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.

STRATEGY SESSIONS  #17

PERSONALITY AND STRATEGY

by Dr. Steve Payne

 

I’ve discussed the importance of step 1 in a strategic decision making process -- gaining greater self-knowledge.  This includes understanding our personal goals or objectives, as well as moral values, tastes, capabilities, and dispositions.  Dispositions or personality characteristics can differ greatly from person to person and really influence strategic choice and implementation of strategies chosen.  Below are some basic aspects of human personality that seem worth considering in gaining greater self-knowledge.

The term “locus of control” refers to assumptions that a person has concerning personal control of his or her fate or destiny.  Those with a strong “internal” locus of control believe that they have much personal control of their life consequences, while “externals” perceive that outside events, forces, and individuals largely control their personal fate.  Most individuals think that both internal and external forces shape their personal destinies; however, individuals often lean more toward one of these two extremes than the other.   Effective strategists usually believe that they can strongly shape their fates through their greater knowledge of influential external forces.

Humans have many needs and motivations, and individuals differ in the strength of particular needs.  Psychologist David McClelland identified three particular and important types of needs (achievement, affiliation and power) that can differ greatly among individuals.  Achievement or a sense of accomplishment is a powerful need and motivator for many, and individuals have many different career and life paths along which they can fulfill this particular type of need.  The need for affiliation or social belonging/identity is also very important for many, and this need can be fulfilled in many different employment and life contexts.  A need to have and use power obviously motivates many as well.  Other or related needs that can vary greatly among individuals include desire for fortune, fame, and helping others (altruism).

Other personality dimensions that have been identified and might be investigated in a quest for greater self-knowledge include the following tendencies:

* extraversion vs. introversion (Do you enjoy and seek social occasions and encounters or do you prefer being more of a loner?)

* conscientiousness (Are you more of a procrastinator or fairly zealous in following up on commitments and responsibilities?)

* openness to experience (Do you often seek new challenges or prefer routines or previous experiences?)   

* judgmental orientation (Do you quickly or commonly make judgments about people even without knowing that much about them or are you slow in making such judgments without a lot of evidence?)

Among personal characteristics is intelligence.  Traditional measures of intelligence focused on forms of cognitive ability.  More recently emotional intelligence has been identified and studied.  There are many types of skills, whether cognitively or emotionally based, that can be helpful or critical for certain occupations.

There are other personal dispositions or characteristics that I might easily mention, but perhaps I have provided enough examples for my purposes.  I’m not suggesting that people need to take an expensive battery or series of personality tests/inventories.  Most of us already have some self-knowledge of ourselves, but personality dimensions such as those covered here might be roughly evaluated.  We might use this list and a page or two of notes to describe ourselves.  Then we might ask three or four friends who would be open and very honest with us to verify our self-perceptions.  We might ask them, independently or without revealing our own self-perceptions, to describe how each of them views our personality and personal characteristics.

STRATEGY SESSIONS  #16

STRATEGIC LEARNING

by Dr. Steve Payne

 

An effective career and life strategist is a good learner. This learning involves not only grasping his or her changing personal characteristics (goals, resources, capabilities, etc.) but also potential market niches and opportunities for these personal characteristics.  There are markets for almost everything valued in life, even forms of personal relationships.  Markets can be characterized by their scarcity or richness of desired products, services, or outcomes, as well as the level of competition among those interested in these pursuing these products, services or outcomes.  It’s difficult to compete in these markets without some knowledge of the market and its competitor characteristics.

There are many tools or resources for strategic learning – ones that can help unlock more self-knowledge as well as ones that provide knowledge about specific markets and competitors within these markets.  Research skills are helpful for gaining knowledge of specific employment and other markets.  The existence, though, of the internet and basic search engines, such as Google, allow anyone with basic search skills to compile a lot of market and competitor information. 

