"...this culture, and we as members of it, have yielded too easily to what is doable and practical and popular...(and) sacrificed the pursuit of what is in our hearts." - Peter Block (The Answer To How is Yes)
If I asked you to pick from these two quotations the one that most readily and fully describes your views, which would it be? It's a little like being asked which of your children you like better. Each one touches a different part of your soul so you can't pick. Crusoe's words come from the realization that he does not possess the talent, materials or strength to build a boat that can set him free from his island imprisonment. He seems to be sorrowful for having tried to do something too hard or too big for him. It seems foolish to him now that he even began the work. Oh, if he'd only asked a few more questions. Could he have avoided this if he'd completed a business case and cost-benefit analysis?
If you can flip over and join me on the other side of your brain, Block's words also ring true to us, condemning our objective, six sigma-ized, 5 month budgeting process pragmatism. Somewhere along the way we have sacrificed our passion and vision to what we know can work or what will sell with the people who will decide whether to fund your idea. But you can't just fund every nutty (sorry) idea that comes along so there has to be some rational way of allocating scarce resources to the things that matter most.
It has been my observation with many important strategic capabilities decisions that the true and best way through marries what appear to be two opposing views of things into something that makes the best of both. I'd like to offer an STA (See - Think - Act) for you in these challenging situations where completely new thinking is needed, but conflicts with what you think can be sold upstream.
- Don't Think About How You'll Do It - Yet. The more experience we have with getting big things funded, done or even agreed to the more our ideas gravitate to the center. We naturally edit ourselves out of certain difference-making ideas because something on the Crusoe side of our mind says we don't have the budget/resources/patience. Look, I was the cold-hearted limited thinking CFO so I know what this looks like. I've learned because of exposure to visionary, creative thinkers and the benefit of an open mind to see value in letting truly reaching ideas run their course. Just focus on what's right and different and 'wow!'
- Sell 'What?' before 'How?'. Once we've got the idea we might want to jump to the step of figuring out what it's going to take. Why? It's the natural progression of business thinking and the cadence of the way we get things done. I suggest we ought to take the time to connect people to the 'what' first and invite them into the vision of what we're trying to do. I can tell you as the finance guy, when I slowed down long enough to truly 'get' why something was a great idea before I focused on the numbers, I became part of helping figure out how to get it done. I was sold - now we just had to make it work. THIS IS IMPORTANT: Get 'yes' to the idea first.
- Figure Out How Your Going To Deliver. Notice I didn't tell you to do your best to get it funded from here, leaving it up to those invisible powers to decide. You should now feel an obligation to get this thing done. This will be hard and may be frustrating. This is where the visionary thinking has to meet up with the realities of scarce resources, short-arm sales commitments and your own unwillingness to admit that some parts of your idea are more critical than others. Figure what the most critical capabilities are that you must build to bring your vision to life. Don't say the red bell and the blue whistle are critical when they are aren't. Don't let your commitment to the purest form of your idea keep you from getting it done.
Tomorrow - It's Not Your Budget...It's An Investment
