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Hello! Welcome to 2021 and what happened to January? One minute it was there and the next it was gone …like the snow we had the other weekend. That’s my favorite kind of snow; the sort that falls, makes the world look pretty for a day and then departs in haste.

Business is not like snow, well not like English snow anyway. It’s more like Canadian snow …the kind that hangs around and makes you take it seriously.

One month gone already and the year is already jogging along, despite the uncertainty and discomfort of lockdown.

This thought spurred me on to write a new business strategy for a project that needed a boost.

It’s too easy to have either no clear strategy for success, or to have one locked in a drawer that nobody reads.

A good strategy gives us direction and sets out our mission. The trick though is to make it responsive to new information.

My project needed a reset, because despite progress, we had lost sight of our overall strategy. We were having too much fun creating new possibilities and had become a bit bogged down with the details.

So, I stepped back and did some thinking. It’s good to take a minimalist approach with strategic work, as too many people write 1,000s of words and forget what the essence of the work is all about.

I framed our revised strategy as answers to the following simple questions:

1. What is the essence of our mission?

2. What is the minimum we need to do now to make progress?

3. What is a simple pathway to future success?

4. How do we keep ourselves engaged with the project?

It’s good to keep things to a realistic minimum and to account for the people too. If you’re not enjoying it, then maybe it’s time to rethink it and do things differently.

As a result of my simple and focussed approach I was able to carve out simple tactical actions during the next project meeting.

And it felt so good! Good to have direction and achievable goals. My project already feels 100% more successful than it did two weeks ago. I’m excited …I can’t wait to see how much fun we have with it over the next 11 months.

So, this week take time away from the daily detail to consider your 2021 strategy.

Think about my questions above. What will you be doing for the rest of the year?

Keep well.

It’s easy to step back.

We can congratulate ourselves that business is humming along nicely, clients are happy and all systems are running smoothly.

But are they?

Just because people look busy doesn’t mean they are. Carrying a clipboard is a great way to look efficient, when the reality can be it’s just a mask for poor organisation and much time wasting.

A client of mine has had several people leave her business and she was worried about the workload this would leave her with. (They left for many reasons, and things can happen like this of course).*

When we dug into the workload it was obvious that some of it was over-work, where people were producing too many reports and not focusing enough on the essential items.

There were also inefficiencies due to the natural pace of people and how they disrupted eachother.

Some of the workload could be re-prioritised and a few items delegated to key managers.

The client realised that if she stepped in, took the reins back and held them tighter, she could halve the lost capacity.

Suddenly, what felt daunting now felt achievable.

I’ve experienced this myself. A colleague was doing 6 hours of work and when they left I found I could do it in 2. That 2 hours was available because I didn’t need to spend time checking his work. Made me realise that I probably should have stepped in sooner. We are human and not infallible.

And of course, when we are busy things can get ragged. We don’t notice the clipboard carriers, who although have good intentions, can distract us from what is actually happening.

It’s never easy when people leave, for any reason, and yet it doesn’t have to be the end of the world.

We can step in, take a fresh look at what needs to be done and lead our business onwards.

There is a place and time to step back and survey our world. There is also a time when we need to step in and take action.

When you look around your business this week, where do you need to step in?

Keep well!

* This example has been anonymised. If you think you know the client, you really don’t!