“Stop! How Does What You Just Did Resemble My Advice?!”

Several years ago a close friend handed me a book on investing. “Here, Dov. You can keep this lousy book. I followed this guy’s advice and it doesn’t work.”

I had read that book already. I was also very familiar with my friend’s investment choices. This is for sure: Had the author been peering over my friend’s shoulder as he made his stock market decisions, the author would have been appalled. “Stop! What are you doing?! How does what you just did resemble my advice?” he would have yelled.


Executives will often say things like “We want to implement Good to Great in our organization.” Or, “We are developing a Blue Ocean Strategy.” Or some other worthy management ideas. We’ve all been there. Think back to the last time you wanted to implement an idea of significance in your organization? If only it were so easy!

When the time comes to act on someone’s advice there is a roadblock to avoid: the half-baked measure. It is tempting at times to jump into action before we really understand. It is tempting to skip the most important step of all: clear thinking and ruthless planning.

If Jim Collins (author of “Good to Great”) or Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne (authors of “Blue Ocean Strategy”) were looking over your shoulder, would they agree that you followed their advice? Would they consider you a true student – or just another pupil who killed some time in their hardcover classroom?


Dov Gordon’s CEO Thought-Provoker™ Questions:

1. When working to implement a new program:
   
   Are you in danger of doing a superficial job?
   
   Do you slow down long enough to identify what you really want to accomplish? Most good ideas are a means to an end. If your destination isn’t clear -- any management fad will take you there.
   
2. Do you have employees who come to work hot-to-trot with some new idea they’ve picked up somewhere? Challenge them on it. Respectfully of course and with the sole intention being to see how well they have thought it through. Challenge how their idea fits with what you are trying to create.
   
3. Chew on this for a few minutes: “Too often, people would rather do something than think about the purpose of the doing. For them, action is the same as progress.” Robert F. Mager in “Goal Analysis” a very insightful and funny book. A classic.
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What our clients say about a strategy retreat we facilitated:

“…Prior to hiring Dov we thought that as businessmen with successful businesses we should be able to do this ourselves. When we concluded the strategy retreat and looked back we agreed that had we met alone, we would have accomplished but a fraction of what Dov helped us achieve...

"I believe that what we did with Dov on those two days was probably the most important and valuable step we took at Datamercial all year." -- Ari Ginsberg, President, Datamercial Inc.