STRATEGY SESSIONS #24

WRAPPING THIS UP

by Dr. Steve Payne

This is my final blog on describing a strategic process for handling individual career and life challenges.  I hope that I’ve explained this strategic process well enough that some readers will be encouraged to use the recommended four steps for making important life and career decisions.   Those four steps are 1) conducting an internal analysis of personal goals, values, strengths and weaknesses, 2) examining the external environment and identifying opportunities and threats in particular markets that align with personal interests and skills, 3) determining possible options and deciding on which of those really make sense, and 4) implementing decisions and critically reviewing resulting actions that are undertaken.

Aristotle urged a “golden mean” between misguided extremes in personal decisions and actions.  Excessive concern and analysis is one extreme in decision making, and this can delay key decisions, among having possibly other negative consequences.   The other extreme is under-analysis or a “leap to judgment” before enough deliberation or real thought.  Most personal decisions do not demand a lot of strategic analysis, but a few important life and career decisions likely do deserve this kind of serious attention.   These critical strategic decisions can determine basic life and career direction, and inform and assist many later and less critical decisions that need to be made.

Organizations in the public and private sector usually focus more attentionon strategic planning and decision making than individuals do.  They do so, partially because these organizations are composed of many stakeholders with varying and sometimes competing goals, expectations, and interests.   A strategic planning process is useful for taking into account these diverse views.  It also should lead to agreements and commitment concerning organizational goals and means of accomplishing these.   Organizational leaders often try to involve key stakeholders directly in this strategic process, if only to avoid criticism of autocratic power and lack of responsibility toward those impacted by the organizations’ actions. 

Beyond government and business organizations, there are many third-sector or social services organizations contributing to their residents’ health and vitality.  How strategic, well-reasoned, and socially responsible are important decisions made by local and area leaders and organizations?  How might the quality and outcomes of the strategic decision-making processes of these organizations be fairly judged and improved?   Measures of organizational effectiveness often include short-, intermediate-, and long-term criteria such as 1) commitment to undertaking strategy and planning for the long term (5-10 years), 2) effectiveness in recent and current goal attainment, 3) efficiency of current operations, financing and marketing, and 4) concern and actual planning for future leadership and staff training/development.   

 

Understanding more about strategic planning and decision making can not only assist individuals with their own personal challenges, but this knowledge can also allow better evaluation of the successes and failures of the organizations to which we belong.   You don’t have to have a college degree or much education on the subject of strategic planning and development to spot concerns or weaknesses that exist in many business, public, and social service organizations.

STRATEGY SESSIONS #23

ADDITIONAL TIPS ON BECOMING MORE STRATEGIC

by Dr. Steve Payne

I’m close to completing this series of essays on strategic decision making for career and life challenges.  The points below seem worth mentioning to describe further the four-step process that I’ve been trying to explain:

* Needs analysis:  Part of step 1 in my strategic decision-making process is determination of personal needs.  Business and organizations often undertake “needs analysis” to determine areas of weaknesses, underperformance, and opportunity -- prior to their setting strategic goals.  A similar investigation of personal needs can be important in establishing personal goals and identifying barriers to reaching these strategic goals.

* Aspiration level:  Some people have very high aspirations and set almost unattainable goals.  Others, for various reasons, have low aspirations.  These individuals may fail to set goals or they have goals that do not really challenge their true talents and capabilities.  Most counselors suggest trying to set life and career goals that “stretch” talents and capabilities, but that are not utterly unattainable or unrealistic ones.

* Effectiveness and efficiency as measures of strategic accomplishment:  Both concepts can be useful in measuring degrees of goal accomplishment.  Effectiveness is the extent to which we reach a goal or goals.  Efficiency is how we reach that goal or goals -- whether with ease and few costs or with difficulty and much cost of time and resources. 

* Moral or ethical concerns in the treatment of others impacted by strategic choices:  Only true psychopaths or sociopaths have no regard for moral or ethical concerns.  The rest of us have at least some moral or ethical values that influence our moral self-worth/self-regard and our perception of progress toward attaining personal goals.   Don’t forget to factor in your moral or ethical values strongly in appraising strategic choices.  Ethical conflicts and tough decisions can occasionally arise between personal ambition/goals and appropriate means to try to reach those goals.

* Change:  Change is inevitable, and it can be feared or embraced.  Accomplishing life or career goals is successfully confronting our personal challenges and seeing actual changes in our circumstances and in ourselves as persons.  Those people close to us occasionally may have reasons to resist or obstruct some of these changes.  Communication will often be necessary to prepare and help others impacted by these changes in personal relationships.  Feedback from others can help, too, in possibly modifying our goals or ways to pursue these goals.  

