Strategy

“Experience is not the greatest teacher – evaluated experience is the greatest teacher. “

This simple saying has echoed in my mind since I heard it from my mentor, John Maxwell. I have broadcast it to many audiences around the planet and, yet, I am still passionate about the concept. We have to get better. We have to improve performance, daily, where possible.

Finally, for the R.A.C.E. model, the E stands for Evolve. If we fail to evolve, if we fail to change, if we fail to adapt, we will die. It happens in creation, it happens in careers, and it happens on the trail.

“No strategic plan survives the battlefield.”

The goal of the race should be to finish the race – to reach your ‘Burled Arch’- in the best place possible NOT to have finished the race with your plan intact. There is a balance between – stick to the plan at all costs AND the plan is just a piece of paper (a guide or suggestion). The plan has to be solid and everyone on your team needs to know that this is the plan, “This is the way that we are going to run AND where the plan is not succeeding we will evaluate and see if it is right to ‘E-volve’ the plan.” As the leader, you get to make that call – what needs to evolve now and what do we believe will yield results if we continue on the same process (or trail) for a little longer. This is where your ‘Evaluated Experience’ from the past comes in. The leaders with the most ‘evaluated experience’ are going to know what to change and what to stick to. Rookie mushers: you and your team are going to pay the dues for your ‘on-the-trail’ leadership education (we all do! – and my heart in consulting, writing the book, and in this blog is to help – just because you have to learn the lessons doesn’t mean they have to be YOUR mistakes – learn from others!)

OK – so HOW do we E-valuate and E-volve?

At the Checkpoints (Have a meeting just for lessons learned)

Evaluate the plan…

What went right? What went wrong? Why did it go right / wrong? Where did the plan fall short? Where were circumstances different on the trail than we thought? What misconceptions did we have about our competition? Or what did we see others do that could be a ‘better practice’?

Evaluate the team…

Where did WE fail to implement the plan? Did I team the right dogs together? What did individual performances look like and why? Is everyone on the team still engaged? Do I have Buy-In or a Buy-in problem? (Team Culture suggestion: have this as an open discussion with the team and allow a peer / team review – Safe peer review – no biting LOL)

Lessons learned (for now or later?)…

What do we do different for the next stretch of trail? What do we record to change for next year’s race through the same section we just went through? What are we going to do differently that will yield a BETTER result? (not just a different result)

Implement…

The value in the Evolve stage is where you look at the information you learned at the Checkpoints, you evaluate your experiences AND you implement them – you, immediately, put it to use in your daily running. If nothing changes – we just had a nice mental exercise. To help with change – get the teams commitment to holding each other positively accountable for the behavior and performance changes and add that to the list of evaluations at the next checkpoint.

Wrap up for the week:

R- Ready

A- Action

C- Checkpoints

E- Evolve

RACE to win AND enjoy the journey!

There’s no good way to sell a team or yourself on running 1100 miles. On the other end of the spectrum – if you’re just going to the corner market – you don’t need a tremendous team OR strategic planning.

“The C in R.A.C.E. stands for Checkpoints.”

Being able to break down an incredible vision, mission or even a project into goals, steps, and processes is a key competence for a leader that gets things done. Benchmarks and checkpoints along the way allow us to measure our progress and make needed corrections early enough to ‘stay on course’. Again, you may or may not know, there are 20+ checkpoints in the Iditarod and all serve a purpose on the way to achieving the dream. For each segment, the terrain is different and that piece of the journey can stand on its own. String enough of them together and you’ve done it!

For those that recall the HAB 22 model vision execution model, the B 22 stands for Break the vision down – break it into 22 pieces, if you have to. So, it helps when we break up our vision or dream into 20+ segments (training runs). The reason I like calling it training runs is that it needs to be broken down into its’ simplest form – simple enough for your team to run with it. There is a reason relay races are run with a baton and not a shopping cart! Simplicity increases speed and at each handoff – you can evaluate your progress.

Practical thoughts in creating checkpoints:

1. Constantly be thinking next logical step (see yesterday’s post)
2. Consider time as an element (we could run the race over 3 months – but everyone will have gone home!)
3. Consider your resources (Resources are not finite and we need to know what we need to do in order to get more – so that we can continue the race)
4. Employ ‘A before Q’ thinking (when thinking in steps consider which comes before what and work to make sure we keep dogs before sleds – or A before Q)
5. When will you and the team rest / recreate? (At some point we need rest in order to complete the marathon. It is not practical nor healthy to build your plan around all members of the team running until they burn out. Giving the team time to rest and regenerate will produce the best results in the long run.)
6. What will you eat for nourishment along the way? (feeding the team physically, mentally, and emotionally are critical)
7. What will you be judged on? (In order to finish you need to stay in the race – if your boss, board of directors, bankers, or family have criteria that need to be met along the way – meet those! This is Iditarod Leadership – doing life and business for the long haul!)
8. Keep Score (tying in with #7 – in order for us to know where we are, what progress we’ve made, where we are in our race, where we stand in relation to our competition, being able to evaluate present performance against prior and desired performance)

At each Checkpoint, or at the end of each segment, so that you can run the race next time better, you have to take the Checkpoint to evaluate your experience over that terrain, and Evolve. Evolve is the last component in Race and that is tomorrow’s topic.

