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Summary: How to Prevent It...How to Get Out of It
Review: Obviously, it is highly advisable to identify and then eliminate potential problems before they occur. That is as true in business as it is in healthcare, athletic competition, and international travel. What we have here is a solid, well-organized, and well-written guide to preventing strategic gridlock. First, Harper carefully examines seven of the usual suspects which can cause it. Next, she introduces what she calls U.N.L.O.C.K., a system based on six principles by which to avoid or eliminate them. Finally, she shifts her reader's attention to countless real-world examples. Obviously, an inappropriate strategy almost invariably results in conflict, confusion, acrimony, perhaps operational gridlock, and worse yet, chaos. Moreover, Harper fully understands that even a fundamentally sound strategy can fail because of internal resistance by those whom Jim O'Toole describes as being captive to "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." Or that strategy can become less effective or even ineffective because of market forces over which the organization has little (if any) conrol. Harper has absolutely no illusions about the complexity of these and other issues. She could easily have identified 14 or even 21 "roadblocks." Her U.N.L.O.C.K. system could have been based on 10 or even 15 principles. That's not the point. Rather, when crafting a strategy, decision-makers in any organization (regardless of size or nature) should identify and then prepare for what they perceive to be the potentially most formidable roadblocks to that strategy's success. (FYI, my personal preference is to view strategies as "hammers" and tactics as "nails.") Everyone must understand and support the strategy. What amounts to an "early warning system" is needed and everyone at least directly involved with the strategy and its tactics must be especially alert during the strategy's initial implementation. Although I encountered no "cutting edge thinking" in Harper's book, I hold it in high regard because it fully serves the needs of decision-makers who need (perhaps urgently) a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective system by which to avoid or extricate their organizations from strategic gridlock. Another major benefit of having an "early warning system" is that if the strategy is a dud, that will soon be obvious and Harper's book can assist with whatever adjustments may be necessary. Those who share my interest in how and why even major corporations such as Ford, Coca-Cola, and McDonald's make bad strategic decisions, I urge them to check out Matt Haig's recently published Bad Brands.
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Summary: Leading the people after the strategy
Review: Pam Harper's does a great service to the pervasive, male-dominated (and I'm a male) culture of business leadership that thinks strategy only involves "making the numbers". In an engaging style, she uses the first half of her book to describe 7 common, but hidden roadblocks that companies can easily hit when they are tried to implement strategic growth through changing elements of their business. I like the chapter on "Tin Ear", where management has a tendency to tune out the opinions and concerns of others. The company may have an open door policy, quality circles, and a suggestion program (with cash rewards!) but may miss the more obvious daily chatter from employees, customers and other stakeholders that are providing valuable feedback. The second half of the the book presents the author's UNLOCK methodology for addressing strategic gridlock. It contains 6 steps, with steps 2 and 3 (Understand the Full Challenge and Negociate Key Stakeholder Buy-in) as highlights. The focus on seeing the complete job to be done helps get the timeframe and effort to be more realistic, and the buy-in step focuses on how to play both offense and defense as you are communicating and implementing important changes. Having your management team familar with these concepts will allow you to sense and discuss when you may be hitting roadblocks or not doing all the work to unlock your organizations full potential. Highly reccomended read before you set off on your next strategic change journey.
Rating:
Summary: Leading the people after the strategy
Review: Pam Harper's does a great service to the pervasive, male-dominated (and I'm a male) culture of business leadership that thinks strategy only involves "making the numbers". In an engaging style, she uses the first half of her book to describe 7 common, but hidden roadblocks that companies can easily hit when they are tried to implement strategic growth through changing elements of their business. I like the chapter on "Tin Ear", where management has a tendency to tune out the opinions and concerns of others. The company may have an open door policy, quality circles, and a suggestion program (with cash rewards!) but may miss the more obvious daily chatter from employees, customers and other stakeholders that are providing valuable feedback. The second half of the the book presents the author's UNLOCK methodology for addressing strategic gridlock. It contains 6 steps, with steps 2 and 3 (Understand the Full Challenge and Negociate Key Stakeholder Buy-in) as highlights. The focus on seeing the complete job to be done helps get the timeframe and effort to be more realistic, and the buy-in step focuses on how to play both offense and defense as you are communicating and implementing important changes. Having your management team familar with these concepts will allow you to sense and discuss when you may be hitting roadblocks or not doing all the work to unlock your organizations full potential. Highly reccomended read before you set off on your next strategic change journey.