* Coaching or counseling from those who use a strategic perspective to life and career decisions:  Not everyone has a mentor, coach, or even a good friend with whom to have very honest conversations about these choices.  Often the person facing a life or career challenge doesn’t feel comfortable, for various reasons, even discussing these major concerns.  Even if a person tries to initiate this type of important conversation, the other person involved might not have the listening skills, the available time then, or the types of insights that would be helpful.   Try to find someone with whom you can freely talk about important decisions that you face.

STRATEGY SESSIONS #22

LINKING MARKETS AND STRATEGY

by Dr. Steve Payne

Strategies such as “retrenchment” and “reinvention” take on greater relevance during recessionary periods such as Americans have faced in recent years.   Some research is required, though, to indicate which strategies better “fit” particular markets.  Some people choose contrarian approaches, for example in their investment strategies.  Contrarians go “against the grain” or contrary to typical strategies, such as buying when most people are selling (in expectation of changing market conditions).  Markets such as stocks and mutual funds, gold or other precious metals, and real estate all share at least one major strategic issue -- the question of when individuals should enter and when they should exit such markets. 

Career decisions that don’t reflect at least some concern for changing supply and demand characteristics in markets have much greater likelihood for disappointment.  Passion or enthusiasm for a particular career path is probably the greatest decision consideration, but that factor alone is often not enough.  I’ve known friends who really regretted their degree choices – even with a terminal or Ph.D. degree.  Some who chose in the past to get a Ph.D. in literature, for example, were disappointed at their career prospects upon completion of the degree.  Due to an excess supply of PhDs in that field, many encountered low starting salaries and opportunities limited to teaching a few classes in several community colleges that were many miles apart.  Because of  supply and demand characteristics in certain fields, such as engineering, college graduates can see extreme swings over three or four years in the number of jobs available and their starting salaries.  I was disappointed myself to see that the number and quality of entry-level positions were very low the year that I happened to complete my bachelor degree in engineering, while jobs were much more plentiful only a year and two earlier for those who graduated then.

Books are available at public libraries that focus on supply and demand projections for particular jobs that require either high-school or college degrees.  These projections for the future may not  be 100% accurate, but the projections do offer information that is much more likely to be true than mere speculation.  Knowledge about demand and supply in particular career or job markets can help you establish more grounded expectations for job search, which could be important in personally handling early failures.  This knowledge might also help you to develop a finer-tuned strategy that might be aimed at a particular segment or niche of a market and one that has somewhat better supply-demand characteristics.

Improved market-based information can be important for more than career or job searches.  I mentioned investment strategies earlier.  Financial investments might be aimed at higher education for children, retirement, etc.   Investment strategies could be shorter- or longer-term ones, or they could be integrative plans linking short-, intermediate-, and long-term decisions.  Short-term financial moves can have higher risks, particularly those who are “day traders” or those involved in commodity markets.   Longer-term investments, such as for retirement purposes when this is conducted at a fairly young age, usually have very different market considerations.  Factors such as the time value of money as well as the relative stability of returns in certain financial markets over long years of investment offer more security and predictability than commonly found in short-term investments.

Market-based considerations can even be a concern for some in personal relationship planning.  I remember an article in The New Yorker years ago that discussed using tools of strategic analysis for dating and marriage potentials.  There have also been articles written and debated about single women of a certain age and their declining prospects for finding suitable marriage partners.  Some of you have probably even heard the unfortunate expression “the meat market” used to describe going to nightclubs, pubs, or other places in hopes of meeting “Ms. or Mr. Right.”  On-line and commercial dating services exist as types of markets for dating and relationship or marriage potential, beyond the traditional ones of chance or friend referral.  This perspective of markets for finding relationships or marriages can certainly seem somewhat cold or impersonal, but knowledge of more and different places and ways to meet potential partners, no doubt, does increase the probability of one encountering more suitable candidates for personal relationships.  Romantic, intuitive, and emotional factors concerning dating and marriage prospects could at least be supplemented by a few more strategic and analytical concerns.

STRATEGY SESSIONS #21
 
THINKING AND WORKING SMARTER

by Dr. Steve Payne

 

The vast majority of Americans are neither very wealthy nor extremely poor.  Most of us are likely to be what has been traditionally called the working or middle class.  The last thirty years, and particularly the last three or four years, have really impacted the lives and prospects of many working- and middle-class Americans.
 
James Carville and Stan Greenberg are the authors of a 2012 book entitled It’s the Middle Class, Stupid.  They describe economic and other challenges for most Americans.  The gap between working- or middle-class incomes and those of the richest Americans has been increasing.  At the same time, middle and working class Americans have been putting in more hours at work in recent years.  Taking an extra job or working more overtime, no doubt, improves the earnings income of workers, but often at the expense of their quality time with family and needed time away from work for rest and renewal.

