The other day I was having a conversation with a colleague about a pet peeve of mine where companies will invest a lot of time, money, and resources in a particular training or seminar for their employees with the intent that it will make some lasting change to the organization. Almost immediately after the training concludes and the event’s excitement has waned, so has any teaching the event had to offer.
Several years ago, I worked for a company where the CEO wanted the leadership team to take this particular leadership course. With members of the executive team present along with directors and middle managers, a well-educated and informative instructor gave a quality teaching of the subject matter. During a particular part of the training, however, he stressed how important this was to the CEO, but that the CEO could not attend. In addition, after the training, follow-up on the activity from the CEO about plans to further implement the material covered in the instruction never occurred. It was radio silence.
I did not understand then, nor do I understand now, why so many executives, like this CEO, invest their most valued human assets for a full day (or several days) of training with no follow-through. It might have started with great intentions, but with a complete lack of consistency, it was a waste. But following through with corporate training is just the tip of the iceberg. If a company wants to be a high-performance business, consistency is key.
Balancing Consistency with Agility
In his article, “The Best Strategic Leaders Balance Agility and Consistency”, John Coleman makes the case that highly effective strategic leaders must be agile and consistent simultaneously.
However, there is a balance that must be achieved. If leaders are overly focused on consistency, they can become too rigid, slow to respond to change, and cling to old habits and practices.
Focusing too much on agility leads to a lack of focus, turning to new projects before they finish others and pushing teams and organizations into chaos. I often refer to this condition as the “Shiny Object Syndrome” (SOS), or more to the point, “Look a Squirrel!”
However, it is scarce to find leaders that genuinely follow the ideal pattern of balancing the fine line between agility and consistency. Coleman suggests the following for leaders to hold on to these ideal traits:
- Know yourself – What trait do you tend to lean toward (agile or consistency)? Do you thrive in chaos, or are you more focused? Understanding these tendencies is a foundation for growth.
- Find a partner – If you naturally lean toward one trait over another, having a trusted partner to counter and call those differences out can help you and your organization. Look at great companies that follow this pattern: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who created Apple; Bill Gates and Paul Allen; Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, and so on.
- Build fluidity in your business planning model – Nothing is static in business. Things are constantly changing. But that does not mean you chase after every little thing that comes along — “Look, a Squirrel!” But you should build into your plan conditions that allow for things the business may need to shift quickly. One great technique comes from SAFe Agile, instituting a PI Planning (Program Increment Planning) process. Setting periodic quarterly reviews of your strategic plan is far better than once a year. It allows the business to shift with stability in the overall plan.
- Seek to learn and grow – By identifying your pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses, and agile or consistency tendencies, you can learn how to adapt, react and deal with those areas of your personal growth. You may never become an expert in a natural weakness, but you can become better in that area, which can offset and enhance your strength.
