Business Strategy Development

I've attended a number of less than successful business strategy development sessions in the past and have observed a number of the following happening:

• the same people contributing
• nothing new emerging
• energy at the end of the day being very low
• limited inspiration to take action
• lack of cohesion between the leadership team
• no clear plan emerging
• clique's maintained
• nothing changes as a result

I'm sure you could add to this list.

When facilitating such sessions I often use nature as the inspiration and find, as a result, the above list to be missing. I'm sure there are many reason for this - the one I'd like to concentrate on today is the power of metaphor.

With one client, after the leadership team had spent time in small groups in nature, the above picture emerged to summarise the conversation about where the organisation was and some of the options that existed for where they wanted to be.

The beauty of using metaphor to explore the current situation, especially if you can stick with the metaphor for as long as possible, is it avoids:

• ego
• resistance
• barriers
• "if"s, "but"s and "not"s
• defensiveness
• anger
• blame

The beauty of using metaphor to explore opportunities is it avoids all of the above and in addition:

• attachment to preconceived opportunities
• the same old opportunities re-emerging time and time again
• lack of new ideas emerging

Imagine the facilitator, or CEO for that matter, saying "we need to do something different" at the start of the session. Before we've even had chance to take a breath the reasons why it's not possible start. With a metaphor the suggestion to try something different comes from: 

• walking up a lane and seeing a hole in the hedge
• sunrise or sunset
• caterpillars or butterflies
• seeds - whether floating past, growing or still in their pods/shells
• the tide changing
• the sound of the wind
• harvest time 
• spring time

I can assure you the "can't"s evaporate when faced with the wisdom from nature. Once the wisdom has been harvested then, and only then, is it time to release the metaphor. Time to understand what it means in practice and identify an inspirational and innovative strategy for the organisation going forward.

How could the wisdom of nature help your leadership team today? #happytohelp

Alison Smith
Landscaping Your LifeInspiring change inside and out

Don't cut corners unless its safe to do so

On the road if you cut corners you might get away with it. Sooner or later, however, there will be another vehicle on the same part of the road as you. In other words an accident is assured at some point.

I'm not saying I don't cut corners. There's a lovely bit of road between Grantown on spay and Forres near Inverness in Scotland that twists and turns. It's a gorgeous piece of flat moorland and there's complete visibility of the road ahead. Which means I can cut corners to smooth my journey, maintain my speed whilst being safe, and yet know with confidence that I won't meet other vehicles. Yet when driving the same road at night the ability to do that disappears. 

When training or coaching on category management I can hear myself 15 years ago when delegates say "it's too much" "I don't need a process" "that doesn't apply to my category" "I know that already". They're sitting there, as I did then, believing that cutting corners is the way to go every time.

What I've learnt in the intervening 15 years is that when I rigorously apply best practice tools and techniques to a category, in other words when I've not cut corners, I've delivered the most innovative value unlocking category strategy. 

I'm a control freak and hate being told what to do. I want the flexibility to go with the flow, be spontaneous and be able to react to what's happening. In the past I'd assumed that rigorous application of best practice tools and techniques would mean I'd have to give all this up. I now realise I don't. I can have my cake and eat it. 

What I realise is that the process, those tools and templates are guides only. A checklist if you will of what I need to be thinking about. A checklist I need to apply intelligently to the category, organisation, country, supply market and suppliers in hand. 

Of course I won't spend months gathering the data if spend, market complexity and risk is low. Of course I won't do something because it's in the process if it doesn't apply. Of course I won't complete that template in PowerPoint if the information is already conveyed elsewhere in Excel. 

What I will do is rigorously consider each part of the process. If I choose to cut a corner I'll have decided, as I do on the road near Forres, that it's safe to do so. I'll have decided that at this time, with these road conditions, in this weather, today, in this vehicle, with me driving, with the other road users, it's ok to cut the corner. Its okay to miss something out. The decision, however, may change the next time I need to make it. 

