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The Ingredients Of Performance Excellence: Bhag, Tina, And The 2 P's
by Oren Harari I've often said that big, bold visions are great starting points for competitive advantage, but they are achieved only when they are driven by leaders who show a backbone of passion -total unequivocal commitment and optimism-- and precision -obsessive, disciplined vigilance in gathering details and seeking the truth. Let's now take this argument a step further. My research indicates that leaders with a great track record instinctively seem to "get" the importance of big bold visions, passion and precision. While the rest of us debate the merits of the concepts or agonize over how to "do it", exceptional leaders seem to demonstrate both these attributes as a matter of course. An old classic article in the July, 2002 issue of Outside magazine vividly illustrates what I'm talking about. Entitled "Liquid Thunder", the article by Peter Heller describes the journey of seven individuals who went to Tibet to kayak down the remote, deadly, hitherto undescended Tsangpo River. Heller describes the Tsangpo as "one of the deepest river gorges on earth, ...a cauldron of savage white water and unrunnable rapids...The seven kayakers who launched their boats down its roaring throats ...were either going to die-or emerge transformed." In other words, this was not your average summer family white water "adventure". Forget summer: The water was not only wild and terrifying, but near freezing as well. And it had already turned back or killed the few hardy souls who had made the attempt. When the mission is to successfully achieve (survive?) what conventional wisdom has said is impossible or crazy-in this case, the first whitewater descent of the Tsango Gorge-- the mission has just met the first criterion for competitive success: It's big. Really big. I've seen too many companies with mission statements (and resultant strategic plans) that are cautious, tepid, or fundamentally no different than those of their competitors. Accordingly, those missions and plans don't inspire many people to excellence, and even if they're achieved, their impact is marginal. Small wonder that Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, in their superb book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, showed that the companies who have successfully adapted and grown over many years consistently set what the authors labeled Big Hairy Audacious Goals, or simply BHAG. So BHAG is a superb and necessary step towards performance excellence. But if you or I set the BHAG of kayaking the Tsangpo...Or, if our boss set the goal for us of kayaking the Tsangpo, and then gave us a motivational speech and lots of "empowerment" to do it.....well, so what? Would we press forward? Hardly. Out of the question. Just thinking about it gives me the willies, and I personally have boated some of the more challenging rivers in the U.S. I also know many exceptionally competent kayakers who wouldn't even consider the prospect. That's where the Two P's, passion and precision, come in. Passion involves an unequivocal 100% commitment to the cause, and an optimism that however insane, the goal can be achieved. When it comes to the Tsangpo, my commitment and optimism is unequivocally 0%, but that's not the case with Scott Lindgren, the leader of the pack of six other maniacs who left San Francisco for Tibet in early 2002 to realize their dream. I use the term "maniac" with great deference. The great management scholar Peter Drucker has observed that in his half century of studying organizations, he has found that whenever something of real importance gets accomplished, it's accomplished not by plans, committees, budgets, or personnel "assigned" to a job, but by "monomaniacs with a mission". Now of course, there are crazy monomaniacs who suicidally drive off a cliff, and there are competent monomaniacs who have a fighting chance to do the impossible. The seven kayakers were among the best in the world. They'd been paddling since they were kids, and as adults they averaged close to 200 days a year in the water. They had all successfully maneuvered through rivers that would terrify most normal people. Anyone can set a big goal, anyone can have a dream, but those who are manic enough to average 200 days a year through pretty hairy white water just might have the commitment, the temperament, the discipline and the skills for a reality-based optimism necessary for taking on a hare-brained scheme called the Tsangpo. That's where TINA comes in. TINA was developed at Royal Dutch Shell. It stands for There Is No Alternative. Passionate people are driven by a force that says: We have analyzed the environment around us and we have examined the needs and competencies within us, and we have concluded, very simply, that we must do this. We must take this course of action. There is no alternative. And once we're into it, we must continue and persist if we want to succeed. There is no alternative. That's the core of passion, and it certainly describes the members