August 2007        ?       www.visionsmc.com       ?        410-849-8095   

 Editor's Note

I've been running off and on since I was 13 years old.

I used to be really uncomfortable with the "off and on" part of that sentence.

I really admired "steady Eddies" who could get up at the same time every day, all year long, year after year, and run and run and run. Look at Cal Ripken - he's been a celebrated role model for loyalty and dedication for generations of fans.

When I was in high school, I told my father I wanted to go to the Naval Academy (a common aspiration for Annapolis-raised children). "You don't brush your teeth and wash face in the same order every morning; you?ll never make it," he said. He was right, and I was devastated - I tried for months to be consistent in how I got ready every morning and failed miserably.

But, in the same way that the navy needs officers and enlisted, our country needs military and civilian. In the same way that the Orioles need coaches and players, baseball needs teams and fans. I'm not a good rule follower, and I?m not a decade-long team player. What did that make me?

I learned, over time, and began to appreciate, that while our society, and our business culture, needs and relies on the turtles?those people who you can count on day in and day out, there is also a role for me - a sprinter, who is better jumping in with excitement and enthusiasm on a specific project, and then getting a break by moving on to the next project. Running is fun for me when I do it for six months a year, rather than feeling like I have to do it every day.

Most businesses need a steady, daily, drumbeat, to keep them going and growing. But almost all also need a second rhythm to allow them to flourish.

Molly Hughes Wilmer   

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 Feature

Letting the Dough Rise

It's "Back to School" time. Even if you don't have kids in the age range, it's hard to miss the barrage of promotions and sales for this season. Do you remember what it was like to have a brand new ruled notebook, filled with blank pages? It always filled me with resolutions to take neater notes, make better outlines, and do my homework more promptly. It signified a fresh start.

It's hard to get a fresh start if you don't take a break. The "Back to School" season follows the summer break. Now, there are studies out there that show for children of school age, our agrarian-influenced academic calendar may be a bit outdated, and actually cause learning regression in lower-income students. So, maybe for those schoolchildren, a long summer break should be reconsidered.

However, when it comes to dealing with strategies, I'm a strong advocate of taking a breather, and I'm not alone. There's a time to develop a strategy, intensely focus on your organization, and figure out where you want to go and how you want to get there. And then there's a time to sit back and let the strategy-driven tactics run their course. To let yourself get back into the day-to-day rhythm and flow of your company. And then to step out again, and take another big-picture look at the horizon, and re-assess your strategic vision.

Anyone who is constantly tweaking their strategy is going to have two problems. First, they are not going to let any one strategic direction have enough time to succeed. Second, they are going to lose perspective?either thinking the big picture view is the day-to-day, or vice versa.

A third problem is highly likely: employee washout. With constantly changing directives, your employees lose their ability to manage?both in terms of their confidence in their abilities to make decisions, and in gaining their subordinates trust and confidence. If they are espousing a different philosophy or promoting different goals on a weekly, monthly, or even quarterly basis, their ability to lead is completely undermined. Your employees will get bounced around like ping pong balls, not knowing which way to go. New directives and goals become jokes, rather than inspirations and motivations.

Letting a strategy run its course is a bit like letting dough rise?you have to walk away, sit back, and let it happen without you. It takes confidence in your strategic development?did you put in the right ingredients, the right amounts, did you knead the dough well and long enough? At some point, you have to walk away and let the yeast take over.

There are many corporate pressures against staying the course. For public and larger companies, quarterly results and investor relations can tempt management away from the straight path. Management without backbone and vision is likely to cave into pressure to maximize short-term results at the cost of long-term success.

Companies of all sizes are vulnerable to people's very common fear of change. Like parents, management has to make difficult, but compassionate decisions?and enforce them. Sacrificing long-term vision to accommodate fear of change won't benefit the employees or the company. Therefore, most strategies should incorporate the human element of execution?training, adjustment to change, fear of the unknown, even job changes or job loss.

Strategies are essential to good business. But they don?t follow the day-to-day drumbeat of business. You have to measure the ingredients, knead the dough, and let the bread rise. How long? It doesn?t always take 90 minutes for the dough to double?temperature, humidity, ingredients, all impact the yeast's work. How long do you let your strategy run its course? You?ll know it when you see it?if you are patient enough.

What Can You Do? Take advantage of the "Back to School" season, and assess your corporate strategic planning efforts. Where are you in your strategic planning cycle? Are you in the midst of developing a plan? If so, make sure you build in time to let the plan succeed and to accommodate the pressures to cut it short. Are you in the midst of executing a plan? How are your employees reacting? How is your investor confidence? How are your intermediate results? Are you evaluating a plan? Did you give it enough time? What plan? Have you forgotten the last plan you developed? It?s time to start making some bread.

Ask the Expert Question Should our strategic planning committee be an ad hoc committee or a standing committee? Answer It can be a standing committee, but its role should change with the different phases of strategic planning, execution and evaluation. This could mean that the members should change, to bring on people with different skill sets to best manage each phase. If you can accommodate that in a standing committee, the committee can also ensure continuity, and that the cycle continues. A series of ad hoc committees are usually less desirable, in that there is a risk the process will be stalled in between the dissolution of one committee and the creation of another. Submit your questions to the editor: molly@visionsmc.com

 Want to Know More?

Have a great laugh, and look at this video. (I watched this with my father, the same man who discouraged my Academy application. If I can watch it with him, it should be safe for you to watch at work.) This play was not created by someone who does the same thing day in and day out. This idea fermented somewhere.

In this "Back to School" season, open your own clean notebook, and get personal. Where do your best ideas come from, and how do they develop? What's your inspiration?walks, fast driving, a good book, a mind-absorbing game? Do you feed your inspiration enough? What's your plan for fresh ideas and vision?

© Molly Hughes Wilmer, Vision Strategic Marketing & Communications, 2006. All rights reserved.

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