There are certain markets and opportunities that will probably seem much more obvious ones to start exploring – due to their easy linkage to one’s previous experiences and to current goals and capabilities. However, hidden opportunities can exist in less obvious markets that one might at first dismiss.  So exploration of many less obvious markets can occasionally be worth the time and effort.

Strategic niche potentials can exist at the intersection of two or more sets of personal capabilities. For example, one might have a law degree but face a tough and very selective market due to many law school graduates flooding into law firms.  If that person also possessed some engineering knowledge and capabilities, he or she might find a few high-paying opportunities in a smaller niche market for patent attorneys.  I once taught a management major who graduated with a high grade point average.  He remained in college an extra year and completed enough hours in accounting to sit for and pass a CPA exam.  His goal was to become an office manager for a firm of CPAs, and he was successful soon after passing his CPA exam.

Technical schools offer a number of certification programs.  Picking a particular program should involve not only personal interests and capabilities, but also take into account research on salaries and projected supply/demand for those with that craft or skill, locations of projected jobs, etc.  Since you could be investing considerable resources on tuition and other program costs, as well as precious time pursuing the program, you should try to reduce the possibility of this being a poor investment.  One way to be more certain of a technical certification program is to talk with students who have been in the program and are close to finishing it.  If they are willing to share their surprises, disappointments, and satisfactions concerning instructors and courses in the program, you might find evidence that deviates from promotional or recruiting information concerning this program.  Knowledge of common student difficulties and challenges could really help you better prepare for these possible experiences and overcome certain challenges.  Information concerning program graduates and their employment capabilities in area, state and national markets, after gaining their certifications, can obviously be helpful.

Technical or academic learning can be a tremendous strategic and competitive resource.  As or more important, though, than academic or technical learning are social networks and social learning opportunities.   Often I have encountered graduates with higher grades or other qualifications who are “left in the dust” by graduates who have stronger social skills and the ability to get “inside information” about employment markets and potential jobs.  The social/political aspects of work and everyday life cannot be ignored.

STRATEGY SESSIONS  #15
 
CONTINGENCY PLANNING
 
by Dr. Steve Payne

I’ve tried to describe basics of strategic decision making in previous columns.  A four-step process has been emphasized:

1) internal analysis of personal goals, values, strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities;

2) external analysis of opportunities and threats in the general environment and particular markets;
3) development and choice of strategic options for personal pursuit; and
4) actual execution and controls for these chosen personal strategies.

 

Although I’ve spent a couple of sessions on each of these four steps or stages, it’s important to realize the interdependence of these steps.  For example, one particular market or opportunity for personal pursuit (Step 2) likely requires a somewhat different set of personal strengths or capabilities than another market might demand.  Another example of this interdependence is that effective execution and controls for a personal strategy (Step 4) probably leads one to develop new strengths and capabilities (Step 1).  Mistakes as well as successes in chosen strategies (Step 4) can also lead to an individual’s setting different and lower or higher personal goals (Step 1).   Other examples of this interdependence of strategy steps or stages could be mentioned.

 

I know that there are many people who have little or no experience developing personal strategies or making many personal plans.  They prefer more spontaneous, intuitive, or implicit approaches to planning and decision making.  Many also recognize that unforeseen future events could drastically impact or doom personal planning, and, thus, they hesitate to make many personal plans or to develop personal strategies.  Realizing that certain future scenarios or contingencies can radically affect personal planning and strategies, other people, instead, actually focus on contingency planning.
 
Let’s consider the example of starting a new business in a particular city.  One important contingency would probably be the general state of the local and area economy that the new business will be encountering.  The business entrepreneur might be facing possible contingencies or alternatives of a slowdown or continuing recession, a weak recovery or a 0-20% increase in general sales revenues over the next year for most local businesses, or a robust recovery with a 20-50% increase in general business sales revenues.  Personal and business strategies for this entrepreneur might vary significantly depending upon these different economic contingencies.

