Sequential thinking

Here is a very simple observation that I have made.

I very often encounter thinking and planning that is sequential and based on common project management principals. So for example, “I will get to xxxx as soon as this phase is finished”, an approach which bears all the signs of project management thinking and a pseudo critical path. Busy people use this to arrange tasks, keep order and space for thinking.  When challenged about the actual level of thinking done, it may be that nothing has been truly established as sequential and the sense of this is just a state of mind or process organisation.

But why treat some important decisions as processes on a chart when, if you think about it, they are a parallel series of interconnected actions, sometimes with dependencies. Well, there’s the rub, it’s just too complex to unravel. Can we establish what the possible parallel actions are and any true critical path dependencies in our daily jobs? Why not? What are we not doing to create this real advantage?

It’s worth reflecting. It is not the usual rhetoric around multi-tasking, it is about knowing how much you can really progress and what, out of all the things you are doing, can really be started earlier and organised in a way that delivers results/output faster. You may hear ”We are just doing a review at the moment, so we cannot talk to you about xxxx (often a serious haemorrhaging issue) until we have done this and presented the findings”. Or “We are in the middle of a major project, we have to deliver this and we cannot look at xxxx until it is signed off”.

In most cases I encounter no real justification for sequential actions. Maybe people are just overwhelmed, and have not established an order over their lives or business? You then see the winners, people and companies who have mastered this. They have no more time, resources or ideas than the rest of us, they just IMPLEMENT better.

It does happen. I have a few tricks – ask if you need ideas.

Don’t be satisfied with what you get.

Ask for more! This may not go down well with your IT services function or supplier but it must drive the new generation of management information initiatives. We still spend more time getting the technology looking right than really understanding and analysing the data, its meaning and the potential returns for the business. At best this may be relegated to a data quality stream.

Take a moment and pick up your ‘most used’ information pack or look at your key indicators dashboard and rate how valuable the information is to your decision making. Give each item a value score, 1 to 5 for example, and subject those that score highly to greater analysis and thought. Try looking at the KPIs you use. What catches your eye first and what are the questions you have that are not answered? Some may call this drill down but that is not what I mean. What I am talking about is the next level of questions that form in your mind. Consider the underlying variables that make up the indicator. Do they combine in ways that give more insightful information? Can you change what you get by flexing the combination of KPIs on demand? Try setting up a hierarchy of indicators that tease out the top 3 or 4 really key things that provide the business with the right feedback.

Most of the information we get is just facts, leaving the insight to come from our thinking. On a good day and with time, we may produce good results from this but it takes effort. How do we transform our information from just actuals to something that provides critical insight? This takes a partnership between the business and those who help manage the data. We call this critical thinking and it is the basis of all insightful information.

Here is one example of what you may attempt in assembling truly insightful information. Building requirements around how a department or business measures its effectiveness, in a hierarchy of indicators, will give you a sense of how changes in values lower down the order ripple up and affect the top indicator. This is a sensitivity or significance test. The information therefore has a value that is far greater than its face value. It communicates either trend or volatility when flexed. Which of these indicators are within your control and which are the ones that you cannot control? Now you have added a risk element to your insight. Just applied to the top few indicators, this type of approach greatly increases the value of your information.

Maintaining a sustainable ethos

The ups and downs of business, uncertainty in the market , forecasts and strategies which are no more entirely self sustainable, but very macro-economic driven, does cause even the most hardened individuals to reflect and sigh.

Having just finished watching NZ win the World Cup, and well done them! (And to the French who were magnificent in their defence and fighting spirit) The commentator asked their captain, “You had to dig really deep into your squad on the reserve bench for victory?” He replied, “We were ready for this eventuality and we were prepared. We did not just hope for the best, we tested our back up plan, and made sure it worked.” Or words to that effect.

In a less glorious example we also saw how Blackberry crumbled, that was one that did not work! All the corporation’s (Kings horses) people, process and technology could not save ‘humpty dumpty’ – and crumble it did. This has left uncertainty in every user, which will linger like a ghost before every purchase decision. Just watch the figures demonstrate this in the weeks to come. A tarnished brand. With the sad departure of Steve Jobs, Apple did not join the crumble, it announced a whole pack of new innovations to come, and the delivery of the 4S iPhone, even if iPhone 5 was not deliverable. You bet they had a plan, and they tested every bit of it.

We are all faced with issues of sustainability under a heavy atmosphere of cutbacks, business pessimism and a future of low to no growth. How we respond, and how we test our ‘back up’ plan is critical. Just thinking or documenting it is not enough, every person, process and objective has to withstand the rigour and buffeting of demands we face.

Your clients are suffering just like any one else I expect, how do you make a new ‘blend’ that relieves their pain and helps them to serve their customers better? Value and speed of response is a business imperative. But it has to be correct and well judged. No point in delivering speed of response and getting it wrong. ! Value does not have to mean lower costs, but it certainly helps, how do we extract value through better insights?

Right from your departmental reports, through to your Board Packs and dashboards we need to see the truth about our business and the world it is interacting with. When this is clearer we can make better judgements about our future plans, create the back up plan that is resilient to all eventualities.

It is said, the truth will set you free …. searching for it is a very sustainable ethos!