Take It From a Pro…
I am so heartened after each of my cups of coffee, and I hope that you, as you read of them through this blog, are equally as encouraged as I am by the integrity, creativity and absolute power and positive promise of the independent business owner in America. I spent an enlightening ninety minutes this morning, through GoToMeeting, with Ron Cox [www.tailwindconsulting.com] in Tampa, Florida. I know that I was having my own home-brewed cappuccino at the time; I don’t know if he had coffee or not, but it counts toward my thousand.
I had been very intrigued by his notion of “Strategic Literacy”, and I wanted to know more. He and I had been introduced, only peripherally, because we each know another mutual acquaintance, but more about that other guy later. We started off with the normal “show and tell” of “what do you do” and soon got into a discussion that raised an interesting question in my mind.
We have all seen the professional football head coaches on the sidelines, holding a laminated [usually large and colorful] piece of paper in front of their mouths, as they discuss options with their coaching staff. These papers are summaries of various “strategic options” for the team, considering the opponent of the week, based on particular circumstances. Also, most quarterbacks have a corollary, usually hinged, laminate on their forearm, a summary of these options, often with execution assignments.
Ron, when he was CEO of his own company, developed a similar laminated “front and back” strategy sheet. In fact, even today at Tailwind Consulting, they refer to it as the “Strategic GamePlan©”. The value of this sheet, and this process, was that it explained and supported Ron’s strategic thinking about his company. His managers could review this one-pager and, like the quarterback, have their own “laminate” on their forearm. That way, when faced with a particular situation [third and long], considering the circumstances [bad weather, strong pass defense], Ron could choose the “right play”. His managers could then look at their own laminate about “that play” and call the assignments to the rest of the team.
What if all the managers at your company had a similar set of documents? If we can do something like this for a football game, why can we not do that for business? Imagine the alignment, and the buy-in, and the excellent execution that a company could achieve with a well-communicated game plan such as this. Ron has completed these types of strategic alignments at multi-billion-dollar international companies with amazing results. One of his last client CEOs, one he still counsels today, said simply, “One company, one plan” while that company’s COO’s comment was “Our company has never run this well before”.
A great strategy, poorly executed, is still poorly executed. A great strategy, to be well executed, must first be well articulated, well understood, well communicated and well translated into tasks and assignments.
What is your team’s game plan? Do you have it on a simple “front and back” laminate? Why not? Too crude? Not professional? Doesn’t work? It works for a company that just made a $1.2 billion dollar facility investment, the Dallas Cowboys. Are you beyond that level of decision? Didn’t think so.
And as for Ron Cox, I like the way this guy thinks.
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