Contingency planning and strategy development in this example would suggest analysis of the more likely economic scenario for the next year or two.  However, the strategies developed would not be entirely based on only this more likely economic scenario.  Strategy set A would likely be based on this more anticipated economic contingency, but there would also be some thought and development of a strategy set B and a strategy set C based on the other two alternative economic scenarios.  While the entrepreneur would initiate strategy set A, he or she could quickly shift to alternatives B or C as soon as alternative economic trends were noted.

Contingency approaches to strategy development can be focused on other important types of contingencies.  For career and life strategies, the key contingency might be a completely different set of possibilities than economic ones.  The key contingency might be much more personal, such as your long-time girlfriend finally accepting your marriage proposal or your 90-year old grandfather dying and leaving you a large share of his personal estate.  When key events such as these, or many others, are important possibilities, but very difficult to predict when or if these will occur, contingency planning can be very helpful for personal strategy formulation.

STRATEGY SESSIONS  #14

MORE ON CONTROLS

by Dr. Steve Payne

Effective management of personal lives and careers involves more than just developing and enacting plans or strategies.   It requires forms of self-control.  We need various controls to monitor and correct the execution of our plans or strategies.  Some of these controls we apply without almost any conscious thought or implicitly, while other controls need explicit thought and application.

There are different types of controls that check and balance our actions or behavior.  One type of controls comes from social/cultural norms or values systems surrounding and influencing us.  Since almost everyone has some need for belonging and social acceptance, we learn and often follow these norms and values.  We might prefer to behave one way, but we often modify or change our behavior in order to avoid social criticism or censure.   

Another form of controls tends to be more rule-based or legal, and it extends from our participation, citizenship, or membership in organizations or political entities.  To preserve our organizational status and its benefits, we adapt, at least somewhat and sometimes, to their laws, rules, policies, or dictates.  Again, we might prefer certain actions, but we recognize possible penalties or sanctions for such behavior and act in a modified or different way.  

There are also market-based or financial controls.  Although we might want to engage in certain activities, most of us know doing so carries certain financial or market risks that seem too high.  For example, we might want to spend and live well beyond our paychecks, but we check our behaviors somewhat and try to balance our budgets in certain ways to avoid an eventual financial meltdown.  Our career or life strategy, and its execution, can need adjustment or complete rethinking at some point due to its encountering heavier financial costs or lower financial revenues than we expected, its running afoul of some legal or organizational barrier, or its violating a social or moral norm.   

We should choose strategic controls on a basic cost-benefit basis.  By that I mean, the controls chosen should seem to produce more benefits, in saving us from these financial costs, legal or political problems, or social/moral embarrassments, than the costs, time, and trouble that we spend creating and applying these controls.

Controls can be built into our strategies.  These can be as simple as planned checks on a weekly or monthly basis to see if a strategy or its execution is producing what appears to be normal or good progress toward our eventual goals.  If our strategy has several distinct parts or stages to it, we might place some form of control check directly after or before each of these stages to monitor costs/benefits provided or time taken to arrive at that point.  If these control checks indicate excessive costs relative to benefits or time requirements, we probably need to reassess or fine-tune our strategies or our execution of these. 

Control systems used in manufacturing and many businesses can be pervasive, complex and exacting due to significant competition from others and low profit margins.  There is often a very low tolerance for negligence and mistakes and great attention is placed on identifying and correcting these shortcomings 

 

Personal control approaches for assessing career and life strategies would seem to demand at least a little more explicit attention than many people admit to providing.   To avoid personal biases, we might benefit at times from having someone else who could be more objective than we can be to do these control checks and alert us timely to planning or implementation problems.

STRATEGY SESSIONS  #13

THE ISSUE OF CONTROLS

by Dr. Steve Payne

 

The third step in the strategic decision making process that I’ve been describing is the actual decision. I’ve spent a couple of sessions lately introducing this step of actual decision making.  Much more could be added concerning decision making.  However, I now want to introduce, at least, a final step in this strategic process for coping with critical life and career challenges.  That step is management and on-going evaluation of decisions made and strategies undertaken.

