When is it too early to make a call?

Don’t believe him

For the next four years, those of us watching America’s political theatre will be treated to a masterclass in the deliberate use of chaos and overwhelming information as a control strategy.

A much needed balm after Trump’s first two weeks was provided by the ever-insightful Ezra Klein, a New York Times journalist. His 15-minute podcast last week is a must-listen to anyone who, like me, wants a salve to their dismay at the deconstruction of the US’s administrative state.

What Klein deconstructs in the podcast is Steve Bannon's infamous "flood the zone" strategy: overwhelming stakeholders with simultaneous initiatives to prevent focussed opposition. Klein's analysis reveals the fatal flaw in this approach. When leadership substitutes the perception of power for actual institutional strength, it often masks fundamental weaknesses. Consider the evidence: Trump's administration launched multiple major initiatives in its first two weeks, yet quickly had to rescind key orders and accept status quo border arrangement when faced with institutional resistance.

Sound familiar in organisational life?

We've all seen some executives attempt similar tactics: rapid-fire reorganizations, cascading policy changes, or simultaneous strategic pivots. The logic seems compelling: let’s maintain momentum, demonstrate decisive leadership, keep people adrenalised and ‘change-ready’. But remember that no organisational leader wants to be like Trump, "acting like a king because he's too weak to govern like a president".

What’s the lesson in all this for us (regardless of what you think of Trump)?

It’s that sustainable change requires genuine organisational buy-in. As one US federal employee noted in response to the mass buyout offer he and millions of other public sector employees received: "Before that email went out, I was looking for any way to get out... But now I'm fired up to make these goons as frustrated as possible."

I’m fascinated to see how fired up the opposition to the goons will be.

Question: How are you building legitimate shared beliefs through careful coalition-building and strategic patience?

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Negative dialogue

Another podcast favourite of mine is Jay Shetty, who this week spoke of energy-draining habits, and one in particular.

It’s what he calls the 52-Minute Time Drain: the average time people spend each day gossiping or talking about others. Quite apart from the fact that if you stop doing this you’ll gain almost an hour a day, why is this a problem?

Shetty maintains that gossiping creates a negativity bias, which makes us better at spotting flaws than talents. Talking about other people is shown to create a false superiority complex, creates underlying guilt and anxiety, damages empathy and deep connection and, in fact, often masks our own insecurities.

What do you think?

He goes on to say that one of the most common habits in organisations, giving unsolicited feedback, also has similar relationship-damaging features. Giving feedback without asking for permission first (e.g., “Would you like to know what worked for me?”) signifies a relationship imbalance that is shown to create resentment and distrust, and decrease the other person’s intrinsic motivation.

Now, all of this is perhaps true on a personal level, but as I listened it occurred to me that it’s also true at a collective — and strategic — level.

I notice that boards and executive teams do more poorly at strategic foresight and alignment if they have the following negative habits:

b) They leap to critiquing proposals before identifying opportunities (“You know what the problem with that is?”)

a) They re-prosecute past failures (“Remember when we tried to . . .”)

c) They focus unduly on risks without fully exploring potential rewards (“That could expose us to . . .”)

Instead, learning from Shetty’s prescription, we should reclaim time spent on negative habits, and focus on what positive action I can take today, rather than discussing others’ failings yesterday.

Question: How much time does your team spend in ‘negative dialogue’?

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The fewest words

You already know the famous cautionary tale of Kodak.

How sales of film, chemical and paper photography fell off a cliff in the early 2000s because they failed to anticipate the adoption rate of the double-whammy of digital cameras (which they invented!) coupled with social media.

Yes, yes, Andrew. We know this — so what?

But did you know exactly how Kodak articulated their value proposition at around the time they were rushing towards the cliff edge?

“Build a world-class, results-oriented culture providing consumers and customers with many ways to capture, store, process, output, and communicate images and pictures as memories, information, and entertainment to people and machines anywhere, anytime; and bring differentiated, cost-effective solutions to market quickly and with flawless quality, through a diverse team of energetic employees with the world-class talent and skills to sustain Kodak as the World Leader in Imaging."

Sigh. I know. You’re asleep already. You can wake up now.

Even employees gave this the thumbs down, with just 25% agreeing with the statement, “The company’s goals are clear, and I’m invested in them”.

So, what didn’t Kodak — and their employees — see?

They missed the fact that their true value proposition was, in fact, just four words: “Store and share memories”.

These four words carry so much more power, and weight.

If they used that as their North Star, they would have directed all their energy to “better ways to store” and “better ways to share” all those memories.

It’s futile to imagine a different outcome, but I’d like to think that in an alternate reality where 75% of their employees understood the four-word value proposition, they would have adapted — and prospered.

Question: What’s the fewest number of words in which you can state your value proposition?

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I’ve mentioned a couple of my favourite podcasts above, and I’d like to know yours. Drop me a line below and let me know what you listen to.

Also, please click the heart to let me know you’re out there, and I’ll see you next week,

Andrew