Journey to Strategic Speed
John Wooden said, “Be quick but don’t hurry.” From a business point of view, going slow at first enhances speed in the end.
I recently enjoyed an enlightening conversation with Ms. Jocelyn Davis, one of the authors of “Strategic Speed: Mobilize People, Accelerate Execution.” I was delighted to learn that her story includes a personal journey to strategic speed.
Leadership Freak (LF): Can you tell me about a tipping point in your own career, an event or experience that made a significant difference in your work-life?
Jocelyn Davis (JD): It’s funny you ask because I’m realizing my relationship with Mimi Bennett, (former VP of Product Development at The Forum Corporation,) had a huge impact on my own ability to achieve strategic speed. I was 29 when I joined Mimi’s team. Her mentorship dramatically influenced my effectiveness, reduced my time to value, and developed my current leadership style.
LF: Many lives are enriched by mentors. Can you give us some detail on how Mimi influenced you?
JD: I’d be glad to. Although I was a junior member of the team, she always brought me along to meetings, on client calls, to pilot programs. She explained everything, and she involved me in decisions. When I say, “She involved me in everything,” I mean everything.
LF: I see. You’d call that mentoring by intensive involvement.
JF: Yes, you could definitely say that.
LF: That doesn’t sound like strategic speed. That sounds slow to me. It sounds like duplication of effort.
JD: I know it seems inefficient but in reality it enabled me to start adding value a lot sooner. In the beginning I was just tagging along. But the mentoring I received significantly reduced time to value. Mimi was like a catapult to my value at Forum.
LF: I hear you saying, going slow at first significantly enhanced your strategic speed later.
JD: Exactly
***** Questions for your comments *****
Have you seen the ill effects of going fast too soon?
Other than mentoring, what other strategies might enhance personal or organizational strategic speed?
*****
You can receive Leadership Freak in your email. It’s free. It’s private. Go to the main page of Leadership Freak by clicking the banner at the top of this page, look in the right-hand navigation bar, enter your email and click subscribe. Your email address is always kept private. Note: if it doesn’t arrive, check your spam filter for a confirmation email.
It’s interesting, I almost see Joan’s mentor’s approach not as “slow” but as “fast” in the sense that she wasted no time giving Joan access to the people and information that would help her incorporate a thorough understanding of the business from the earliest point possible.
I have heard of call centers who have new reps listening in on calls almost from Day One, even though they haven’t learned the content of the information they’ll be working with, because it helps them ask better questions and more effectively put things in context once they do begin training. I think supervised access to as much information as makes sense is a real key to enabling the employee to attain “strategic speed” as rapidly as possible.
Regarding other strategies to enhance personal/organizational strategic speed, it seems so ridiculously simple but writing down the key goals of personal/organizational strategy has to be among the basic components of the strategy. One of my favorite quotes is: Only three percent of adults have written goals, and everyone else works for them (Brian Tracy). I think there’s a lot of truth in that.
I guess every line of business/role has got a different approach. Lately I’ve been hunting for a programmer’s position in my company, and with my lead programmer we devised an optimal way to find out the real value of a candidate. It’s not about letting it witness what my programmers do, but putting him right in the middle of the action, in the field, to prove his value.
It’s a different approach for a different position, but mentorship is just this to me, adapting to a particular situation and evolving as a mentor as much as a mentee.
Good morning Dan. Sounds like a fascinating book. Maybe lightening will strike twice! 🙂 “Jumping the gun” can certainly lead to disaster and paying attention to timing is crucial. We in Health Care now have that dilemma. Payment reform is in the offing with talks of ACOs and Patient Centered Medical Homes, etc. Every organization is struggling with putting the discreet elements in place to accommodate these different delivery models but when do you pull the proverbial switch when reimbursement is still under Fee for Service? I think the answer is one moves forward slowly. We can not stand there with a sit and watch attitude. I just read a fantastic quote which I may put at the bottom of my letterhead which states: “Behold the Turtle: He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.” (James Bryan Conant). That being said, due diligence, reflection, understanding of the dynamics of the environment are all important but cannot paralyze us from taking action. There is an old spanish proverb which translated literally states: “Please dress me slowly for I am in a hurry.” The comforting part about moving forward slowly is that if there is a “crash” the impact will likely have minimal consequences whereas if the the road is clear, momentum will drive us faster! So yes Leaders are asked on a daily basis to make recommendations, take action, make decisions, all with usually incomplete information and we do just that. Sometimes we get it right and other times we have a “learning” experience.(I have grown accustomed to never use the word failure because of its negative connotation for everyone concerned.) Hopefully we spend a lot more time executing successfully and not spending all day in the classroom. 🙂 Have a great day Dan, regards, Al
Sounds like Jocelyn had immersive mentoring!