 

The essence of self-management is personal planning and controls.  Lack of success in career and life decisions often reflect either poor planning and/or poor implementation of the plans that were set.   Even the very best of plans or strategies can prove unsuccessful without adequate implementation of these plans.  Also the very best of plans or strategies, even with outstanding implementation of these plans, can lead to failure due to pure bad luck or to events that could not have been anticipated that occur. 

Recognizing the strong possibility of natural human error or unfortunate events occurring, there is a need for certain controls that quickly identify strategic miscues and deviation from planned results.  Various types of controls help us notice these strategy miscues and deviations soon and can lead to our understanding why these errors have or are happening.

One example of simple personal planning that many people make around the start of each calendar year is their setting one or several resolutions for that new year.   A common resolution is to drop so many pounds of weight or to stop smoking in the coming months.  Although these types of resolutions can reflect strong personal goals and can be made with the best intentions to follow through with these plans, the common result is that these resolutions are very often unsuccessful.  Psychologists can provide some obvious explanations for such unsuccessful personal planning and actions, but I won’t mention many of these explanations.  Inadequate attention in planning given actually to implementing decisions and lack of appropriate controls for implementing decisions are perhaps the most important and inclusive of these explanations.

To some social commentators or critics, and count me as one, perhaps our world’s greatest social problem is a lack of appropriate controls for the strategies and plans that individuals, organizations, businesses, and governments set.   One of the prominent reasons given for the long-term success of America is our Constitution and its setting of controls or “checks and balances” over abuses in power, mistakes, or corruption in the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government.  During our history, we have had numerous examples of misbehavior by one branch of government and the recognition and full or partial resolution of this problem through the actions of another branch of government.  Appropriate checks and balances or controls for the execution of strategies and plans are vitally important for individuals and organizations.

Management theory fundamentally involves issues of effective planning and controls.  Good plans need appropriate controls.  These controls help spot problems in planning and its implementation early and before the costs of poor planning and implementation can drastically rise and can lead to failure.  We see examples of controls all around us.  Driving a car or truck, we depend upon warning lights on our instrument panel to warn us of engine, electrical, or brake problems before these problems become more serious and possibly life threatening.  Governments pass certain laws or regulations to serve as potential checks and balances over personal or business excesses. 

Debates obviously exist about the nature and extent of socially desirable controls over individual freedom and over corporate or business power.  Some argue for more or less regulation or controls placed on business, as an example.  A better question might not so much be the amount of these controls, but what are more and less appropriate forms of controls that are applied.  The same holds true for individuals facing life and career challenges and arriving at decisions and strategies.  The plan or decision needs to consider appropriate types of controls that will help keep us on track for more successful resolution of career and life challenges. 

 

STRATEGY SESSIONS #12

DIFFERENT TYPES OF DECISIONS

by Dr. Steve Payne

 

A rational decision-making process starts with defining one’s problems or needs related to one’s goals.  It next involves generating and evaluating alternatives, and then it concludes with choosing an optimal alternative.  People, though, much more often use a quite limited, rather than a perfect or even a high, degree of rationality in making their decisions.  Seldom do humans actually follow a structured, thorough, and optimizing decision making process. 

 

Even scientists who advocate a scientific-thinking process for important research projects make many decisions in their personal lives and at work that depart from a very systematic and optimizing process.  That’s because all of us face many fairly routine decisions that are made based on finding an option that merely in some way satisfies, rather than optimizes, our needs or values.  Except possibly for more important life decisions, we don’t have the time or see the reason to spend a lot of time generating as many options as possible and then carefully evaluating these for a very best choice.  Instead, we much more often think of decision options over time and evaluate these options then and there according to whether these options seem to satisfy us.  When we initially find an acceptable option, we often take that one and switch our thinking to some other concern or need.  There are many occasions in which such a satisficing, rather than an optimizing, decision approach is appropriate or necessary.   

