Intentional Leadership — D1, W1, M10 — Strategy

You’ve gotta have a plan!

I’ve worked for 20+ years as a professional communicator. In 2005, I took a job as the Communications Manager at Tree Top, Inc. As I started my third week, I was invited to attend a meeting of an internal team that had been tasked with reviewing all of the company’s assets and determining if any should be sold or closed, or reinvested in.  As it turned out, business conditions at the time indicated that one of our more distant plants should be closed.

From a purely business perspective — focused on logistics, dollars, and cents — it made sense to close this particular plant. It was located in northeastern Oregon, several hours from our headquarters location in central Washington, which was also where the bulk of our raw product, apples, pears, and cherries, were grown. At the time, if you remember, gas prices increased dramatically and all forecasting indicated that the cost of fuel would not be dropping, again, any time soon. So, the apples, pears, and cherries would be harvested in central Washington, shipped to Milton-Freewater, Oregon (MFO), several hours away, to be processed, then shipped back to central Washington for packaging and distribution. Couple this with the fact that other existing plants, in central Washington, had enough excess capacity to take on the processing handled by MFO. Again, from a business perspective, considering the time in transit and cost of moving it back and forth, it didn’t make sense to keep that plant.

From a people perspective, it was a difficult decision. The people managing and operating the MFO plant were top notch; they consistently did a high-quality job. In addition, this plant was one of the larger employers in this remote area, so there would be a significant impact on the local economy.

My task, develop a strategic communication plan to announce the closure decision to all affected audiences: Employees, community leaders, local grower-owners, and the media. Our goal was to multi-faceted: We needed to retain those key employees to ensure the plant continued to operate at high levels through the closure; we needed to assure the community we would do everything in our power to sell the facility to a person or organization that would operate it in some fashion — retaining some jobs and an economic base in the community; we needed to assure the local grower-owners that our field reps would continue to serve them well and they still had a home for their culls (essentially, fruit that wasn’t “beautiful” enough to be sold fresh); and we needed to address the media’s concerns that the decision might have been made hastily or because of performance issues at the plant.

I crafted a plan that addressed all of those issues and concerns. We prepared all the internal key players to ensure they were well informed and could communicate the rationale behind the decision and the long-term impact on the company had the decision not been made. We were proactive in informing everyone, and we did this in waves to ensure plant employees learned of the plan first, then the rest of the company’s employees (at several other plants in central Washington), then we went out separately to address community leaders, grower-owners, and the media. Within a few hours, we had met in person with all the key stakeholders, and we did it nearly nine months before the closure would actually take place.

While it wasn’t the announcement anyone wanted to hear, once the rationale was explained they all understood. We retained the key employees we needed to ensure the plant operated at high levels through the closure. We relocated some of the equipment and all of the processing. We sold the remaining equipment. We sold the building to a company that began operations within a couple of months of our closure. All in all, the whole process went smoothly.

The whole concept-to-execution steps of this communication plan took place over about six weeks, so I had been in my job approximately eight weeks at the time we carried it out. My boss came to me to apologize that my first assignment was a plant closure. I appreciated his concern, but actually grateful for the opportunity. It gave me a chance to, very quickly, demonstrate my value to the organization.

I don’t tell you this story to blow my own horn and give you the impression I am a “super hero” communicator. I share it with you to demonstrate the value of a well-considered strategy. We had a task at hand to carry out, coupled with clear objectives, and defined resources in place with which to work. As a strategic communicator, it was the kind of situation I thrive in.

I can easily contrast this experience to communication positions I’ve held with other organizations. I have been directed to put together communication messages, using specific vehicles, as a reaction to a change in certain metrics tracked by the company. When I asked about the objective we were attempting to achieve through the directed action, and how the tactic fit in with any strategy, I was told to “just do it.” In fact, one leader I worked for has said I was too strategic and needed to simply focus on the tactics and get things done.

I could do this, I suppose; technically, I am capable of it. It simply doesn’t make sense to me, though. I prefer to understand the key objectives and develop a strategy to address them…I’m not one to just take action for the sake of saying I took action; I want it to make sense and drive the organization closer to a stated objective, but that’s just me!

So, what are the core strategies of your organization or team?

Are they clearly defined?

Do you have simple ways of measuring your progress towards the objectives?

How closely are you following the strategies?