of Scott Lindgren's team. They'd spent months carefully scrutinizing the history, geography and geology of the Tsangpo, and for them as the kayaking elite, there was simply no alternative. They had to do it. Moreover, once they actually dropped into the river, there was literally no alternative. Retreating was often not an option. Much of the way, the river was bounded by towering rock walls, and in many places, the steep descent of the gorge effectively meant--forward or perish. Similarly, swimming was usually not an option. Very often, giant boulders, huge lateral waves, massive hydraulics, and deadly eddy lines all insured that anyone who got flipped out his boat probably wouldn't survive. Though less literal in the dangers they face, great corporate leaders advance their causes with a similar mindset. Whether they launch a startup or move an established organization into a brand new, often unchartered direction, they go forward and operate with the premise that there is no alternative: We proceed as if there's no turning back for us. And we believe that if we do so, the payoff will be huge. Without TINA, passion becomes blunted by doubt, second-guessing, cynicism, "yeah-but", and pessimism. One Shell manager, quoted in Fast Company magazine, described TINA as follows: "TINA dramatizes the situation, creates atmosphere and leads to more emotional investment in the outcome." When a company goes through a strategic planning process and followup execution, there are often intellectual demurrals that arise among skeptics or cynics-reactions that can be boiled down to "There's always another alternative." But when one is committed, there is no alternative. As they say at Shell: "TINA is in-your-face.... TINA raises the temperature and the stakes..." Lest we get swept away with wild-eyed emotion, let's remember one last vital thing. Passion without precision leads to irresponsibility and recklessness. Scott Lindgren spent more than three brutally disciplined years studying the river and its terrain in minutia, choosing the right people for the team in terms of skill sets and personality, securing corporate sponsorship, bringing together nearly 100 local porters and ground support personnel, insuring sufficient food and supplies for several weeks, and maneuvering endlessly through the diplomatic bureaucracies in Beijing. In other words, Lindgren's passion was not simply in the vision and a gung-ho-let's-do-it enthusiasm. His passion was also in the execution of details. Passion was coupled with the discipline of precision. The two P's were intertwined. In their book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, authors Larry Bossidy (the former Honeywell CEO) and executive consultant Ram Charan point out that "people think of execution as the tactical side of business, something leaders delegate while they focus on the perceived 'bigger' issues. This idea is completely wrong. Execution has to be built into a company's strategy, its goals, and its culture. And the leader of the organization must be deeply engaged in it." Great leaders delegate liberally, but they immerse themselves in critical issues like product placement, staffing, reward incentives, operational planning, productivity and financial metrics. They immerse themselves in seeking the truth, like what do our customers really say about us? What's on their minds? What exactly will our response be, and when? Even after the trip down the river began, Lindgren continued his focus on the details of good execution: Planning and review sessions in the evenings, frequent huddles on shore to discuss tactics for upcoming rapids, regular scouting of rapids before actually plunging into them, periodic "reining in" of unnecessarily dangerous "cowboy" bravado behaviors in the water, prudent decisions to "portage" the boats on land when the water appeared unrunnable. Throughout the 18 days of the journey, Lindgren was as ruthlessly disciplined as he was passionate. And he projected that precision to his team. One paragraph in Heller's article sparkled with the delicate interplay between passion and precision that every good leader maintains: "For Lindgren, leadership on the Tsangpo required striking an exquisite balance. He needed the courage and unblinking confidence of his companions; he also needed them to embrace the real humility that the river demanded and to put aside their personal desires without hesitation. And he had to maintain this focus while bearing the ultimate responsibility for every problem, trivial and large, and every life on the expedition." And he did. The mission was successful. In too many organizations, managers labor over the wording of a hollow mission statement or the nuances of a bland strategic plan, and then wonder why competitive success doesn't result. Great leaders understand that mission statements or strategic plans can be good precursors of competitive advantage, but only when they are driven by BHAG, TINA, and the 2 Ps. Copyright Oren Harari. All Rights Reserved. END | |||||||||
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