 

For major decisions in our lives, we can benefit from being more strategic and rational in generating and evaluating alternatives.  We might particularly seek criteria or factors that seem important in evaluating decision alternatives.  In evaluating several competing job offers, for example, we might consider a number of criteria such as pay, location of this employment opportunity, reputation of the company, fringe benefits, etc. relative to our employment or career goals.  If we had several job offers or options to consider, we might evaluate each option in terms of each criterion on some scale (such as 1-5 in terms of an option’s favorability).  Since certain judgment criteria are probably more important to us than others, we could weigh these criteria according to our estimation of their importance in making our job decision (such as .4 or 40% weight in the decision for one criterion, .2 or 20% weight for another criterion, and so on).   Evaluating and selecting options according to such a framework is known as a compensatory decision approach. 

 

There are other decision approaches or rules. One approach to evaluating decision options is to choose the option that meets every criterion by at least some minimum level.  This is commonly how most companies select their employees.  Rather than evaluating each job applicant according to every employment criterion, which would be more expensive, the companies evaluate applicants in serial order.  If they meet some level of acceptance on one criterion, such as an application form or resume, the individual is asked to appear for an initial interview.  Should the applicant do well enough in the first interview, he or she is given a second interview, then possibly some job-related test, and then other criteria for employee selection might be applied, perhaps ending with a physical examination.  More costly criteria, such as health or physical examinations, appear later in this serial selection process when many initial applicants have been screened out of the decision and selection procedure. 

 

In real life, unlike in basic math textbooks, options are not all presented at one time for evaluation.  A person seeking a job might get one job offer and then go for weeks or months before obtaining another offer.  The job applicant often does not have the luxury of directly being able to compare these two job offers, or others that might come later.  Job offers are typically open for acceptance for a limited amount of time, and job applicants who receive employment offers don’t know if or when other job offers might come and how attractive these offers might be.  The four-step process that I have recommended for strategic decision making offers useful insights in such cases.  

STRATEGY SESSIONS #11

RULES, POLICIES, OR GUIDELINES FOR STRATEGC DECISIONS 

by Dr. Steve Payne

 

 

Plato, in explaining the views of Socrates, said that “… a life unexamined is not worth living.” 

 

It’s likely that we all examine, at least to some degree, our lives as reflected by our major life decisions and the consequences of these.  But by what measuring stick do we examine our major decisions and their consequences?  We examine or judge these probably based upon our life values and beliefs, our life goals, and any rules or policies that we have for living.   We’re more likely to do this examination when we perceive that our decisions or actions have produced negative consequences.  This process of self-examination, though, can often be quite casual or unstructured, and it can result in little clear feedback, learning, or change in future decision making.  Sometimes a poor decision and disastrous consequences also can leave us too shocked or hurt in the short run to be able to do much evaluation of the decision and to learn from these consequences.

 

A personal life philosophy and some decision rules or policies can shape our life or career goals and help guide us to beneficial life strategies and better decisions.  To what extent could you describe your life philosophy or begin to list the rules or policies by which you choose to lead your life?  Don’t be too alarmed or concerned if actually stating your life philosophy and listing your decision rules or policies would seem difficult to do.  For most of us, these insights and rules or policies are implicit ones that we seldom state or list.  We develop these decision guidelines, though, as a result of our early family experiences, the impact of our religious background and formal schooling, and the influences of friends and peers.   Our life philosophy and guidelines for making major decisions are largely shaped by the time of adolescent and early adulthood.  I know my own life philosophy and my guidelines for making major life and career decisions were heavily influenced by these mostly positive and helpful sources.  I can also remember reading literature, such as essays by Emerson, Thoreau, Montaigne, and many others, that influenced my own philosophy of living by age 21 or so.