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Intentional Leadership — Month 10 — Strategy

Strategy bridges the present reality to a future vision by answering the question of how a mission will be implemented. *

In this 10th month of our Intentional Leadership journey, we will focus on strategy. This is one topic I am particularly fond of, as it is my greatest strength (according to the StrengthFinders assessment)!

In my experience, once you have defined your objectives — what you’re striving to achieve — you need to outline the strategies you will use to move in that direction, and from the strategy, you will move into the tactical actions. One might consider it the leader’s blueprint or playbook. By following a well-thought-out strategy, you will arrive at a predetermined destination, rather than wandering aimlessly in uncertain directions.

Think back a few years ago, when Toyota was under siege because of the “auto-acceleration” issues with its cars. Prior to these events, Toyota had been known for high-quality; once its quality assurance processes came into question, Toyota had to shift gears, significantly. And, fortunately, it did. It went from focusing on quality to focusing on service. That’s when they changed their position to providing two years of free standard maintenance — oil changes, etc.

Had the car manufacturer attempted to emerge from that crisis still focused on quality, it would have been the laughing stock, and no one would have taken them seriously. Humbling themselves and focusing on serving their customers allowed the company to make a come-back.

Hyundai went through a similar experience. Think back to 1986 when Hyundai — a South Korean automaker — entered the US market. They started off with a bang, which quickly turned to a thud! Hyundai suffered from quality defects, as well, and soon was the target of great ridicule. It, too, had to come up with a new strategy to persuade customers to give the company another chance.

The result: An unheard of market plan (for the time, at least) promising customers a 10-year, 100,000 mile transmission and engine warranty. It worked; skeptical buyers gave the manufacturer another chance, and the strategy paid off, reviving Hyundai’s image in North America.

The strategy paid off, again, in 2008 during the beginning of the latest economic downturn. Hyundai assured buyers that if they bought a new car from them, and subsequently lost their jobs, they could return the car, essentially eliminating a source of financial stress and potential damage to one’s credit rating. With financial security of consumers’ minds, it was a brilliant strategy, that, again, paid off for the automaker.

As a leader, it will be incumbent on you to define the strategy for your teams and organization. As we prepare to dig deep into the role strategy plays in our leadership lives, spend some time today pondering these questions:

What are the benefits of having a sound strategy?

How do you recognize when your current strategy needs changing?

How do you respond when you come to that realization?

In what ways could you leverage your team and/or your organization’s assets more effectively?

How well are you executing your strategy?

I’ll “see” you tomorrow…and am looking forward to exploring this topic with you over the next four weeks.

*From the Intentional Leadership book by Giant Impact

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Intentional Leadership Month 9 Wrap-up — Attitude

As we get further along into this Intentional Leadership journey, it feels as if I am moving through the months faster and faster. I know, rationally, it isn’t real; each month has the same amount of time (give or take a day depending on which month we are in), but it seems as if we just started this month’s exploration into attitude, and now we are at the end!

I’d like to share this thought from inspirational author and speaker, Charles Swindoll:

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes. As a leader, embrace the opportunities change gives and lead and grow through it.”

His ending sentiment about the 10 and 90 percents, falls right into line with the yoga program I’ve been doing these past three months. The founder of DDPYoga, Diamond Dallas Page (yes, I’m doing a yoga program developed by a former World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion! And, it’s making a huge difference in my life!), talks about living life at 90% — the 90% that is our choice of how we will react to the 10% of things that happen.

This is also a lesson I teach about being intentional in all areas of our life; mindfully giving consideration to the potential risks, benefits, implications, and consequences of any given action — whether it’s through written or spoken communication or action / behavior. When we are thoughtful about these things, we allow ourself the option of responding (thoughtfully and intentionally) rather than reacting, which is emotional and immediate, and often does not turn out as well as we would prefer.

This feeds right into attitude because, as Swindoll, and so many others before him have said, we get to choose our attitude. When things happen in life, they aren’t inherently good or bad until we assign meaning to them. According to the Law of Polarity, you can’t have a good without there being a bad…so we get to choose.

In closing, this is one of the principles I was fortunate to be asked to teach this week, on how “choosing your attitude” can make a huge difference in how your life experience happens.

The my closing question is, are you ready to take charge of your attitude and take charge of your life? Remember, it doesn’t affect only you…Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?

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