(PC: The weight challenged individual who inhales burnt tobacco)

He is that guy that probably knows he should stop smoking. And he should lose weight and exercise more. But he doesn’t do it. And just because it is obvious, it doesn’t make it easy.

But one day, he (or she) might have a heart attack. Should he survive, he will probably find the determination and willpower to give up the cigarettes, eat better and commence a lifelong sustainable exercise program. And he will say, “I should have done this years ago”.

In his book Strategy and the Fat Smoker, David Maister links this same problem from Personal Life to Professional Life.

Business Owners (and leaders generally) know that they need more effective business strategy and outcomes, yet they tolerate ‘adequate’ behaviour and performance from their business, their management, their people and of course, themselves.

Then one day, seemingly out of the blue, circumstances change, and they are suddenly in trouble.

A business equivalent of a heart attack may be that telephone call from an unhappy bank manager, supplier or customer. It is often associated with lost sales, poor margins, excessive labour costs, new competitors, outdated technology, imports, changing regulations or just a decline in business. Or maybe a pandemic.

Why does it take a crisis to get business owners to realise that there may have been a better way?

In the last few months, we have been approached by a surprising number of businesses in real trouble. Sure, all of them have suffered from the C-19 induced recession, but frankly some of them were in difficulty a long time ago. They just didn’t realise it.

We don’t mind the challenge of finding a way out for these businesses (after all, we are here to help), but wouldn’t it be nice if we found a few more businesses that were not yet so critically injured? Or not really injured at all?

Most businesses do some form of planning.  Most senior people have undertaken some form of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats) and most come away with a list of tasks and dates to comply.  Lofty, wordy and onerous.

More than a few times, we have met organisations asking us to undertake strategic planning, and where their previous plan has not been executed.  In one case (for a pro-bono plan for a smallish NFP), in their previous plan, they had over 240 separate actions assigned (by the external planners) to the already overworked team and their volunteers. Not one of these tasks had been completed 18 months later. Not one.

But hey, it was an impressive book in their library.

So, what is the difference between successful planning and a waste of time? We have a long-practiced methodology which seems to deliver the results, judging by the happy clients who ask us to do this year after year.

But what does Maister say is the difference that makes strategy work?

He makes the following observations about strategy:

• The process is not a quick fix, it’s about a permanent change and that takes lots of hard work and commitment.
• Success must be measured and shared. Failures too. Imagine that weight loss weigh-in in front of your kids?
• Leadership cannot be cynical. They have to believe in the promoted values and standards and practice them too.
• Ideas are best when set as ‘principles’ rather than a means to an end. For example, ‘respect of clients’ as a core value rather than a means to getting more sales.
• People must ‘volunteer’ and want to be part of an outcome. Top-down directives are never as effective as ideas originated by those who carry them to execution.
• ‘People must get on or off the bus’. We had a great client (now deceased) who always said, get the cynics out of your business. Worth doing, worth doing properly, by everyone … no passengers.

And it pays to have a good and patient coach.

Every now and again, one of the attendees in a planning workshop will say “we have done all of this before and it’s a waste of time”. That is a hard barrier to overcome and that resistance comes from poor prior outcomes. To convince that participant that this time will be different, is not easy.

It’s like a diet (to use another of Maister’s examples) where repeatedly failed attempts are worse than no attempt at all. It is hard to get the right mind set to succeed and to make the change become your life resolve. “It is who I am now”.

But get it right (the business strategy or the diet), and it is powerful. The benefits and momentum that accrue from success are amazing and show you that you (or your team) can do anything.

I had the privilege to attend a seminar run by David Maister around 20 years ago. He is considered the guru of Professional Service Firms. Over the past three decades, we regularly gave our people and even a few clients various publications written (or co-authored) by David. In particular, Managing the Professional Service Firm (1993), The Trusted Advisor (2000) and Practice What You Preach (2002).

Click here for a short version of Strategy and the Fat Smoker.