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Summary: Overcoming Stalls that Derail Strategic Progress
Review: Several studies of strategic management have found that around 70 percent of all new strategies fail. The main culprit is that they are not effectively executed. In many cases, the strategies would have been all but impossible to execute because the organization was overburdened with other challenges, did not have the resources in place and poorly communicated what was to be done.
Preventing Strategic Gridlock aims at overcoming those problems by both selecting more appropriate strategies to implement and avoiding the common pitfalls of execution for strategies that could be executed well by an organization.
The book is divided into two parts. The first part looks at the main causes of strategic gridlock (assuming anyone can execute any strategy any way they want, continuing to restructure and streamline to address strategic and implementation issues, being too quick and not considered enough in reacting to new problems, thinking that everyone knows what to do if you just announce a new program, switching to the flavor of the week fix so that everyone is confused and dispirited, not listening to what's not working, and not considering immovable obstacles to progress).
I loved that section. It reminded me of the first part of the book I co-authored The 2,000 Percent Solution, in which we looked at the stalls to organizational progress. These hidden roadblocks are illustrated with very funny cartoons that make the point very clear, good examples that you will understand, underlying beliefs that can get you into trouble, how to uncover the problem, a check list to help you see how bad the problem is in your organization, and a list of questions and answers to issues that you will probably be concerned about.
In the second part, Ms. Harper describes a six-step process organized around the acronym UNLOCK. This process encourages you to understand the full nature of the challenge you face, negotiating the enthusiastic participation of those who need to implement the new direction, considering how your culture can help or hurt in the change, organizing to get the work done, communicating in ways that make sense and to keep adjusting in response to what you run into.
I thought that the process was not quite sufficiently detailed for what most people will need to follow this advice. That was the only significant weakness in the book. But the second part does a fine job of raising the right issues.
Again, I was struck by the parallel to The 2,000 Percent Solution where we describe an eight-step process to make progress in our second part.
After sleeping on my reaction to the book, I feel like Ms. Harper has produced a 2,000 percent solution for overcoming the problems of making strategic change. Nice stallbusting, Ms. Harper!
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about developing or implementing a new strategy.
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Summary: Recognizing the Real Problem
Review: Sometimes a clear, reasonable plan does not get the desired results in a business situation. Pam Harper uses some interesting, real world examples to discuss how major initiatives can fail to achieve the desired goals. In her review of the examples she outlines pitfalls that many of us have seen occur, but have rarely considered when planning a major business program. She then proceeds to provide her U.N.L.O.C.K. methodology as a tool set to help readers avoid the traps described in the examples. The book is an easy read and is well organized. The examples alone are worth the reading time. I enjoyed it and have suggested it to several of my clients.
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Summary: Specific advice on preventing and resolving gridlock
Review: Strategic Gridlock - when business strategies and initiatives come to a complete stop because of persistent organizational problems. Everyone understands the fatal implications of such a problem but few seem to understand how it comes about and how to get out of one. "Preventing Strategic Gridlock" provides an analysis of how seven "roadblocks" cause strategic gridlock and what to do about them. The first part of the book goes over each of these roadblocks, what causes them to occur, the implications of each of them, their symptoms, and how to determine if you are experiencing them. Each of these chapters has a checklist to help keep out of gridlock, an interpretation section to define if you are experiencing the roadblock, a set of frequently asked questions, and a series of checkpoints that define the highlights of the chapter. Together these make the book very useful for anyone seeking to avoid gridlock or determine if they are in a gridlock situation. The second part of the book contains the details of the U.N.L.O.C.K. system to resolve strategic gridlock. The technique is detailed and illustrated through examples. Throughout the book multiple real life scenarios illustrate each concept. This is a recommended read for anyone experiencing gridlock in their organization or who wants to understand gridlock from the root causes to the moving beyond it.
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Summary: Do it right the first time!
Review: Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur or Fortune 500 executive, Preventing Strategic Gridlock is right for you. Pam Harper reveals many solutions that often plague the process of strategic business plan implementation. If you are seeking to build or develop a business, make its foundation rock solid by applying what you learn from Pam Harper!
Rating:
Summary: Do it right the first time!
Review: Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur or Fortune 500 executive, Preventing Strategic Gridlock is right for you. Pam Harper reveals many solutions that often plague the process of strategic business plan implementation. If you are seeking to build or develop a business, make its foundation rock solid by applying what you learn from Pam Harper!
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