For me having a checklist ensures I don't cut corners without knowing it. It also means I deliver more value to the organisation - which can only be good? Even if once in a while I can hear the old Alison muttering about it.

Before you next cut any corners please make sure it's safe to do so.

Alison Smith

Landscaping Your Life

Inspiring change inside and out

How will your stakeholders grow?

The BBC's Springwatch just wouldn't be springwatch without Chris Packham and his charts - his delight at conveying data in a chart is contagious. I do have that trait myself - if I can put it in Excel I will and if I can then convey the data graphically all the better. 

Charts and tables aren't just for post activity data analysis they can also be used pre-activity. As you can see in this chart that shows you how to grow vegetables including: 

• what time of year you can plant them in and outside
• ideal soil temperature to enable the seeds to germinate
• their hardiness to weather changes (always needed here in Scotland)
• when to fertilise
• when to water 

Following the advice will optimise the likelihood of the vegetables making it to harvest and eventually the dinner table.

To optimise the likelihood of fruitful relationships with your stakeholders a similar table would be helpful - including information such as:

• likes
• dislikes
• what gets them up in a morning
• what keeps them awake at night
• support needed to enable them to flourish
• influence within the organisation
• support for purchasing/procurement

It's only by knowing this information that you can know how to flex your communication to suit them as an individual and increase the opportunity to influence and engage their support.

Alison Smith

Landscaping Your Life and The Purchasing Coach too

Pain or Pleasure

Blog from the archives

I love observing patterns in language.

I'd like to share one such pattern I observed in one organisation because it might just help you notice your own organisational culture and therefore help you improve your influencing.

The reason for the lull in blogs in December was I was involved in delivering category and supplier management workshops for Future Purchasing in 3 countries over 3 weeks. It involved spending 12 days with the pharmaceutical client delivering the training to over 70 procurement team members.

What I noticed was the frequency that people used "Pain" to describe or define their objectives. 

• Find the pain points for the stakeholder
• What's the pain
• Help them avoid the pain
• Feel their pain

Of course I've heard it used before but not with such frequency.

Step back a minute and of course it should come as no surprise that a company that's aim is to alleviate pain should find alleviating pain coursing into every aspect of what it does. 

The benefit of understanding this potential pattern is to then use it when selling ideas within the organisation. Perhaps use of 'health' might motivate their stakeholders to listen to them, however I certainly recommended they use 'pain' more in their language and to notice the impact doing this had.

I then wondered how this might be represented in other industries:

• Transport - destinations and on time or to schedule 
• Financial services - investment and security ?!?
• Education - learning and results 
• Retail - meeting needs 

What words do you hear a lot at work and do they reflect the end product or service provided in anyway. Do let me know as I'd love to explore this further. 

Alison Smith

Landscaping Your life and the Purchasing Coach too
Inspiring Change inside and out

Landscaping Your Leadership

If you use nature as your teacher then the story of the universe becomes the story of our solar system, which becomes the story of our planet, of humanity, of you and I, and of our flourishing. The story starts with Integrity and concludes with Sustainability and, just like our planet, requires you individually, or organisationally, to retain your ICECAPS.

For over 15 years I've used a process that uses nature to landscaping client's lives - whether landscaping their life, health, relationships, work, business or leadership. It's been used in many different settings for example strategy development, team development, problem resolution, goal setting and so on. Over that time a number of different techniques have been used to enable insight to be obtained, action plans developed and progress made. 

This blog shares with you a more recent innovation and that's the ICECAPS checklist which has been developed to look at what nature can teach us about our lives. As you'd expect from nature - it's simple - you just have to ensure that you retain your ICECAPS.

• Integrity - authenticity and being true to yourself
• Creation - bringing the right resources together to achieve a vision
• Evolution - understanding and flowing with the patterns of growth in the environment
• Collaboration - working with others across the whole system in which you operate
• Action - taking positive action towards the goal 
• Perspective - understanding where you are in relation to the goal and changing course as needed 
• Sustainability - ensuring all actions allow for sustainability of the whole system 

When problems and challenges arise in your life the question becomes at which point of the ICECAPS checklist has disconnection taken place. Appropriate action can then be identified in order to reconnect.

