You’re a couple of months into your 2019 annual plans - the honeymoon phase. Your annual plan still looks good,
At the heart of your plans are the people who are charged with getting aligned, focused, and executing steadfastly to achieve the plan and its annual key initiatives and their supporting quarterly rocks. When you were sharing your executive team’s shiny new plan with the greater organization, you felt confident in its success. As you should - it really is a keeper. The thing is, I am reminded of an exercise from the Mastering the Art of Change and Grow with Less Drama breakout session at our Breakthrough Conference. In the session, people from cross-functional organizations drew vivid images of the drama that can get in the way of our love: the drama of change.
Here are a couple of my favorite masterpieces:
Here we have a plan to venture into a blue ocean. This is a fast growing team who is constantly bringing on new hires. The ‘old guard’ is getting pretty tired of these newbies coming in with their energy and new ideas. Ideas that have failed in the past and just won’t work. Chaos ensues. And Sharknados. Naturally. It’s change.
And, here is how big ideas can turn into big “Oh Sh&t!” moments and disengaged teams when questions and fears fall on deaf ears, and clarity is missing.
Executing on your beautiful plan may require certain degrees of change. The more gnarly the change, the greater the impact on the human element. It’s not the annual plan itself that’s the problem. It’s how people feel and respond to the transition of the change the plan triggers.
I’ve spent the better part of my career helping teams face the drama and navigate through transformational change; so, this research really struck a chord and here’s my explanation of why the percentage is so inflated:
As I’m writing this blog, we’re in week 5 of the quarter. This is the perfect time to seek clarity and make sure you are focusing the majority of your time on the element of your role that has the best odds of getting your beautiful plan on the right path - as a coach. As Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) reminds us, leaders should spend their time tying these initiatives to the Core Purpose, and help everyone involved be able to state how it relates to the purpose of their work. In order to free up time to be the coach you need to be, delegate where you can and spend your time breaking down any barriers, appreciating efforts, and empowering your team to get creative in executing on the strategy.
Take some time today and create an action plan for you to coach your team away from potential Sharknado and “Oh Sh$t!” executions of your beautiful plan. Keep the love of your plan alive by engaging the hearts and minds of your team. The only way through it is to face the drama - and the dashboards - and coach to success.
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