The Red Pill Executive. Tony Gruebl
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manage up and play politics well in order to protect their autonomy.
20 20.They learn how to play well with their peers and build coalitions.
When we noticed that each element on the list could skew performance, we emailed Dan McCarthy and asked him how these traits could influence execution. He replied:
I think you’ve hit on some possible reasons. Others that come to mind are communication breakdowns (lack of shared understanding), lack of true consensus (silent disagreement), a dysfunctional executive team, the Abilene Paradox, power struggles, organizational structural and process issues that create misalignment or sub optimized execution, and a lack of top-level project management (like a structured monthly operating review (MOR).44
The Abilene Paradox
The paradox originates from the research of Dr. Jerry B. Harvey at George Washington University. Jerry tells the story of a dusty, hot afternoon playing dominoes with his family when his father-in-law said, “Let’s go to Abilene and eat at the cafeteria.”
The only available car had no air conditioning and no shock absorbers. With the temperature looming at 106o and 53 miles to drive in a dust storm over rough roads, the trip sounded anything but fun. The Abilene cafeteria had little appeal either. It was more like an Army mess hall than a restaurant.
Jerry’s wife said, “Sounds like a great idea, but I don’t want to go unless you want to go, Jerry.”
Now Jerry had a dilemma. He didn’t want to go, but he’d heard his wife say those words before, and it didn’t go well for him when he refused.
So, he said, “Joy unbounded. I was just sitting here hoping someone would ask me to go to Abilene and eat at the cafeteria. But I don’t want to go unless your Mama wants to go.”
Mama said, “Of course I want to go.”
They endured a grueling trip, ate a terrible meal at the cafeteria, and returned home four hours later.
When they got back to the living room, Jerry commented, “That was a great trip.”
His father-in-law replied, “I didn’t want to go to Abilene in the first place. I was just making conversation, and you idiots took me up on it! You ruined my day.”45
Dr. Harvey’s research showed him that the fundamental problem in contemporary organizations is not conflict, but rather the inability to cope with agreement. Most agreement in teams is actually false consensus. This occurs because many people expect to be ridiculed or censured if they voice objections. This often leads groups to act on inappropriate goals and sets them up for failure.46
Each item on Dan’s list is driven by the mission of the business, but also influenced by culture, bias, and even the Abilene Paradox. Perhaps that is the difference between the most successful senior executives and those who struggle to find success.
This is the human element at the heart of performance. Every person involved has a sense of WIIFM tagging along on the ride to achieving the company’s goals.
For example, Number 1 on Dan’s list: “They are competitive.” In large organizations competitive executives are an asset. This quality is key to achieving important corporate goals.47
But what happens in an organization without solid strategic development or executing tools? When an executive’s WIIFM includes a need to compete, does that behavior influence Strategic Alignment? Absolutely. Poor strategic clarity, lack of accountability, overly political behaviors, and ego can lead to competition that redirects company activities away from its mission.
Humans like winning. However, what constitutes winning must line up with the mission of the business, or the project will shift out of alignment. This happens when a project has no Strategic Alignment but still has executive alignment. The executive sees the project as a potential personal win, regardless of where it falls within the company mission.
Let’s look at Number 10 on Dan’s list: “They regret not taking action on poor performers sooner.”
What if the poor performer is a leader in the company or a project sponsor? What if that poor performer is a fellow executive?
Sometimes terminating employees is very difficult. Maybe the best that can be done is to move those individuals out of harm’s way while strategic initiatives move forward. This twist in corporate culture also tugs Strategic Alignment off center… all the way to the top of the food chain.
A recent Gartner report entitled “Don’t Leave the PPM Strategy to Chance” stated:
“But too many organizations leave strategy realization to chance. In a digital world, the probability of success due to chance is low, and the implications of failure are severe. This is why creating and executing on a solid innovation-driven strategy is key.”
Gartner predicts that, by 2021, enterprises that commit dedicated organizational resources to ensuring that strategy is successfully executed will be 80% more likely to be industry leaders.48
If a company wants to rise to industry leadership, their success hinges on Strategic Alignment. As with many arenas in the 21st century, archaic blue-pill thinking no longer wins the race. We can no longer sleepwalk through life touting the party line and expect to rise to the top of the heap—personally, professionally, or as an organization.
“As with many arenas in the 21st century, archaic blue pill thinking no longer wins the race.”
The Gartner report further advocates creating a Strategy Realization Office (SRO). Quoting Donna Fitzgerald, Research Vice President at Gartner, the article goes on:
Developing an enterprise-level competency for strategy execution, such as a strategy realization office (SRO) can provide significant competitive advantage,” said Ms. Fitzgerald. “It not only increases the probability of success in the digital future, but also encourages the development of a cultural and human-centered competency rather than a technology or process-centered one.49 [Emphasis ours]
People have more competency than technology when it comes to strategy execution. This is an interesting rebuttal to the idea that software programs and new methodologies are the wave of the future when, in fact, people are the problem.
The Gartner report goes on to say:
Executing strategy is hard because the organization needs to begin thinking, investing, and ultimately, performing in the manner required by a new business model, while keeping its current business model operating to ensure short-term revenue.50
Bingo. Here we have the reason identifying and maintaining Strategic Alignment is so difficult in most companies.
Finding, hiring, and retaining innovative employees to staff a construct like an SRO will be crucial if organizations are to succeed at executing new and evolving strategies. People who can deal with uncertainty, risk, and more-than-occasional failure will be required, making this a significant culture shift.51
Interesting that these qualities are key characteristics of high performing project managers. The article continues:
For the foreseeable future however, strategy execution is the best all-around fitness program that an enterprise can adopt. Building the organizational muscle to run the race of effective strategy execution will be as important as winning the race.52
The Operations Executive controls how team members perceive the strategy behind a project. While the bigger mission of the organization might be clear, the strategy underpinning a specific project probably won’t be. It’s your job to chip away at your own preconditioning and squash your assumptions, your bias, and your WIIFM agendas. It’s your job to maintain fidelity and lay everything out in plain sight. Then, bring your team into alignment as well.
“It’s your job to maintain fidelity and lay everything out in plain sight.”
Everyone