 

Unfortunately, many young Americans do not have strongly positive or healthy role models within their families and among peers.  Many also have received limited positive learning impacts from religious, school, or reading experiences.  Children and adolescents are also more exposed than those in earlier generations to questionable or negative influences from mass communication and information sources.  Violent computer games, internet pornography, and other information sources often find business profit from shaping young audiences to consumption values and addictions that are clearly not in the long-term best interest of these youth.  Such media influence is hardly new.  Remember how early TV and film noir helped to make smoking seem a macho or stylish choice.   Recent decades have seen much more media influence toward certain lifestyle choices and values, and these messages and others that Americans receive can make it more difficult to develop healthy living philosophies and guidelines for making major decisions.     

      

Although policies, rules, or philosophies for living are often implicit and not stated or listed ones, there can be at least a few times when these decision guidelines could be made more explicit.  Trying to develop a more strategic approach for making a major career or life decision is one of these times.  Life or career goals should connect naturally to these life philosophies and guidelines.  Decision options might well need to be expanded or reduced when initially identified options strongly conflict with personal philosophies, policies, or guidelines.   Consequences of decisions can be evaluated in terms of whether these seem to further progress toward life or career goals and whether these consequences fit well into one’s philosophy, values, and guidelines for living.

 

Philosophies, values, and rules or guidelines for living then need to be somewhat specific for strategic decisions.  If these are so “mushy” or general that almost everyone would share the same ones, these are probably not as helpful as possible in offering strategic decision guidance.  

STRATEGY SESSIONS  #10
 
MAKING THE DECISION

by Dr. Steve Payne

I have spent considerable column space already discussing the first and second steps in a strategic process for making key career and life decisions.  It seems time to introduce the very important third step of actually making these decisions.  I’ll start with some tips, and things to avoid, in strategic decision making. 

 

Strategy implementation is critical to a choice of strategies. Depending upon actually how one might be able to undertake a strategy, even what might seem to be an outstanding strategic option could be a poor choice.  Knowledge of personal interests and skills, and the interests and skills of those who might be recruited to support or supplement your efforts, should inform strategic choice.  What might at first appear in strategic analysis to be a good choice as a strategy might not fully capture one’s personal enthusiasm or passion, or those of others involved, in implementing this choice.  Participant motivation or enthusiasm for alternatives should be strongly factored into strategic choice.  Obtaining accurate knowledge of personal goals, values, and characteristics (Step 1) informs better choice of strategies (Step 3).   

 

Strategic decisions are subject to perceptual and decision making biases of individuals.  Strategic choices can turn out to be poor ones due to common perceptual biases or flaws that almost everyone can make occasionally.  For example, a common perceptual bias is an “actor-observer” bias.  The same event or result can be perceived quite differently in terms of its strategic significance depending upon whether one is directly involved with an event versus someone who is an observer only of that same event.   

 

There are other types of perceptual and decision biases flaws that can also be committed.  One type of bias is known as escalation of commitment.  It occurs when an option that has been selected in a past decision continues to be evaluated highly and is chosen in a later decision even when recent events or information make this option less than the best one.  Emotional commitment, and perhaps an unwillingness to admit a mistake, can cause many people to continue to endorse a decision option that is no longer a good choice.   

 

Among personal characteristics that affect strategic choice, one of the more important is an individual’s risk propensity.  Some people are “risk seekers” who tend to minimize or dismiss the possibility of negatives associated with a decision option and/or they can exaggerate or magnify the possibility or the amount of benefits of an option.   There are also “risk avoiders” who have the completely opposite orientation toward risk.  Certain checks or controls, such as avoiding a rush to judgment as well as decision review by others who are knowledgeable, can help reduce perceptual and decision biases in strategic choice. 