One perspective would be that is duplication or ineffective use of resources, however, from a context of ‘see one/hear one/write one’ as prep work, once truly on the flight path, she was able to cover far more ground and ‘do one’ sans as many errors if let to her own devices. Gives the mentor high oversight early, then let fly.
Too fast too soon…the hand raised in the audience is that of ‘Pace’.
Leaders by their own nature or nurture have to see the bigger picture and goal and sometimes living in that world lose sight of pacing the changes and the impact of the changes on the ground level. This does make the necessary case for leadership double vision…in a good way.
The vision of what can be balanced with what is…not an easy view, blind spots (leadership scotoma), halos (the vision metaphor seems to work) , even glaucoma (too much pressure) coupled with eagerness to advance, all are factors that play into the mix. And yet, it is the job of the leaders to nudge, encourage, sometimes push the culture along and avoid stasis.
So pace and attending to pace is very important…and that refrain of its not about the leader (and the leader’s perceived pace) but about those led and the actual pace they are experiencing.
Interesting subject, will have to ponder more on this one…
Hi Doc, I love your leadership double vision, scotoma, blind spots, halos, and glaucoma metaphors. They paint such a clear picture of the different “traps” leaders are faced with.I also concur with your assertion that it is not the leaders pace that ultimately dictates speed but rather the aggregate momentum of the team. Bravo Doc, loved your comment. Have a great day, regards, Al
Excuse me, I can’t get out of my office, my head has grown too large! Thanks for the props Al, do appreciate it!
Growth is elusive sometimes. Jocelyn is right on, “it seems inefficient but in reality it enabled me to start adding value a lot sooner”.
Everybody wants a quick solution, a quick fix, a quick growth spurt. We live in a culture where most needs are met instantly (from coffee, to drive-thru lunch, to 150 channels on cable…)
But real value is added first by turning the flywheel. Slowly, it goes at initially. But after a while, that flywheel becomes leverage for exponential growth in time. The flywheel was initially an investment with faith in the future.
I love the quote I heard once, “Everything we learn goes into everything we do.”
Thanks Dan for this very interesting post. Seeing leadership through a “pace”/”speed” lens is quite useful. People will react differently to changes of pace. This opens up a discussion on change management, and on success criteria. Great leaders communicate constantly, and build trust and relationships. Great leaders will therefore lead by example, with a strong sense of ethics. Great leaders are great at teaching others, mentoring and coaching; fundamental competencies, often not considered as important as they should by many “managers”. Leading is a personal journey, one where leaders will connect with others, bring out their best. Great leaders empower others. Look forward to your book review !
Dan & Jocelyn,
I can’t think of a clearer example of both mentoring and even more importantly — that effective training/involvement breeds better performance all around.
Leaders often rely and rely on those that already know. Then one day – bam- they don’t understand why they don’t have a “bench” of people ready to handle new developments, dynamic opps, and of course turnover of experienced people.
Bravo & thanks for sharing this.
Kate
I just realized because of this post a new person where I work needs me to explicitly mentor.
I have an ‘automatic mentor’ process – I’m available for everyone equally, clients and co-workers alike – but our new team member needs me to be more aware of the mentoring opportunity.
I am bringing this new person along on meetings and we’re debriefing afterward, but the difference is until now I hadn’t seen it as a need for me to be explicit.
Thanks, Dan, I’ll be more mindful tomorrow.
Dear Dan,
I agree that effect of going fast too soon is often dangerous and cancerous when you do not know the path. When you know it fully and travelled many times then you can go fast. Usually, when you go fast too soon, you miss experience. Experience might be getting hurt, ovelooking important informations and overlooking analysis part etc. When you go slow initially, you experience various factors for success and failure and when you come to know that you can speed up at last. But without knowing the factors however you can speed up, you can reach to right place or destination.
I have been hurt by going too fast in the past but now start slowly sometimes fast but taking clues from failure and when I speed up my speed, I always have back up plan. Earlier when I was going fast, backup plan was missing.
Self experience is the best way to enhance personal and organisational strategic speed. If accompanied by mentoring, it has greater positive effect. Nothing can substitute experience. Mentoring and experience make the person matured, balanced and strategic.
Continued….
But without knowing the factors however you can speed up, you can not reach to right place or destination.