You cannot course correct unless you first have a course. -Michael T. Denisoff
Did he just quote himself? Yes, yes I did. But in my defense, I have been saying this a lot to clients over the past few months.
This comment implies many good lessons:
- Have a clear plan rather than a “sort-of” plan or a plan that is being made up as you go along. These approaches are vastly different although they might seem similar as both require adjustments. One makes educated changes based on reality while the others make adjustments often in a panic and with less data and deep assessment. Course correcting off a tangible plan means that you are ‘driving the bus” and your changes are most likely grounded in facts, metrics, and reality. Making it up as you go along (which may work in action movies) rarely works in real life. Making decisions without being grounded is really hoping things will work out. Hope is not a strategy!
- There are limited times when being opportunistic makes sense. The opportunist approach works best when it is only for only a limited in time and in a finite and intentional manner. Sometimes executives hide behind being opportunistic as a way to avoid making strategic decisions. Being purely opportunities might mean things are desperate and this is all you have—in this case, make it work. However, if you have a course and are correcting things should almost never have to get desperate.
- This quote. also implies that you need be on top of things, monitoring what is working and what is not and making the necessary changes. By doing this you will soon identify the real levers of the business. You should have the right metrics/dashboards in place to monitor progress from the start. Please also be sure to address anything that is going bad immediately. Or as Andy Griffin would say, “nip it in the bud.” Clarity in the course allows you to make good decisions because you have real data, feedback and output based off a real plan not a nebulous scheme.
- Remember that a plane flying from NYC to LA plots a course (flight plan) and once in the air is immediately pushed off course by winds and atmospheric energy and is actually off course most of the time. The pilot though keeps making corrections and adjustments and somehow lands the plane in LA at the time that was predicted.
- This sentiment expands on the Plan Do Check Act Demming cycle for quality to an overall way to run the business.
- Strategic planning has changed so much over the past 20 years. We have gone from admiring the Japanese for 100-year strategic planning to now some companies planning by the quarter or having a 1-year plan while making changes by the quarter. Things are moving so fast that the horizon line has been significantly shortened.
- This message is also relevant to avoiding the temptation to set a course and white-knuckling through it. Make sure that you are flexible enough to make necessary changes to the course if needed to better ensure success. Never push a bad position.
- Lastly, if things are not working and the strategic choice is clearly wrong, take the advice of this old Turkish proverb- “No matter how far down the wrong road, turn around.”
Always be ‘driving the bus” and stay on top of the business.