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Volume 2.7 Table Of Contents
- Test assumptions about problems before taking action
- Trend Watch: CEO communication with stakeholders is on the rise
- Digging Deeper: Common assumptions about problems
- Ask the Business Performance Expert:
- Speaking of Success:
Test assumptions about problems before taking action
In the fourth quarter, many companies launch special initiatives to boost sales and profitability objectives. Yet these efforts can lead to a series of unexpected and persistent problems (such as organizational “fires,” quality defects, and unusually low morale) if leaders have launched plans based upon mistaken assumptions about the source of these issues.
For example, one mid-sized company experienced mysteriously low morale despite having its best year ever. When I met with the leadership team, they had already tried a series of solutions to address what they thought was an “obvious” problem. However, despite teamwork training and compensation improvements, the problem had continued to build until it was beginning to seriously interfere with their plans for rapid growth.
From an outsider’s perspective, using interviews and focus groups with leaders and employees across the organization, I could see that there was definitely more to the story than a need for training and compensation improvements. The underlying source of the mysterious morale issue in this privately held company was lack of clear and consistent communication between the executive team and employees about the company’s new strategic direction and focus. Once leadership addressed their mistaken assumption about the source of the company’s persistent problem and took steps to negotiate employees’ buy-in to the changes, morale significantly improved and the company was able to accelerate its growth plans.
Bottom line: Even when a course of action seems obvious, it’s vital to first test your assumptions about how the initiative could affect various internal and external stakeholder groups. In this way, you’re more likely to spend your organization’s resources on moving forward rather than on dealing with gridlock.
Trend Watch: CEO communication with stakeholders is on the rise
According to the fifth annual PRWeek/Burson-Marsteller CEO Survey released on November 7, 2005, “CEOs are spending 47% more time on both internal and external communications than they were two years ago.” This has implications for all levels of leadership as CEOs recognize the importance of clear and responsive communication and push this value throughout the organization.
The challenge is that as companies increasingly rely upon outsource providers and alliance partners for a variety of business functions including administration, research and development, manufacturing, sales and service, the reality is that your organization extends far beyond employees on the payroll. As the story (above) illustrates, each of these groups and individuals can interpret the same events or information very differently. This is why it’s essential to make sure that you have not overlooked or underestimated the perceptions of any key stakeholder groups and individuals that are critical to uncovering and addressing problems as they arise.
When you gain diverse perspectives from employees, customers, alliance partners, outsource providers, and suppliers, and other key stakeholders at the earliest stages of strategic thinking and planning, it significantly increases your ability to test assumptions about the source of problems. It can also provide you with insights that increase the effectiveness of the plans that you do launch.
Digging Deeper: Common assumptions about problems
We all have tendencies to make certain types of assumptions about the problems we face. The most common ones include:
- What the problem is and why it exists
- Getting rid of the “responsible” person or group will quickly fix the situation
- What solution will/won’t work
- All it will take to fix the problem are new policies and procedures
- All we need is a quick “win” to generate momentum
- Everyone sees this problem the way I do
- I’m right and they’re all wrong
Frequently, a combination of these assumptions gets in the way of uncovering and addressing the underlying source of problems, and can become hidden roadblocks to success. To avoid this pitfall, test your assumptions by seeking concrete data, observations, examples and counter-examples from as many sources as practically possible. The more supporting evidence you can find, the more perspective you gain, and the more you can trust your assumptions about the problems you observe.
To learn more about uncovering
and addressing common but mistaken assumptions
leaders make about their organizations, read “Preventing
Strategic Gridlock®”
Ask the Business Performance Expert:
Q: We don’t
have time to uncover and test our assumptions.
Won’t this just lead to “paralysis
by analysis?
A: No one wants to get stuck
in minutia or be accused of not taking timely
action because you were “analyzing assumptions.”
However, understanding the unique challenges that
your organization faces is in itself an action
step that maximizes speed and effectiveness, while
minimizing risk, when it’s focused on advancing
specific objectives.
Quote: “It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.”
G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English journalist and author