Catalyst Strategic Consultants - What is Doug Bouey thinking about these days?

Re: Avoiding the Cover of FORTUNE

Appreciation

New Year Resolutions - For Companies!

January 4, 2002

Every year, someone asks – “So what are your resolutions for this year?" The stock replies get a little less convincing over time: you know the kind of thing – lose weight, lower golf handicap. . . . Some folks are more convincing. They look you straight in the eye and say something definitive, like – “This is the year I’m going to the Everest base camp!” or better yet, something that’s already got a little structure: “My bride and I have signed up for a couple’s course – we are going to share a richer marriage.” The replies are clear and set the speaker apart from the herd. They're resolved, and it shows. Shows in their determination, their willingness to commit unreservedly and that they don’t really care what others think. You know, if each of us did only what others approved of, we would live very boring lives. Stepping out cuts the stepper from the herd. They answer to their deep satisfiers alone.

Companies are like that. Some don’t have any New Years resolutions. Or if they exist, they’re vague generalities. Then you run into a company that is going somewhere. You can feel it, same as you can when you encounter a person on the move. The goals, as expressed, sound different.

“We have set up for an ROI of 17% minimum this FY. “

By Q3, we’ll have our new enterprise platform in position and be ready to begin serious implementation.”

They have distinct aims, they’ve thought about them. And they are resolved: cannot be deterred. They carry themselves with confident expectation, because they have done the hard and real work of making meaningful goals:

What is the difference when a company (or an individual) has jumped that hurdle?

First . . .

They actually entered into a discipline to do it. Goal setting and planning is a time and resource consuming activity. It takes preparation, thought, pure application and a willingness to hang in with a process that will produce outcomes statements that sing. They have resourced the planning process, found a structure.

Companies are different from persons in that there must be a broader buy-in to realize goals. It’s great for the CEO to have drive and often the goals emerge out of that mouth. But the participation and process enlist others – others who have to do the heavy lifting. If you helped give it birth, you might be more willing to feed it.

Of course, I’m talking about a using a proven process with a worldly facilitator – now, you expected that, didn’t you?

They have rolled these commitments around in their mouths before swallowing. At a recent session, I heard a company team work through a goal in terms of pure volume, then profitability, then numbers of employees before settling on active contracted projects over a certain size. They considered not only what was meaningful to them but to the people who work there. They searched for the leverage number, the one that implied the most all-round success to them and let the other numbers follow along. They didn’t forget those aspects; they were getting to the meat.

They stretch, big time. That number of projects, for them, was major meat. The fabled BHAG. It works. But they have not overreached themselves. By not breaking with their organization and making it a leap too far, they avoided an immediate discounting, and demotivating accusations of grandiosity.

Good goals are robust, tested. Strong companies don’t need to jump at the first good looking goal that crosses their mind, although the statements are often inspired. They need to try the provisional outcome in a number of possible scenarios. What happens if we lose a major deal? What about a market shakeup, like we’ve recently had? I guess if Sept. 11 has a planning message, it is that the past does not necessarily and mechanically carry on into the future. Good planners have substantiated the commitment by nesting it into reality – they’ve engaged with the goals and what they imply. The final adoption is part fact, part plan and part chutzpah.

They have hit the heavy questions head on and said no to something. A company that is everything to everyone (with money) ends up being nothing to nobody. If there is one liberating practice every company could use, it’s to focus down. One of the new books out is “Profit from your Core.” Folks could do well just to meditate on the title!

Strong goals demand the “Solution After Next”. Not thinking about where an accomplished goal will leave them may lead companies to express a desire that carries in it the seed of death. A client company got all the way to buying into a hairy New Years Resolution until everyone present realized that achieving it would make them part of a company no one wanted to belong to. Whoa!!

Then . . .

So what happens after that first rush when the new outcome has been embraced? Time for a bracing jolt of reality. Others have not been in the room, are yet to catch the intended fever. They need to be romanced, evangelized. Just showing them a number or a new state doesn’t automatically engage them in overdrive. Implementation is another matter and needs to be approached in a mature way, but without allowing the enthusiasm to be blown out.

Big goals demand big changes. In order to get to heaven, you start by getting off the ground. Strong companies understand that they have to structure up. If you’re going to be a bigger outfit, you have to have the gear that bigger outfits have. Another great reason to have a seasoned guide for this trip. That consultant can help you (not tell you) with what you’ll need for the trip.

We planning consultants always have to be mindful that breakthrough companies get there by being different. Unfortunately, clients only read about the blazing successes, those who speak with the piercing wisdom of hindsight. The other 99% don’t talk – they died trying. Most growing companies really do need to have all the equipment companies of like size possess. They need bigger league accounting, stronger staff relations, better procurement, whatever it takes.

Hugely important: those who set themselves big challenges were undeterred by first experience. First efforts may not be rewarded by immediate payback. That can dismay the actors! That’s why we set the right goals. They afford wriggle room in case we have to back up and come at it another way. The objective is to reach the summit, not to go by way of one particular cranny.

So . . .

What’s holding you back? Sit down now, before you get swamped by the urgent. Or get away so you can think as a group. Grab our Planning to Plan outline and make your move. You know the old saw – if you don’t know where you’re going, any road’ll do. Set some New Years Resolutions you and your company can relate to – and let them power you to a 2002 you’ll never forget.

Have a great year,

Doug Bouey

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