Imagen Consulting

I spent time yesterday with a very distressed friend. 2009 had been an awful year for his business, and he was no reconsidering everything – his business model, his aspirations, and his future.

My guess is that many of us resonate with him, and have enterered 2010 a little unsure of what “moving forward” looks like. For those still trying to get a handle on what comes next, here’s a series of questions from Seth Kahan that I found very useful.

As you reflect on your business’s past, ask yourself these three questions:

1. How did this service/program/product come to be?
2. What factors in the environment made it possible?
3. What new context emerged that gave birth to my initiative as a solution?

Now, transport your answers to today and ask these questions:

1. What has changed?
2. What do these circumstances look like today?
3. How are they the same and how are they different?

And finally, to squint and look into the foggy mystery of tomorrow, ask:

1. What appears to be forming?
2. How can my service/program/product best address the emerging needs?
3. What needs to change to sustain relevance?

2010 has opened a new chapter for business – a post-recession, post-hierarchal, globally-competative, social-media-rivetted, community-driven era of business. This is not business as usual, or a return to an earlier system of business operations. It’s the beginning of something completely new. And we’re here to help you navigate it, strategize for it, and build the engaged and change-ready organizations that can embrace it.

To get started, we’re offering workshops (live and vitural) through February to help business leaders and owners craft a vision-driven, values-based, and innovation-driven business plan for 2010. Email me for dates and more information.

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Here’s a list of great year-end questions from Molly Gordon. Put them to use as you reflect on 2009 and make plans for 2010.

Endings are important. As we approach the end of 2009, take time to examine what you have accomplished and to revisit and revise the commitments you've made. Your reflection now will lay a foundation for new possibilities in the New Year.

Here are questions I share with my clients when they approach completion of a cycle or project. 

[These questions were adapted from similar questions in “The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry” by Sue Annis Hammond.]

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Here’s a good strategic year-end reminder from Seth Kahan. You can learn more about Seth's work at VisionaryLeadership.com

Use the End-of-Year to Create Your New Year Strategy

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"Talent is hitting a target that no one else can hit. Vision is hitting a target that no one else can see." - Author Unknown

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Here are excerpts from a GALLUP Management Journal interview with Jim Clifton, Gallup's chairman and CEO, on the fading impact of “process improvement” and the need to move into a new state-of-mind driven approach to leadership. In Clifton’s opinion, the old ways of doing business won't work anymore. The men and women who will conquer this new world will be the ones who best understand their constituencies' state of mind. ( I underlined a few KEY points.)

Q: Before you talk about the next generation of leadership, what was the last generation of leadership?

A: Process improvement was the last big leadership evolution. General Electric's leadership is a good example -- they did Six Sigma perfectly. Jack Welch was the king of process innovation. But when Jeff Immelt took over, he had a problem -- there was nothing left for him to Six Sigma.

That's true for everybody. In America, Europe, Japan, most of the benefits have been squeezed out of process improvement and neoclassical economics. That's one of the problems Wall Street is facing -- investors have exactly the same data and methodology from neoclassical economics, but it no longer differentiates anything.

I'm not shortchanging neoclassical economics; that and process improvements worked really well for a while. Why did Japan rise up out of nowhere to dominate the world? Well, one big reason was the influence of quality guru Dr. Edwards Deming. He led with his next-generation leadership idea, and Japan seized on it first. It worked. Implementing that kind of thinking was very good for our company too. We immediately made more money; we immediately were more productive.

Now companies are structured to do a magnificent job with that kind of data. But it's absolutely not enough anymore. There hasn't been a big idea for leadership in 25 years, nothing that shows the huge sweet spots and pushes the big advancements. Now we need the next generation of leadership, because we've maxed out everything else. There aren't many competitive advantages left in process improvement. People have done everything they can do with neoclassical economics. You can lean-management, Six Sigma, and TQM your company to death.The next evolution of leadership requires a change.

The next evolution of leadership, the next big idea, will be leading with an in-depth understanding of states of mind rather than with an in-depth understanding of financial statements. That's where the low-hanging fruit is. Innovation, talent, and entrepreneurship are what matter most to leaders now. Those are the areas new leadership must master, because those are the areas that will drive growth in the new economy.

Q: So why will leaders who can quantify states of mind be the winners in this new world?

A: Because those leaders will be the ones with the information -- the data -- that's needed to solve the world's biggest problems. Here's an example: Many people think money is the solution to every problem. Problems like education, security, job creation, and well-being can be solved, but leaders are using the wrong tools to solve them. Mostly, they're just throwing money at them. Leaders can double productivity if they spend enough on it, but it's not sustainable. Eventually, they run out of things to spend money on -- or money to spend -- and improvement stops, then starts trending down.

In the world we're competing in now, solving problems isn't about spending money. It's about understanding and managing ideas and talent -- and states of mind. That's where the new leadership breakthroughs will be. Leaders who can quantify states of mind and make decisions about their constituencies based on that information are the ones who will lead the world.

Q: What's the business value of quantifying states of mind?

A: Remember, in the global marketplace, you can get anything from anywhere at the price you want -- or close to it. And that negates competition based on price or quality, and it makes states of mind much more important. It raises the bar on understanding how and why people behave the way they do.

Q: Such as workers and customers?

A: Exactly. When leaders have choices to make, they can't base them solely on price or quality. They now must make decisions based on their workers' and customers' states of mind. In the old days, a business leader could be really successful by mastering accounting. Nothing works without perfect accounting, of course, but accounting is not a leader's job anymore. Leaders have to push that function to their staff.

Now leaders need to calibrate their strategies not just against the old neoclassical economic data but also against a new institution of behavioral economic data that quantifies the role of human nature in their constituencies. This requires a whole new way to lead.

-- Interviewed by Jennifer Robison

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