Issue No. 411 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a fantastic book on strategy—cleverly disguised as a graphic novel! Is your team tactical or strategic? And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and check out this page for recent book reviews including Jim Collin’s short classic, Turning Goals Into Results.
Summer Reading List #4:
StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad
“Be strategic or be gone” is the tagline of the Strategic Thinking Institute. STI launched when a struggling manager asked Rich Horwath, “I had my performance review and my boss said I’m too tactical. How can I become more strategic?”
But get this! Instead of creating solutions with more talking head blah-blah-blah blue sky “imperatives,” Horwath noted the Stanford University study that says you’ll retain six to seven times more information when it’s presented in a story format.
Thus...”Fwumpfh!”…”B-Zapp!”…and “Bwa Ha Ha!” (Yes, I’m quoting directly from this must-must read graphic novel, StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan.)
But…you’d miss the texture, color, hilarity, and brilliance of this unique business book—if I reviewed it solo. I needed help!
In June, I invited our granddaughter, (the one who is a voracious reader), to share her thoughts on Scott Rodin’s novel, The Four Gifts of the King. The feedback from readers was over-the-top (thank you!)—so let’s do it again with StrategyMan! (We'll call her "GD" here...short for "Granddaughter.")
Grandpa John: OK, school starts again next week—so how many books have you read so far this year?
GD: StrategyMan was my 81st book.
Grandpa John: Yikes! Really…81? That’s amazing! (I better up my game!) So…what did you think of StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan?
GD: Amazing! I’ve read many graphic novels, but this is the first business book/graphic novel I’m read. It features three heroes, 21 villains, and 10 weapons—for fighting off those anti-strategy villains!
Grandpa John: So this business story finds a company in search of a business strategy—but they’re kind of clueless! Did that surprise you?
GD: Not really! When not fighting off the Anti-Strategy Squad villains, the characters in this fun story reported that “a survey of 400 managers found that only 44.3% of organizations have a universal definition of strategy, and less than half (46%) have a common language for strategy.”
Grandpa John: Speaking of the colorful villains…my three favorites were Miss-Alignment, Jargon Goblin, and Meeting Menace (“Teleconferences or meetings that are consistently unproductive, inefficient and a drain on morale.”)
GD: I’ll go with the Multi-Taskinators. That’s a huge problem, isn’t it? The book gives ways to defeat the villains—such as “Keep your mobile phone out of sight and out of reach during meetings.” I don’t know anyone who does that! I’m also guessing that the Dr. Yes villain is a big problem in organizations.
Grandpa John: You nailed it. The Dr. Yes villain is about “the inability to say no to things that don’t contribute value to the business and directly support one’s goals.”
GD: What was your favorite weapon?
Grandpa John: Hey! I’m running this interview—but since you asked, all 10 weapons are succinct, memorable, and immediately useful. The heroine Innovatara—who’s great at “generating insights that lead to innovation”—introduces the Differentiation Detector weapon.
GD: Right—and three cheers for the heroine! The Differentiation Detector, I’m thinking, is the best defense against The Same villain. I’d suggest that every store manager at the mall should read this book. There’s very little differentiation today.
Grandpa John: Great insight. Nonprofits, churches, and businesses all need help from the other two heroes, StrategyMan and Purposeidon (the mission, vision, values elements—and why many organizations get it wrong).
GD: Before you give away the ending, Grandpa, do we need a spoiler alert? I’d also like to mention that I plan to loan the book to a friend whose family runs a business. The book is easy to understand, enjoyable to read, educational, and also entertaining. (I also laughed at the nerdy references!)
Grandpa John: Wow—four “E’s” right off the top of your head. Nicely done. I’ve never read a graphic novel. Why do you enjoy them so much?
GD: Duh! I am the daughter of a graphic designer!
Grandpa John: You told me that you did skip the “meatier parts” (your words) of the book and I’m not surprised, but—good news—for leaders and managers, the graphics include call-outs and sidebars with serious strategy (or lack of strategy) insights: Example:
• “A recent study of more than 8,000 new, nationally distributed products found that only 40% were still on the market three years later.”
• “A survey of nearly 5,000 senior executives showed that more than 50% didn’t think they had a winning strategy in place.”
GD: You mentioned the Jargon Goblin villain—why?
Grandpa John: Whew! My experience, especially with nonprofit clients, is that if they do have a written strategy—it’s packed with meaningless rhetoric and a mash-up of business terms. (Example: never, ever use “Strategic Imperatives!”) The book blasts away on this theme. Leaders will find it personally painful, but funny. The first chapter, “Strategy Defined,” is worth the price of the book.
GD: Is it really this bad out there, Grandpa, in the real world of business? Is strategy so ill-conceived? (Are there really villains, like Megalo-Plan, who sneak 115 slides into a VP’s sales presentation?)
Grandpa John: It’s bad. Check out the villain, Status Quo-Lock. He ingeniously inspires teams to allocate 90% of resources to the same projects year-after-year! Or, read the chapter, “Strategy and Culture,” and leaders will quickly delete one of their favorite axioms from their vocabulary: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” (Not true!) But there is hope and there are weapons—like the “StrategyPrint” template, a two-page blueprint of a business highlighting four keys: Goals, Objectives, Strategy, and Tactics.
GD: But you’ve always preached five keys, right? The GNOME Chart: Goals, Needs, Objectives, Methods, and Evaluation.
Grandpa John: You remember! I’m good with letting leaders pick what works for them—as long as they understand and implement the whole system.
GD: Well…if I needed to read a book on strategy, I’d pick StrategyMan. Will this be your 2019 book-of-the-year?
Grandpa John: Stay tuned!
To order from Amazon, click on the title for StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan, by Rich Horwath.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) StrategyMan notes a survey that said “only 44.3% have a universal definition of strategy.” Pop Quiz! What is your definition of strategy?
2) “Are the different functional groups in your company (marketing, sales, HR, IT, R&D, etc.) all aware of each other’s strategies and how they align?” That’s question 19 of 20 questions in the free quiz, “Is Your Team Tactical or Strategic?” Click here to take the Strategic Thinking Institute’s quiz.
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Is Your Team Tactical or Strategic?
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook
One of the big ideas in the Strategy Bucket, Chapter 3, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to be strategic about strategic planning.
Rich Horwath’s StrategyMan book defines strategy as “The intelligent allocation of resources through a unique system of activities to achieve a goal.” He says you must answer two questions:
1. What are you trying to achieve? (Goals and Objectives)
2. How are you going to achieve it? (Strategies and Tactics)
“Strategy is generally how to achieve a goal and tactics are how specifically.”
For more resources from the Strategy Bucket, including links to more books and resources on strategy, visit the Strategy Bucket webpage here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Reminder: a Stanford University study says you’ll retain six to seven times more information when it’s presented in a story format. Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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