More on the process can be found on my Pinterest board and Facebook page. Otherwise more will follow other forthcoming blogs. 

Alternatively if you'd like me to run a landscaping your business session with your team, a one day landscaping your life session with a manager, or have other areas you'd like to be landscaped then do please call me +44 (0)7770 538159 or email me alison@alisonsmith.eu

Alison Smith
Landscaping Your Life
Inspiring change inside and out

Is an integrated landscape possible?

Blog from the archives reprinted here

As I start to write this I'm not sure where I'm headed but thought I'd share the process of using metaphors contained within someone's language to try to solve the problem its describing.

The Spend Matters headline read "GPS and Cabinet Office procurement – more integration to come, says Crothers" and went on to quote Bill Crothers, Government CPO at the Cabinet Office, as saying "... different components of the commercial landscape that are not necessarily integrated."

So I got to wondering what an integrated landscape would be like in reality (ie in nature) and then we can explore together how these map (excuse the pun :-)) across into how to have an integrated commercial landscape Bill was referring to - because I'm not sure many people are liking the option he proposed.

The key when using the #landscapingyourlife process is to stick with the metaphor for as long as possible. In this case sticking with exploring the integrated natural landscape and not a commercial one. A bit like when we're conducting the research and analysis phase for a category. It's no use making assumptions and jumping to conclusions until all the data is in.

So stick with me, and notice what you notice as you read further, as I share the thoughts and insights that appear as I explore an 'integrated landscape' from my lounge and a road atlas of Britain!

As it's impossible to view the whole landscape at once I automatically thought of a map. Remembering of course that the map is not reality only a representation of it. The map I had to hand was a road atlas of Britain. It is however out of date and a little worn! 

So I'm already wondering if I can get a sense of integration when I don't even have an accurate and up to date picture of the whole? For example I know the new forth road bridge would be shown on a new map with completion date some date in the future.

The first page I turn to has a map that shows the bigger picture but not how all the component parts connect with each other. Each major city simply a blob!

The next size map has the Britain split in 2. It clearly shows the blue lines of motorways connecting major hubs and the linking A roads, but big gaps of blankness of unconnected space in between. So still a disconnect I suspect.

If I drill down I keep getting more detail but smaller areas covered. A greater sense of integration within that small area but greater loss of integration with the whole.

I'm currently not getting a sense of what an integrated landscape looks like and start to wonder if it's possible other than for specific areas within the whole as shown above.

This is where doing this alone has its weakness as I'm not sure where to go next and in groups it's easier to feed on each other's ideas...

I will give it a go none the less...initial thoughts I soon discounted included:

• Using Google earth and satellites to help see the bigger picture and zoom in and out as needed. I kept getting a sense that's no different than the problem I was having with the maps. You either get high level of the whole, or detail of a small bit. You can't have a detailed whole picture.
• I also thought about cutting up the map and pulling bits together. But that ignores so much and allows for a distorted view of reality because my values and judgements then decide what is and isn't included. 

Which brings me to the only solution from this exploration that I could see:

• I keep being drawn to the water that surrounds Britain as the defining integrator. Every part of Britain understanding how they relate to the water even if not to each other. Unlike the landscape, that is full of variety and complexity and needs the detail to make sense of it all, the sea that surrounds the landscape is fairly uniform. A little colder or warmer in places impacted by different currents but something that can be understood as a whole.   

So where does that quick trip into the landscaping process get us - for me the insights include:

• You need a map to make sense of the landscape - otherwise all you can do is view the landscape you're standing in at that moment in time.
• That's only relevant if the map is up to date. That is you can't integrate something that's not quantified and you certainly can't integrate it in order to quantify it!
• Beware of options that split the map in two as its easy to concentrate on the half you know better and forget about the bigger picture.
• A detailed map is only possible for small areas, and locals will still know the area better than any map ever will.
• You can't have detailed integration of the whole - you either have high level integration of the whole or detailed integration of a smaller area.
• Integration at a high level tells us very little.
• The only way to make sense of the bigger picture and how it all fits together is to understand the container in which it sits.