Zbigniew Brzezinski’s new book, Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power, tells us that two-thirds of Americans think that our country is in economic decline and that a serious and difficult renewal process is necessary.  Overcoming political gridlock and actually accomplishing change at the national level takes high priority in Brzezinski’s book and in other recent commentaries.  Assuming responsibility and taking action must occur, however, at the individual level as well.  Many Americans are now working harder or working longer hours, but are many of us working smarter?  

By working smarter, I’m suggesting something other than increased resourcefulness in handling existing job demands.  I’m saying that many individuals are working at jobs that don’t well match their actual skills, interests, and potentials.  They have accepted and settled in jobs that sap their enthusiasm, sense of accomplishment and pride -- instead of becoming more strategic or smarter about their own personal characteristics and certain market or employment niches that might better challenge their abilities.  Steps 1 and 2 in the strategic decision-making process that I’ve been recommending focus on just these two concerns – greater self-knowledge and improved understanding of employment markets and those competing within these markets. 

Many Americans have become frustrated and disillusioned when weeks and months of search effort have resulted in very few or no employment prospects.   For some of these folks, their job search tactics are not nearly as effective (or smart) as possible.  Some are looking in the wrong places for opportunities, and some don’t really know how to conduct such a search.  Personal habits and old routines are often followed, without much fresh thinking, in the early stages of their searches.  Only failure can cause some to question their self-knowledge or their assumptions about existing job markets.  Deep or extended recessions lead some, though, to reassessing, and even “reinventing,” themselves.   They are able to develop a strategy to better shape themselves and their image to appeal to certain employers.  Such strategies do take some thought and research, but those unemployed or underemployed often have available time for this.

 
Writing a resume is a common approach in trying to get a job.  I’m suggesting that perhaps as helpful of a personal tool or process would be writing a strategic plan for determining a career path, for choosing a particular job market, as well as for marketing oneself for such jobs. 

STRATEGY SESSIONS  #20

 

CREATIVITY AND STRATEGY

 

by Dr. Steve Payne

 

 
I’ve stated previously that effective strategy depends on much more than pure analysis and highly rational thinking.  Without intuitive and creative energies and insights, very desirable decision options might not even be raised and seriously considered.

A big problem is that most people do not have much confidence in their own creative capabilities.  I’ve asked classes of college students to share anonymously their own perception of their powers of imagination and creativity.  The result was that only a fairly low percentage of these students expressed that they had this kind of self-confidence.   I believe that part of this perception of lack of confidence in their imagination and creativity is due to their defining creativity very narrowly.  Since they see themselves as having limited artistic or expressive talent in some fields or pursuits, they extend this to a general perception of their lack of creativity. 

Roger von Oech wrote a book back in 1983 called A Whack on the Side of the Head.   It describes how certain “mental locks” can rob individuals of their creative potentials for improved decision making and problem solving.  These mental locks to creativity often start in early childhood as parents send us implicit and explicit messages, and these locks become stronger by lessons learned in school and work settings.  Among these locks to our believing in and expressing our creativity are messages such as the ones below that we internalize over our lives:  There is one “right” answer; we must always be logical; we should always “follow the rules;” we need to be practical; play is frivolous and unimportant; some issue or concern is “not your area;” and mistakes/errors are not to occur.  These are just some of the mental locks that von Oech describes in this book.

Our parents, teachers, and mentors probably meant well in communicating these messages, and such lessons likely helped to some extent in our development and socialization. These messages definitely made it easier for authority figures to control what they might have viewed as excessive displays of our rebellion or independence.    According to von Oech, many of us learned and internalized these messages too much or too generally -- to the point that these stunted some of our creative potentials.

In dealing with current life challenges and facing very competitive employment markets, we need to understand, further develop, and apply as many of our personal resources and talents as we can.  If we believe that we do not possess imagination and creativity, this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  We must break mental locks to our creativity for more strategic and effective personal decision making.  

There are books available at libraries and elsewhere that describe approaches and techniques to unlock submerged levels of creativity that people possess.  A tool such as a “creativity matrix” can occasionally help individuals to expand decision- making options beyond those that might be initially generated.   Imagination and creativity are gifts that some people possess more than others, but increased creativity in personal decision making can be studied and learned.  Such creativity then becomes an important strategic and personal resource.

STRATEGY SESSIONS #19
 
BUSINESS STRATEGIES VERSUS PERSONAL STRATEGIES

by Dr. Steve Payne

 

This blog isn’t about business strategy.  Instead, I have been discussing strategic thinking and decision making for major career and life challenges.  There are at least a few important personal occasions when more serious strategic analysis, such as I’ve been recommending, could be valuable and worth your time and trouble.  Examples might be the choice of an educational path after high school graduation, an initial career choice or a later shift in occupation, and retirement concerns.  Obviously a major life choice would also be to start a new business or become some type of entrepreneur.

