivating the troops”—only to see the programs fail to produce sustained results.
They sought the single defining action, the grand program, the one killer innovation, the miracle moment that would allow them to skip the arduous buildup stage and jump right to breakthrough.
They would push the flywheel in one direction, then stop, change course, and throw it in a new direction—and then they would stop, change course, and throw it into yet another direction.
After years of lurching back and forth, the comparison companies failed to build sustained momentum and fell instead into what we came to call the doom loop. “
The doom loop focuses on looking good in the short term and posturing rather than doing the hard work needed for long-term success.
When a leader or team experiences disappointing results, they react without understanding; they don’t take the time to really understand where those disappointing results came from and how both short and long-term decisions led to those disappointing results.
Then, as they have reacted without understanding, that leads them to a new direction, launch a new programme, fire, hire a leader, or perhaps to a new acquisition. Those new things were born from reaction without understanding.
Of course, because they were born without understanding, they don’t work, and there is no buildup and no momentum, which then leads again to even further disappointing results, and so the doom loop continues its downward cycle.
Ironically we now go full circle because the key when you experience disappointing results is to go back to your hedgehog concept including your core purpose. And consider the short and long term cause of those disappointing results.
How to Figure Out Where You’ll Be In 10 Years
This week I also came across this interesting excerpt from the book Competing in the New World of Work: How Radical Adaptability Separates the Best from the Rest by Keith Ferrazzi.
Here’s a part of that article:
“SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE, and successful companies, tend to follow a similar path: The changes they make from year to year seem orderly, but over decades, the changes can take on an unexpected, nonlinear shape. For example, I began my career as an entry-level analyst at Deloitte. Now I run a thriving growth-coaching business.
The leap directly from one to the other seems absurd, and looking back, I couldn’t have foreseen or planned it. But broken down into smaller steps, it makes sense: One job led to another, and an opportunity here created a logical new opportunity there. This is the magic of uncertainty: Our paths are forged in satisfying but unknowable ways. But it can be hard to know what to do with this knowledge—because nobody likes to feel adrift, and especially not entrepreneurs.
Leaders shouldn’t be content to just see where things go. They don’t leave their businesses to chance. They want to anticipate changes, plan for the unexpected, and plot a course into tomorrow. Is any of that possible? Nobody can predict the future, of course, but I have found a tactic that I believe gives leaders the best possible chance. It comes from John Hagel, the retired co-chairman of Deloitte’s Center for the Edge, and he calls it Zooming Out and Zooming In.
With this exercise, John invites leaders to take leaps of imagination in which growth is nonsequential and exponential—very different from traditional, linear, do-this-and-then-that, three-year growth-planning projections.
The exercise also helps your team develop a shared long-term vision and a road map for making decisions. Having run a number of clients through this exercise, I’ve found that the results can be transformative. So, as you look toward your own unknowable future, I suggest Zooming Out and Zooming In. You might see your next big shift before it arrives.
The exercise begins by asking two key Zoom Out questions:
• What will our industry look like in 10 years’ time?
• What kind of company do we need to become to succeed in that future?
You don’t have to answer these questions yourself. They can be answered at a strategic planning meeting with your team or over a period of time. You also don’t need to limit this exercise to your team; you should involve anyone who can help you construct this vision. It may be useful to consult with specialists in certain technical areas to help your team think through various scenarios involving your industry’s long-term trajectory.
Once you have your answers, it’s time to start preparing for that future. Of course, you can’t just throw out today’s version of your company. But you can start testing your hypothesis and building toward that future—giving yourself the greatest chance to catch a wave of growth.”
The article explains the keys to the zoom-in and zoom-out idea and provides various other examples.
Apple news users can continue reading the article here: How to Figure Out Where You’ll Be In 10 Years How to figure out where you’ll be in 10 years
This week on The Growth Whisperers Podcast
Planning to Win in 2023 – People (2 of 5)
What people decisions do you need to make to win in 2023?
2023 looks to have major challenges that are slowly developing. And this is especially so when considering the people challenges we’re all facing. One of the most important questions to answer in order to best prepare for 2023 is how do I get the right people in the right seats doing the right things the right way?
This week we’re going through some important things to find the right people in 2023 and get your people system working.
Episode 141 – The Growth Whisperers
Listen to The Growth Whisperers
Or watch it on YouTube
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Keep Thriving!
Brad Giles
