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.