Those interested in starting a new business are usually counseled very early on that they need to prepare a business plan.   This document provides essential information to potential partners, investors, bankers, and others.  Developing this document forces the potential entrepreneur to cover a lot of ground and address issues that he/she might otherwise ignore or neglect.  The business plan communicates key aspects of the strategy that the entrepreneur will be pursuing.  Many internet sites are available to help individuals who do not much experience in writing business plans.  One source is the U.S. Small Business Administration.  Similar to other recommended approaches for writing a business plan, this site describes the major parts of the business plan as follows: 

An executive summary appears initially as a short overview of the business plan as a whole and the company goals.  This is followed by a section of the plan that covers what the company will actually do, how it differs from others, and the markets that will be served.  Next research is given on the industry, market, and competitors for this undertaking.  The remaining sections of the business plan address choice of an organizational and management structure and human resources, service or product line information on potential customers and how they will benefit from this line, sales and marketing strategy, funding needs and requests for the venture, and revenue and financial projections for the future.  An appendix provides information on licenses, leases, legal requirements, etc.  Business plans such recommended by the SBA and others might cover over thirty or more typed pages.

I’m introducing this overview of a business plan for an entrepreneurial pursuit for only one reason.  If those involved in entrepreneurial activities are expected to take the time and effort to develop and communicate such an involved plan, why should other important personal challenges and choices such as higher education, career, and retirement be handled almost casually and without any strategic analysis and planning?  Aren’t these decisions as important?

 

Although I’m not suggesting as detailed analysis and planning be spent for higher education, career, retirement and other personal challenges, I do believe that the fairly simple four-step process that I’ve recommended can be quite useful for many people.    Among questions to be answered in developing educational, career, or retirement strategies are production, marketing and financing concerns.  For example in the case of the third concern, what forms of costs and revenues might be expected in pursuing a particular strategy?   Internal and external analysis (steps 1 and 2) should provide information to answer these basic issues and help in mapping out actual strategies to pursue.

STRATEGY SESSIONS #18

ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS AND STRATEGY

by Dr. Steve Payne

 

Step 2 in the strategic planning process that I’ve been trying to explain involves gaining increased knowledge of external markets and opportunities.  A part of practically any organization or marketplace is its political nature and functioning.  Some organizations and markets are more heavily politicized than others.  It is important for effective strategists to understand the political nature of organizations and markets.

In using the term “organizational politics,” I mean how organizational members communicate or share useful information with each other.  Useful information or expertise is often a scarce resource and an important source of personal power for individuals in organizations and markets.  Heavily politicized organizations have communications networks through which certain people within these organizations gain valuable or “inside” information of which others aren’t even aware.  

In my early organizational experiences, it was interesting to observe how young people entering an organization were often fairly aware of or almost completely ignorant of the political culture of these organizations.  Some were very aware of the existence of office or organizational politics, and yet their “gamesmanship” tactics displayed misunderstanding and inappropriate responses to the political culture that actually existed.   Others claimed little or no interest in organizational politics, and they did not see within their own action or habits any political orientation.  However, their communication preferences in how and with whom they actually shared information made others form quite different impressions.

Textbooks on strategic planning and decision making in business seldom describe the importance of political networks within organizational cultures.   The strategic planning process that is described or recommended in these textbooks often ignores the presence and sometimes powerful force of political realities.

Step 2 in the recommended strategic decision-making process is an assessment of opportunities and threats that might exist within groups, organizations, and markets.   An assessment of an organization or market that does not include some appreciation of its political nature and functioning can be a very flawed assessment of its potential to meet personal values and goals.  I remember encountering a young woman about five years after her graduation who was waiting on tables at a local chain restaurant.  Knowing that she had a great undergraduate record and had obtained an impressive entry-level position at a very well-known corporation, we asked why she had left that company and her much higher salary there.  She told us that her personal values turned out to be a “poor fit” for the heavily politicized and stressful culture of the company.  She was working in her home town for a short while before reconsidering what she really was looking for in her career and next job.

Many organizations have been described as having toxic environments or cultures that can cause managers or employees to suffer long-term mental, emotional, and physical health problems.  Toxic work environments can be those that are actually abusive or merely those that demand a style or type of behavior that does not fit particular individuals.  Many employees cannot cope with a heavily politicized political culture in a work organization.  This may be due to a lack of certain interpersonal or political skills or just a preference for more open and straight-forward communication patterns.  Self-knowledge and early recognition of particular organizational characteristics can inform better strategic choices of organizational membership.