About a quarter century ago I organised my first "Board Away Day." I had just been inaugurated as a Fellow at St. George's House within Windsor Castle and for reasons best known to them I was seen as a man who was on top of strategy. They classified this as a "Strategic Away Day," with the emphasis on the awful word strategic.
The Words Just Came Out.
Over the years there have been a number of strategic events like this until about five years ago there was a telling moment. We were at some kind of strategic event and somebody said something that was almost incomprehensible, but I did notice that the word strategic was peppered throughout his comment. Without thinking about it I said, "Why don't we ban the word strategic for the rest of this discussion to make sure that we get really exciting outcomes from this conversation?"
You would've thought that I'd just said some kind of four letter word based on the reaction of the room. But underneath raised eyebrows I could see that they were beginning to get the point and coming to agree with me. In fact they were agreeing with me vigorously.
All of a sudden we were excited at having broken the taboo, as if we'd done something that we weren't supposed to do. There wasn't one dissenting voice though and we didn't use the word from that moment on. In fact, when it almost slipped out people would laugh and refer to an imaginary "swear box," expecting a contribution.
The Verbal Dumpers.
The reason for this reaction is quite clear if you think about it. Whenever you're a member of the Board or Executive Team you are supposed to, from time to time, talk about "strategic" things. It's as if the verbal "dumpers" use it as part of a reign of terror. They're trying to sell us on some kind of rubbish that they don't understand themselves, but they think should impress us. They can get away with it without being challenged. They simply say, "We're not being strategic enough, we need more strategy." Usually, this will put you in your place - as if being not strategic enough is going to put an end to your brilliant career.
If you ban the word strategy it's a lot easier to challenge another one of those nonsense words that is used time and again by directors - "we can't do that, it's operational." Why should there be a big divide between operations and strategy? You have to be good at both of them to meet your own standards and never put one above another in a way that diminishes one of them. Yet you know that some of those who say that we should be "more strategic" look down their nose at anything that is "operational."
Isn't it crazy how some people consider that those people who "do strategy" are in some way superior to those who "do operational?"
We might still think that top leaders must be "good at strategy," as if it is embedded in our business cultures. We don't have to live with those Strategic Away Days though and it's a good idea to ban that S word if it's ever the subject of overuse.
----------------------------------------------------
Pete Ashby is the director of http://www.asaleader.com and specialises in profiling the virtues and vices of exceptional leaders. To learn more about key challenges for CEOs, Boards and Executive Teams => http://www.asaleader.com
EasyPublish this article: http://submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=277696
No comments:
Post a Comment