 

Strategies should not be set in concrete.  A strategy provides some needed direction or guidance for individuals based upon an assessment of internal and external realities.  However, realities change over time, and our assessments of these influences certainly are often far from perfectly accurate.  When conditions shift significantly, then strategies need to be re-examined and shifted as well.  One example of this is what many have observed in pro or college football games.  A coach develops a game strategy based upon assessment of team strengths and weaknesses, as well as evaluation of perceived threats and opportunities from observing what the opponent possesses and has done previously.  Through the early part of the game, this coach’s strategy is carried out and it is also being evaluated.  Perhaps the strategy is working well as the team is successfully implementing these plans, and this strategy is continued then through the later stages of the game.  It is also possible that the game strategy is not that successful, perhaps because the other team acts or reacts in ways that weren’t anticipated.  Often we hear that a coach during halftime changes parts of the game strategy to fit better the actual conditions that exist and the consequences that have occurred.        

Strategic choice and its implementation deserve much more discussion than just this introduction and a few basic tips.  Both this third step and a key final step in a strategic process for making career and life decisions will be topics in future columns.

STRATEGY SESSIONS  #9

LIMITING ASSUMPTIONS CONCERNING STRATEGY AND STRATEGISTS

by Dr. Steve Payne

 

What comes to mind when the word “strategy” is encountered in a sentence or statement? 

People likely think about military strategies, game or sport strategies, or competitive strategies used by business firms.  They probably have assumptions such as those below:

1) Strategies are formulated by those at the top or very high in a military, government, or business organization.  Other people in these organizations merely or mostly try to carry out these strategies.

2) Those who develop strategies, such as in business and even in games of chess or bridge, are special individuals with powerful intellectual skills to anticipate many possible moves and counter-moves well in advance.

3) Strategists often compromise moral values in selecting and undertaking their decisions.  

Due to these and other common assumptions concerning strategy formulation, many people fail to recognize their own capability to develop a basic and successful strategic process for handling major challenges that they are facing.   

Strategy formulation does not have to be that analytical or complex to be helpful.  A strategy, too, is often more useful when it is fairly simple and straight-forward to understand and undertake.  Strategy can be developed by a sole individual who confronts a particular challenge and needs to find a reasonable approach to take.  We don’t have to be grand champions or authority figures to discover a useful strategy to overcome a thorny problem.  We just need to believe that some focused attention on problem solving will likely be better for us than ignoring the problem, having a defeatist attitude, or going into a panic.   

We shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.  You might not have powerful analytical skills or even experience before in using a strategic decision-making approach, but so what?  If a rough and inexperienced effort to develop a strategy improves your chance of a successful resolution of a major challenge by only some small percentage over a random choice or “shot in the dark,” it should be worth some minimal time and effort.

 

To some, the notion of trying to become more of a strategist might be a turn-off.  Some probably associate strategy and strategists with individuals who are so committed to “getting ahead” or to succeeding that they will do almost anything to reach these goals.  Of course, there are psychopaths or just those who seem willing to compromise conventional moral standards “to climb to the top over others.”  For most of us, though, our personal values and goals have strong, or at least moderate, moral components.  When we do not fully integrate these moral values and goals into our strategic thinking and decision making, then we are in some danger of losing moral direction.

 

Those who are more unethical probably do have certain competitive advantages in getting ahead or achieving conventional measures of success.  They likely have fewer obstacles and/or more options open to them in their choosing decisions and actions.  Yet associated with these advantages are risks of their actions being discovered and deemed unacceptable by others.  Choosing strategies that don’t align well with personal or social values can also bring the fear of discovery of these unethical activities by others.  Having a “skeleton in one’s closet” can mean discomfort or lack of full satisfaction with apparent success. 

 

I believe that these three and other assumptions about strategy and strategists that many people have can limit their interest in or inclination toward becoming a more strategic decision maker.  Some of us also have good intentions of becoming more thoughtful and careful regarding our major career or life decisions, but we continue to have poor “follow through” and can look back with regret at certain of these previous decisions.