“Good things come to those who wait” – but wait long enough and your dreams will pass you by and be experienced by the man or woman of action!

This is the part where we work the plan and we get the team members doing their part. In my teams, I emphasize simplicity and Action. Without Action, we’re just thoughts, without simplicity, it will never get out of the kennel. The best race strategy left in the lodge and not implemented is always trumped by a margin strategy implemented to the fullest.

Your TEAM needs simplicity AND they need a job to do – they are the happiest when they have a job to do and they are allowed to do it without a lot of interference. It’s dogs before sled, not sled before dogs. It’s simplicity and Action. I had a mentor a long time ago tell me, “I’m not judging you on your intentions or your efforts, I’m judging you on your outcome.” I thought it was hard at the time, but it has served me extremely well over the years.

For years, I have encouraged leaders that it’s time we put ‘Execute’ back into Executives. Wall Street doesn’t pay for intention – the pay for Action and Results – for Execution. I Love what Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan say about ‘Execution’ – that Leaders don’t fail for lack of vision – they fail for not executing the vision that they have. Fire, Ready, Aim doesn’t work – but neither does Ready, Ready, Ready…..

All of us have things and/or pieces of our dreams that we don’t know how to bring to pass – that’s natural. If we could bring it to pass, completely on our own, it might be too small of a vision. The success lies in taking the next known step – thinking in processes and asking yourself, “What would a successful person do in this situation? What is the next step they might take?” Then take that next step – evaluate whether you are closer to your vision or farther away and act accordingly. The key is action! It’s classic success principles, “Who – does what – by when”

Two things that I consistently remind myself:

• “Start” what needs to be started

• Finish what I start

“Don’t just be a hearer or thinker – be a doer – act on what you know to do!”

Lewis & Clark remarking about their expedition said, “We didn’t always know the entirety, but inevitably someone on the team knew the NEXT thing we needed to do.”

Today’s thought: What’s the next thing? Not then next 10 things – the NEXT thing – let’s do that thing and not get locked up! Don’t fear failure – fear being paralyzed by fear!

“Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leaders (Mushers) in the Iditarod Race have to plan and prepare months in advance of the race. For most, they may take a few weeks or month off and then they are right back planning next year’s race.

Thinking, planning, preparing constantly – this race becomes as much an addiction as an adventure or business. For many of us in business, could we not say the same?

In the minds of mushers are many components as they think about the upcoming season: Who will my leaders be? Does my kennel have a deep enough bench strength? Can I be more strategic about where we pushed it and where we rested? Where was my team stronger / weaker? How can I make my team stronger? What training can I do in advance of the race to prepare them better? Do I have them on the right ‘diet’? Is there a way I can become more competitive with Lance?

Weeks and sometimes months in advance they have to compile and ship supplies and resources to the 20+ checkpoints throughout the race course. Food, dry clothing, and everything else under the sun that is needed to run this grueling race. Lack preparation and ‘Readiness’ on the Iditarod Trail and you’re likely to die or be so frost bitten that you’ll lose a part(s) of your body. (Not to mention what you’ll be putting your team through) If we are going to succeed in this business era of limited resources and global struggle, then the team that takes the time to get it right on the front end and executes well is going to survive.

For those that like my HAB 22 model (see 5/11 – 5/15 posts) the RACE strategy is very similar. For those that may not have seen HABB 22, it basically says we start with H (Having a vision), A (ABC simplicity), B 22 (Break it down into components and stages/ checkpoints). For the R in race we bridging all of the components in that we are thinking about them and strategizing each step.

So what lessons can we learn from them and how can we improve our strategy development?

1. Simple Clarity

Simple questions like: who or what are we? What business are we in? What do we want to achieve? What is our market niche? What are our Team Dynamics? How much do we know about our market/industry?

2. Supplies

What will we need for the journey? (Resources), When will we need them? How do we get them?

3. Team Dynamics

Who will we need? Do we have them? How will we get the players we need? What should our race strategy be – given the team we have and leveraging their present strengths/capabilities?

4. Weather conditions

What’s going on outside of use that can affect our race? Competition? Advances in Sled Technology? Capital Markets? Impending climate changes? Storms? Etc.

While this just scratches the surface of the ‘Race Ready’ strategy, it will get us started on the journey! Take the time to get ready – remember it’s: Ready, Aim, then Fire!