As notícias sobre as agências de viagens em dificuldades sobre os 10 mil restaurantes que fecharam levam-me a reflectir sobre a urgência das organização periodicamente realizarem uma reflexão estratégica: o que mudou lá fora no mundo? o que vai continuar a mudar lá fora? o que pode surgir de novo lá fora? como nos tem corrido a vida? a continuarmos assim vamos a algum lado? o que é que tem corrido mal? o que é que tem corrido bem? que surpresas tivemos no último ano? como podemos ser diferentes? quem são os nossos clientes-alvo? o que é que lhes está a acontecer? os nossos esforços de sedução têm resultado?
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"Business is, above all, busy. And maybe it's too busy.
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"Business is, above all, busy. And maybe it's too busy.
Let's face it. Most of us spend most of our time chasing the immediate reward, the short-run "objective," the near-term "goal — in short, the expedient and the convenient. But maybe business's obsessive focus on doing hasn't defused any of the following conflagrations, and is, instead, dumping Molotov cocktails on each: customers as detached, distrusting, and "disloyal," investors firing back at boardrooms, regulators with bloodlust a-burning in their eyes, and about a trillion low-cost factories who can do it all faster, quicker, and cheaper anyway.
What most companies (and economies) don't do is to stop doing — and that's a self-defeating problem. We seem to be clueless about making room for deep questioning and thinking: reflecting. Our doing/reflecting ratio is wildly out of whack. Most action items might just be distraction items — from the harder work of sowing and reaping breakthroughs that matter.
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The most disruptive, unforeseen, and just plain awesome breakthroughs, that reimagine, reinvent, and reconceive a product, a company, a market, an industry, or perhaps even an entire economy rarely come from the single-minded pursuit of the busier and busier busywork of "business." Rather, in the outperformers that I've spent time with and studied, breakthroughs demand (loosely) systematic, structured periods for reflection — to ruminate on, synthesize, and integrate fragments of questions, answers, and thoughts about what's not good enough, what's just plain awful, and how it could be made radically better.
They consistently ask — in my experience, at least once a week, in informal, quick powwows — a handful of interrelated questions, never taking for granted that they've found the right, perfect, everlasting answer, but understanding instead, that the better answers evolve (and coevolve) with the world around them. In turn, reflection becomes the rocket fuel for experimentation, the lifeblood of high-level innovation, the spark of deeper meaning, and the wellspring of enduring purpose.
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The catch is that most companies don't know how to reflect. They've been finely engineered, instead, to do. So here's how to craft your own reflection items. (Moi ici: A minha mente recua ao tempo em que como consultor sub-contratado tive de realizar um trabalho numa empresa industrial em que um dos sócios classificava toda a gente que não estava na linha de montagem como malandros. BTW, essa empresa já não existe há uns anos.)
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Why. On the odd occasion most boardrooms reflect, reflection often starts with "how." But that's the lowest order question. The biggie, the more productive, provocative question to start with, is: why are we here — really? Here's an example of a "why" reflection item: "Are we really just here to sell more sugar water? Or is there a bigger, more resonant, and fundamentally worthier goal we could — and should — be pursuing, like ensuring no human being goes thirsty?"
What. From why, move to "what." What are the competencies that let you achieve, attain, accomplish your "why"? Does your current "what" support your desired "why" — or not? For example, if you're just here to sell sugar-water, then "innovating" slightly new flavors of soda every few months, and finding novel markets to "sell" it in (read: competencies in product innovation and mass marketing) is probably good enough. But if you have the impertinence to exist for bigger reasons, then you're probably going to upgrade your "what" to support it. Like, for example, if you're here to ensure no human being goes thirsty, then mere humdrum "innovation" of flavors isn't good enough — you're going to have to rethink "what", and redefine a new set of breakthrough competencies (perhaps in radically efficient water cycling).
Which. After "what", ask "which." Which products, services, partners, and assets underpin the most productive, efficient, effective ways for you to bring your competencies to life — and which don't? Does your "which" ignite your "what"? If you're here to "innovate" sugar water, then thinking in terms of orthodox buyers and suppliers might do the trick. But if your "what" is bigger, like slaking the world's thirst, then you're probably going to have to upgrade your "which", too — to, for example, include impoverished, thirsty people, and water-poor communities as vital partners in a micro water (re)distribution grid.
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Primarify. When many companies reflect, they choose to use third-, fourth-, or fifth-hand data. "Hey, Billy Bob — what do you think of this XYZ survey about ABC, commissioned by 123, for 789?" But nth-hand data is, by definition, an off-the shelf commodity — hence, it's often empty of deeper insight. Better reflection is built on primary data — preferably, face-to-face interaction. So get busy talking to your customers, investors, buyers, suppliers.
Primarify. When many companies reflect, they choose to use third-, fourth-, or fifth-hand data. "Hey, Billy Bob — what do you think of this XYZ survey about ABC, commissioned by 123, for 789?" But nth-hand data is, by definition, an off-the shelf commodity — hence, it's often empty of deeper insight. Better reflection is built on primary data — preferably, face-to-face interaction. So get busy talking to your customers, investors, buyers, suppliers.
Qualify. Garbage in, garbage out: reflection isn't just about numbers. It's about why the numbers happen in the first place, and what the numbers really mean to humans. So to reflect best, you need a rich matrix of "qualitative data" that your questions and answers can germinate in. What does that mean? Just people's perspectives about human experiences.
Simplify. The jargon that's so beloved of boardrooms and beancounters is kryptonite to reflection. The best reflection isn't simplistic — but it is simple, cast in concepts that have meaning outside the boardroom, because it's those concepts that indicate that what you're reflecting has breakthrough potential. "Cross-functionalizing the marketing mix to drive incremental revenue generation opportunities" isn't reflection (and heaven knows few breakthroughs ever lie down that path). Conversely, "we will reduce the number of thirsty people in the world" is a reflective statement — simple, resonant, meaningful.
If, as I've argued on this blog and in my book, 21st century advantage is about doing meaningful stuff that matters the most, then here's my suggestion: what got you here, as Marshall Goldsmith says, won't get you there. Breaking through the industrial age's rusting, cracking ceiling won't happen by just doing more of the same. We'll have to invest not just in action, but in deep, sustained, prolonged reflection. (Moi ici: Os saltos de produtividade que precisamos, como economia, só podem vir do abandono sistemático do que sempre fizemos, para abraçar novos desafios, para resolver novos problemas.)
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That's not to say you'll instantly solve every big problem just by reflecting. But you might get a tiny bit closer. And it's those small steps that count."
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Trechos retirados de "Making Room for Reflection Is a Strategic Imperative"
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