Find and magnify what works — when the strategy needs to be realized!

Your strategy is a dream. The dream of how the company's mission and vision can be implemented over a period of time. If you look closely and ask the right questions, then you will probably become aware of good news and bad news. The good news is that the dream already exists in glimpses in the present. The strategy is probably already being lived out to a greater or lesser extent. The bad news is that no one, or only a few, notice, let alone talk about it. And thus, your strategy realization loses part of the energy that can make the strategy live even stronger in the company. Fortunately, there is advice for that.

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Finding examples of how the strategy is already being implemented, and enlarging it further, can be an invaluable source of energy and can contain crucial knowledge about the company. If you've tried it, then you know what I'm talking about, and probably want more. If you haven't experienced it, try asking some of the questions in this article and see what it leads to.

Towards the desired future

But let's start there, where many strategy realization projects start. You stand at the present point and look forward to the desired future. And then we begin to ask the necessary and difficult questions. How do we get from now to the future we want? What do we have to do to get there? What steps should we take? And this is where you need to be careful. For the questions that follow can be life-giving or killing.

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We often find that the questions that follow focus very unilaterally on what we are missing or what we have done wrong so far. These questions are certainly important and can lead to crucial conversations about what to redo. After all, this is a process of change that you are undergoing. But the risk of downward spirals is also present if you are not mindful of steering clear of explanations, which begin to place blame, and thus responsibility for acting differently, on a few people — often other than yourself. This challenge is familiar, and requires skillful leadership. The art is often to give way to the frustrations, and then few turn the dialogue into the constructive and forward dialogues. The tools for this deserve an article for themselves.

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Your strategy is a dream. The good news is that the dream already exists in glimpses in the present. The bad news is that no one notices or talks about it. And then the strategy realization loses its breath. Fortunately, there is advice for that.

The future is already here

When the conversations about everything that is missing have taken the place it needs to be, we often start asking new types of questions that turn the conversation in a new direction. Here are examples of some of the questions.

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• Can you cite examples where you are already implementing parts of the strategy?
• Where are you already succeeding in doing the things that this part of the strategy is about?
• Where can you track progress in this area? How do you sense this?
• How can these good examples of realisation of your strategy be fertile ground for further acceleration of the strategy?
• How can you share these experiences with others in the company?

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An interesting thing is that this type of question may seem very challenging to some. If the dialogue on the strategy has been that we are not at all on target and we are not succeeding at all, it can be almost provocative to be asked about these things. It's a disruption and it needs to be timed right. To that extent, it can also be a liberation. Once the initial scepticism has subsided and dialogue begins, conversations arising from this type of question can have an almost magical effect on a leadership group, a department or at a cross-party meeting.

Never ask anyone to be positive.

Find and Enlarge The effect can be magical, but is also a double-edged sword. The focus of recent years on positivity has led to the misconception that one can solve problems by being positive. It's very inappropriate to ask a frustrated person to be positive, and basically disrespectful. Give way to negativity, because it also harbors a strong energy. Find the desire behind the frustration and start exploring it together. And only then can the Find and Enlarge questions be applied.

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Find and Enlarge can be magical, but is also a double-edged sword. Give way to negativity, because it harbors a powerful energy. But also find the desire behind the frustration and start exploring it together. Only then can the Find and Enlarge questions be applied.

We fight against our brain's tendency to see flaws and flaws first

Motivation about your strategy does not come by itself. Motivation largely comes from a sense of progress in areas that are crucial to the work that managers and employees do every day and that bring value to customers. That progress can be traced, and sometimes it happens spontaneously. But often it needs to be helped along the way by managers who have a balanced mindset, where they add both what doesn't work well enough and what actually works really well. We know from research on the brain and our way of thinking and making decisions that we are greased into what's called negativity bias. That is, a tendency to first see the dangerous, flawed and flawed. A survival mechanism that ensures that we detect life-threatening situations or patterns before it's too late.

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Try to notice your own negativity bias. It is strong even if you think of yourself as a positive person. So what do you think negativity bias is like in your most skeptical employee? You can do some basic things as a leader to bring your focus and others to the things that work.

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• Recognize your own negativity bias and start studying it.
• Listen to conversations about problems and try to hear the desire behind the frustration
• Note situations, incidents, or conversations that can confirm that your strategy is working as intended and that the realization of your strategy is (partially) on track.
• Ask questions about what is moving in the right direction (despite any difficulties and adversities)
• Put words to it when you see it. Give feedback or mention it when others do things that point in the right direction. (Feel free to make it toned down, but clearly)
• Do not always expect the perfect or success. Small glimpses of the desired future, or beginnings of something that can grow larger, can be the seeds of later success or the achievement of ambitious goals.

Make the fire flare up again

Find and Enlarge is a delicate tool for a leader if you've got the urge to try it (or do even more of it as you already do). I sometimes compare it to finding faint embers in a bonfire from the day before, and then gently inflating and adding new twigs so that after a bit of intensive and purposeful work you are left with flaring bonfires again. It can be troublesome, frustrating, and requires patience and presence. However, judging by some of the reactions we are seeing and the results that it may ultimately bring, I would think that Find and Enlarge is worth focusing on when talking about the realization of your strategy. And basically in many other areas of your daily life as a leader.

And the best part of all is that you're probably doing it already!

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