ARE YOUR ORGANIZATION AND ITS LEADERS READY FOR THE FUTURE?

A few years back, I asked the veteran CEO of a non-profit services organization, that grew its budget (10X) and rapidly expanded its scope of services/populations served during his ten years in office, what their biggest challenge was. He said, finding the right talent for now and the future. He confided that he likely would not hire the same team again if given the chance. Surprisingly, he said he would probably not hire himself to be CEO. He confessed that as the organization grew, he and his team did not keep up and enhance their capabilities consistent with their dramatic growth. They were always too busy.

While important, it was not urgent at the time. As a result, he knew that the state of leadership and organizational effectiveness constrained the organization and its future ability to grow, adapt to, and address the evolving needs of its increasing client base. They weren’t ready.

That got me thinking. What if we were having this conversation today? The alarms would be going off. Indisputably it would now be both important and urgent. Smart, quick action would be needed. What would I do?

Given today’s disruptive, often unpredictable, and complex environment (particularly with #COVID19), I would advise the organization and its leaders to ask and answer these questions:

1. Do we as leaders fully understand the impacts of the current COVID-19 context (present), its implications, and the uncertainties it presents over the next 12–18 months (midterm) for its customers, employees, and other stakeholders?
2. What about other uncertainties and possible futures (2022 and beyond)?
3. Do we have the right capabilities, information, leadership, processes, skills, and tools to keep up and be perpetually ready and prepared for the future?
4. Do we understand what this means and what changes (transformation) is necessary given the future they are trying to create and achieve?

Herein lies one of the biggest challenges that organizations and leaders face today and will face going forward.

I believe leaders and their organizations need to look at three distinct, but overlapping time horizon, while maintaining focus on its Vision and Mission. The first is now to 3 months out (present), the second is 2021 into early 2022, and the third is late 2022 and beyond. Let’s look at each:

The Present (now — 3 months) — While many companies are still reactive and in crisis mode, others have moved past this, in either case we know the plans developed last year are largely useless and irrelevant. The focus now needs to be on understanding and meeting customer needs in today’s uncertain and disruptive environment and strengthening these relationships; taking care of employees to ensure their wellbeing and that they have the tools and information to do their jobs, and on shoring up operations to deliver value effectively and efficiently. During this period, decisions need to be made quickly and carefully and then acted upon to shore up finances and retail customers while not impairing future periods or limiting future options.

The Mid-Term (2021 — early 2022) — Traditional annual planning approaches were not designed for the flexibility and adaptability needed for disruptive and uncertain times like there. They will not work. New approaches are needed. It is imperative for organizations to identify and consider uncertainties and possible futures faced. Armed with this information, identify, and make “no/low-risk moves” that will ready and prepare the organizations while making it adaptive and resilient in the face of an uncertain future. These are things the organization can control and should do to shape its future. At the same time, the organization should begin making a limited number of strategic bets to position it for the Post-COVID era and bolster its longer-term growth potential. Leaders should not wait for 2021 to start, they need to start doing this work now and amp it up through early 2021.

The Future (late 2022 and on) — Again, the traditional annual planning process is of limited to no value. It just is not fast or adaptive enough given ongoing business disruptiveness and uncertainty. So where do you start?

The answer: In the future. Using a Future-Back approach imagine, for example, it is 2024 or 2025 and your organization is recognized by the press as having met its objectives. What does it look like? Where is it (metaphorically)? How does it act? What is it known for? Why do customers choose it over others? These and other similar type questions help paint a vivid and “real” picture of what the company looks like and represents at that point in time

Then looking back from this future, describe what the organization needed to do to over the intervening 3 years to get there (the future). Next, identify the likely hurdles it had to overcome in its journey to the future and how it addressed these. Lastly, deeply understand where and who the organization is today and its readiness to change.

When this information is discussed it needs to be done in the context (internal and external) the company operates in now and will operate in. To develop future contexts to consider, think about various uncertainties and how they may interact as well as consider possible futures. Choose the ones that are probable or at least plausible and build and begin implementing your roadmap forward, knowing the roadmap will change over time. The time to start this work is probably best around the beginning of the 2nd and/or third quarter so the foundation is solid for launching into the future.

Given the dynamism of the environment and the lack of any semblance of steadiness or predictability, this new journey requires two critically vital capabilities:

• The ability to learn.
• The ability to adapt.

Without these, future CEOs will end up asking themselves the same question we started with and end up with the same answer.

I have worked across numerous industries, in key support functions, and in public and private companies. I partner with and enable organizations and their leaders to define their futures, identify the keys to get there, design the roadmap to make the journey, develop the sustainable capabilities necessary for successful execution, and manage and navigate the journey even in the face of turbulent conditions. Combined, this creates an advantage that is hard to beat and leads to breakthrough results.

It is time to act now! My UNCOVER, UNLOCK, UNLEASH framework/process guides and enables organizations to sustainably improve performance and increase the odds of future success. Coming in from the outside, but acting from the inside, I am a catalyst, force multiplier, and an objective party who can help you do this faster and more effectively while building vital capabilities.

Ready to start or want to learn more first, email me today at jay@jayweiser.com for a complimentary discovery call to discuss your situation and explore how I can help. Can you afford to wait?

#future #covid19 #leadership #strategy #organization