Life happens on a Tuesday
Every major corporate I speak to right now tells me, with a sigh, that they need to do ‘more with less’, like that’s some sort of huge departure from the way things have normally been.
Can your strategy be executed alongside everything that needs to happen on an average Tuesday?
The reality of every big organisation I have ever worked with since starting my career over 20 years ago (gulp… maybe if I keep saying it, it will get less scary…) is that although they are huge, there is never any people or any money to do things that aren’t the things currently being done.
It’s not even a dirty little secret. It’s a pristinely polished vast truth.
And why is that?
Two reasons.
The first is that, when we learned those nice shiny lessons about the importance of vision and strategy (in our business schools and our executive retreats), and when we fed those lofty goals with expensive reports from expensive consultants and serious-looking board presentations, as we did… we forgot one little thing.
OK. One little sentence covering a vast thing. And that is that planning for the future and getting to the future are not always part of the same strategy.
You see… strategy the way we think about it inside our offices is always about the future.
Always.
It’s always about looking forward to the places we could and should be going to.
It also always comes with a realisation that where we are is not where we want to be. It even gives us a way to get from A to B. Of course it does. But that way is high level and rarely looks at the operational realities of how big organisations choose to travel, once we get going. It never says, “When you get on the journey, be aware that the road is long, and you should not carry unnecessary weight with you.” It never says, “Take periodic looks at what you are carrying, what you are dragging. Don’t take everything into the future. The whole point is to do the opposite of that.”
We know that.
Of course we know that the whole point of going into the future is to no longer be… here… in this place constrained by legacy. But what we don’t know is at which exact moment between ‘now’ and ‘then’ do we start shedding said legacy.
It could be that most business school professors have never worked in a legacy bank, and it just doesn’t cross their mind. It could be that we don’t pay the expensive consultants to give us a ‘sunsetting plan’ for the legacy infrastructure, deciding to do that part in-house, only we never really do, so that timeframe is implied rather than stated so nobody works towards it and with so many other things happening, it is always easier to just, you know… carry on.
And your strategy looks ahead. To this amazingly promising future we are travelling towards.
Is it the strategy’s job to look right behind you, not at the things you are leaving behind but at the things you are not? At all the things you carry that slow you down?
Is it the strategy’s job to force you to look left and right at the things you are doing right now, using up all the people and all the money you need to execute the strategy? Using the resources to do other things?
Is it the strategy’s job to do anything other than look ahead at where you should be going?
No. It is your job. Because the reality is the strategy is meant to inspire and guide you. And the destination perhaps is not wrong.
How far towards it you will move… or how fast you will go… and how painful it all is… won’t be about strategy. It will be about the words we only say under our breath: legacy, BAU and hierarchy.
We come to table year after year and effectively say to our teams, “Welcome to the madhouse, now off you go to do less with more and let us know how you got on with it all.”
If that sounds like madness, that’s because it is.
And if you are thinking, “I know it happens in my organisation, but it’s not my fault”, I beg to differ.
If you don’t want to go among mad people, to paraphrase the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, stop operating among them.
And I don’t mean resign. I mean resist.
How? So glad you asked!
Don’t do more with less. That is both thankless and mathematically implausible.
Do better with less.
That is both beneficial and possible. And an altogether higher order of mission.
If your resources are becoming constrained and there’s a whole host of things you need to do in line with your strategy and vision, take a long hard look at all the things you carry. Look at your legacy, look left and right at all the things you do. And reflect on whether, maybe… just maybe… you don’t actually need to carry on carrying on doing all of them.
Spend some of your time and resources ditching, and stopping, and ceasing, and desisting.
Then, with the resources and time you still have left, you will be doing less… but more of the things you need. You will be achieving better. Getting further. Getting more out of less. Which is actually just as good as doing more and infinitely better than doing more just by working longer.
That is probably going to take you far enough without considering the second thing… I did say two things, remember?
Go easy on the heroics.
Life happens on a Tuesday. What you are able to do on an average Tuesday in February and then repeat every Tuesday, every day in fact, for as many Tuesdays as you will be lucky to see… that’s life. Not the grand finale, not the lofty start. But the work and effort level sustainable on an average Tuesday.
Can your strategy be executed alongside everything that needs to happen on an average Tuesday?
If not, you have two choices.
Go back to the drawing board for a reality check. Or carry on as you are.
I will see you back here in a year’s time, with your strategic goals as unattainable as ever and your resources depleted a bit further.
We can revisit that whole ‘more with less’ idea then if you like. Or we can have another go-round. Your choice entirely.
#LedaWrites
Leda Glyptis is FinTech Futures’ resident thought provocateur – she leads, writes on, lives and breathes transformation and digital disruption.
She is a recovering banker, lapsed academic and long-term resident of the banking ecosystem.
Leda is also a published author – her first book, Bankers Like Us: Dispatches from an Industry in Transition, is available to order here.
All opinions are her own. You can’t have them – but you are welcome to debate and comment!
Follow Leda on X @LedaGlyptis and LinkedIn.
