Issue No. 280 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting introduces a Harvard Business Review article—a classic from 1996—on “What Is Strategy?" Plus, this reminder: check out my “new and improved” Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.
Lights! Camera! Action!
We called them “Mega-Church-Wanna-Be’s.” My clergy colleagues in larger churches would tell me about pastors and church board members who would show up, often unannounced, and ask for 10 Easy Bullet Point Lessons on Growing a Really Big Church. (Actually, they never had time for 10 points. “Make it three—but give us your best stuff.”)
So, my colleagues would talk about Kingdom principles and their mission and heart to reach unbelievers. Later, they'd talk about strategy—the God-honoring kind. But the Looky Lou’s (look it up—a descriptive Chicago traffic term) would ask about plexiglass pulpits, drama scripts, and cool lighting.
Had Ian Morgan Cron’s book been written back then, they would have quoted chapter and verse from Chasing Francis. Cron’s fictional megachurch pastor-in-crisis, reminisces, “I remember telling our architect that I wanted all the technological goodies you’d find in a world-class performing arts center. Looking back, I realize that what I had asked for was ‘lights, camera, action!’ rather than ‘Father, Son and Holy Ghost.’”
I was reminded of these conversations last week when I re-read the classic Harvard Business Review article, “What Is Strategy?” by Michael E. Porter. He writes,
“Bit by bit, almost imperceptibly,
management tools have
taken the place of strategy.”
Citing the conventional wisdom over the previous two decades where “managers have been learning to play by a new set of rules,” Porter dismisses that corruption with this zinger: “But those beliefs are dangerous half-truths, and they are leading more and more companies down the path of mutually destructive competition.”
What is strategy? Porter has five bullet points in his 18-page article:
Number 1: “Operational effectiveness is not strategy.” He notes, “The root of the problem is the failure to distinguish between operational effectiveness and strategy.”
Number 2: “Strategy rests on unique activities.” The poster companies here are Southwest Airlines and Ikea. “Strategic competition can be thought of as the process of perceiving new positions that woo customers from established positions or draw new customers into the market.” Strategic positions can have three sources: variety-based positioning, needs-based positioning, and access-based positioning.
Number 3: “A sustainable strategic position requires trade-offs.” Porter writes, “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”
Remember Continental Lite, the Southwest Airlines wanna-be? They decided to “straddle” their position as a full-service airline (hubs), while competing in some markets with Southwest (Point A to Point B). They confused their full-service customers and infuriated travel agents. “Trade-offs ultimately grounded Continental Lite. The airline lost millions of dollars, and the CEO lost his job.” Bottom line:
“Continental paid an enormous
straddling penalty.”
Number 4: “Fit drives both competitive advantage and sustainability.” What is Southwest’s core competence? Its key success factors? The correct answer is that everything matters. Southwest’s strategy involves a whole system of activities, not a collection of parts. Its competitive advantage comes from the way its activities fit and reinforce one another.”
And get this, Looky Lou’s: “Fit locks out imitators by creating a chain that is as strong as its strongest link.” It’s not the seeker service drama, or the band, or the spiritual gifts training, or small groups, or pastors in old jeans with no socks—it’s the whole, holy enchilada.
Three half-page diagrams, “Mapping Activity Systems,” for Ikea, Vanguard and Southwest Airlines deliver the “Aha!” insight on what Porter means by fit—“nests of tightly linked activities.” He writes, “Positions built on systems of activities are far more sustainable than those built on individual activities.”
“Fit means that poor performance in one activity will degrade the performance in others, so that weaknesses are exposed and more prone to get attention. Conversely, improvements in one activity will pay dividends in others.”
With just three pages to go, Porter finally reveals his mega-simple definition: “Strategy is creating fit among a company’s activities.” He comments, “The success of a strategy depends on doing many things well—not just a few—and integrating among them. If there is no fit among activities, there is no distinctive strategy and little sustainability.”
Number 5: “Rediscovering strategy.” In his wrap-up, Porter warns about “the failure to choose” and the “growth trap.” Churches beware: “Among all other influences, the desire to grow has perhaps the most perverse effect on strategy.” He concludes with five soul-searching questions.
Option 1: To order the book from Amazon, click on the this title or graphic below for HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy (including the featured article "What Is Strategy?") by Michael E. Porter.
Option 2: To order just the 18-page article, “What Is Strategy?”, click on this link to Harvard Business Review.
My gut: many nonprofits, churches and companies do not have—at their core—a revenue problem or new idea problem; they have a strategy problem.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) Porter preaches that “around this core of uniqueness are encrustations added incrementally over time. Like barnacles, they must be removed to reveal the underlying strategic positioning.” What are some barnacles in our organization (products, programs or services) that should be removed?
2) The author says that when you seek to be “all things to all customers,” you end up blurring your distinct positioning. Are we inappropriately communicating an “all things to all customers” mindset?
Call the Delegation Doctor! - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
During informal polls with clients, I find that on most teams less than 25 percent have had formal training (coaching, workshop, DVD, book, etc.) on effective delegation. So this issue’s big idea from Mastering the Management Buckets (Chapter 16, The Delegation Bucket) is to raise the delegation flag with a pop quiz at your next staff meeting!
POP QUIZ: Diagnose the Severity of Your Delegation Disease
• Code Green: I’m pretty healthy. This isn’t a problem
• Code Yellow: I have this disease occasionally.
• Code Red: Yikes! I need to see the Delegation Doctor!
Green, Yellow or Red?
_____ 1. If the job is going to get done right, it’s faster to do it myself.
_____ 2. I’m the only one who knows how to do this job—that’s why they hired me.
_____ 3. If I delegate too much, maybe I won’t be needed.
_____ 4. Okay, I admit it! I’m a perfectionist. This project is too important to leave to novices.
_____ 5. I inherited my team—and, frankly, they’re ineffective, so it’s up to me.
_____ 6. I get more affirmation at work than I do at home. I love work!
_____ 7. My boss (or board) says I don’t delegate enough. Ha! If they only knew how hard I’m working. I’ll show ‘em.
Visit the Delegation Bucket webpage for the "Delegation Diseases" worksheet, plus more resources including Ken Blanchard’s quick-reading and powerful delegation classic, The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey: Don’t Take on the Problem If the Problem Isn’t Yours, That Monkey Doesn’t Belong to You!
P.S. Join Mark Dillon, VP of Advancement, Wheaton College, and me for the ECFA Webinar, June 25, "Results from the 1st Annual Nonprofit Fundraising Survey." We'll highlight the fundraising trends, benchmarks and challenges from this survey of 250 ECFA-accredited organizations.
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