Connect Four
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best to handle complexity.
To entertain our children over the school holidays we bought a classic board game; Connect Four. Of course, the initial instinct from the children was to go for blocking tactics – repeating the moves of the other, shutting down any rows and ending up in a race to a tie game. Children are great at looking at the behaviours of their peers, rather than their own.
Businesses can be quite good at this as well. Every business will claim their products are superior to their competitors. Yet, the behaviours of the business when it comes to product designs, price setting, communication and what else, are exactly the same as the other. Rather than breaking away, they keep the status quo.
Just like with my children, what seems to be the issue is the lack of a clear strategy that sets you apart. I explained this to my 5-year old... with other words... and then she started winning against her 2-year old younger brother who insisted on continuing with the blocking tactics while exclaiming "haha! I blocked you!". Not losing was more important than winning, which explains the tantrums he had after having lost 15 times. It's easy to lose when we don't have a clear vision of where we are going and just responding to the events around us.
"Strategy is surprising when you see it. We don't expect strategy. We expect large organisations and governments to pursue multiple conflicting goals that don't add up, to try to punch the tickets of all stakeholders."
That quote is by Richard Rumelt from an interview by ABC in 2012. Rumelt is the author of Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, a book I've referenced before and couldn't recommend more. I think I need something else to reference. What are the strategy books you've enjoyed?
Rumelt also talks about proximate objectives, feasible accomplishments within reach that moves us closer to our vision. They're the coloured discs in Connect Four games, small steps that can handle changing circumstances, yet move us from A to Z. For me, this was a great reminder as I recently had grown tired and lost patience with not reaching my Z. I was reminded to stop staring blindly at Z and go for the proximate objectives, which then relieved me of my mental blockage and made me move faster to my personal strategic vision. I did what Gary Vee would state as "Macro patience, micro speed".
It's the beginning of the new financial year; apart from budgeting, do you, your team and your business have a unified vision? What are the coloured discs you'll use to get there?