The next step would be to then understand what the sea represents on the 'commercial landscape' Bill was talking about.

I would love to read what you took from this slightly different way of looking at the situation. Not quite what I was expecting but then it would need to be Bill who makes the assessment of its value, as it was his metaphor I explored. 

Alison Smith

Landscaping Your Life

Inspiring change inside and out

How's the weather with you?

A BBC article entitled 'is the British weather unique in the world' had me wondering about the weather and its effect on us. Although sometimes I do think my 'wonderings' should just stay in my head rather than be shared here!

I don't mean on whether we need to put an extra jumper on or get the sunscreen out. I mean how might the weather we experience where we live impact how we're feeling, thinking and acting? I also don't just mean the actual weather - like the lack of sun meaning we don't produce enough vitamin D and therefore are grumpier than we might be. I mean how might the patterns of the weather we experience daily, monthly or yearly unconsciously impact how we act.

Let's look at what the article says about British weather patterns and explore what differences in behaviour they might illicit.

Its a blog where I'd encourage those working cross culturally to share what they've experienced. So do please comment below on what you've noticed about weather patterns and their potential impact on cultural behaviour. 

Changeability

Q: Does the predictability of the weather impact the level of planning involved when developing strategies?

The overarching theme to British weather is its unpredictability. Which means we grow up used to having an umbrella, extra layer, sunscreen and snow shovel in the car - just in case. We're also used to changing plans at the last minute to embrace an unexpected sunny day or to avoid getting drenched.

How does that translate in business?

Have we in Britain become so used to unpredictability that we have become good at planning it into what we do. Or does it simply mean we're great at thinking on our feet and adapting to the changing economic, political or social environment?

What about countries where the weather is predictable does that correlate with predictability of behaviour too? Or perhaps it has the opposite effect? 

4 distinct seasons

 Q: Do the number of seasons impact the process adopted and speed to implement strategies?

Some areas in the world only have 2 seasons compared to 4 here in the Britain. These 2 seasons come and go as if like clockwork with limited external factors effecting the date for the start of one and end of the other. In Britain the movement from one season to the other is impacted by many factors. Even then spring can take 8 weeks to move from south to north! 

So I wonder are strategies easier to implement in countries with only 2 seasons. Are they either planning or acting. Can we see a correlation to implementing strategies here in Britain that follows a four part process? 

Ratio of daylight 

Q: Does the variance in daylight throughout the year impact our preferred patterns of activity?

At summer solstice in London there's 16 hours between sunrise and sunset. Compared with just short of 7 hours at winter solstice.

Do the long nights in winter and long days in summer impact the patterns of our work. Not just directly in summer and winter but every day. Are we in Britain more likely to have a preference for peaks and troughs in activity. Will we throw long hours at something and then need to take our foot of the pedal afterwards.

What about countries with less variation in daylight - is output and productivity more evenly spread throughout each day? Do they find it hard to react to a need for an increase in output?
 
Lack of dramatic weather

Q: Does lack of dramatic weather lead to lack of dramatic behaviour?

The article suggest the UK lacks dramatic weather such as the monsoon's in India, the hurricanes in many other parts of the world and the thunder storms I've encountered in France.

Do other cultures see the British as less dramatic or do we make up for the lack of dramatic weather through dramatic behaviour. What about the behaviour of those individuals living in countries with dramatic weather? And does it depend on what the weather is? Does the fear of hurricanes make people less grounded or the propensity of thunder and lightening make others angrier?


Not sure if the blog has answered the questions as much as posed them. It was just a thought I had when I saw the BBC article :-)

I certainly believe that we're impacted by the patterns around us, and as weather is a set of patterns just wondered if we may be unconsciously impacted by them.

What do you think? What have you noticed?

Alison Smith

Landscaping Your Life
Inspiring change inside and out