Don’t fall into the crevasse!
There it was again. The big crevasse that so many organizations and their leaders fall into.
I am a huge fan of mountains. They drew me to Colorado for college. I have hiked, skied, run and ridden a bike on high mountains in Colorado, Canada and Switzerland. While I am not a technical climber, over several decades I read just about every book about mountains and climbing that I could get my hands on. (I highly recommend Annapurna: The First Conquest of an 8,000-Meter Peak by Maurice Herzog and Conrad Anker; Into Thin Air, A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer; and Touching the Void by Joe Simpson. My favorite however, remains The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen.)
Climbing fascinates me for many of the same reasons that I am a runner, swimmer, biker and triathlete: You pit yourself against the terrain and the elements and even more so against your perceived and real physical and mental limits. The higher you climb, the more important time is as a factor. You may have competitors, but you learn that success more often comes from cooperation and that the most important factor, by far, is you. Preparation and planning, with inspiring yet attainable goals, are key.
UNSEEN AND CHANGING
A lesson I learned from my immersion in the world of climbing is that often conditions are not what they seem to be and can change very quickly. A calm dawn may suddenly switch to a howling mid-morning snow storm. An alluring route up the mountain may turn out to be an icy avalanche chute. The line leading to the peak may cross an unseen cornice, a fold of snow ready to collapse under the climber's weight. Night can fall like a knife, the cold endangering life. An inviting snowfield tilting upward can be embedded with hidden deep crevasses, waiting to swallow the climber who unknowingly missteps.
In my work with organizations and leaders, I find parallels with climbing. Organizations and expeditions are on a mission to achieve an audacious goal; leaders and climbers are challenged to get up and down the mountain quickly and safely.
THE BIG CREVASSE
That brings me to the big crevasse I spotted this week. That crevasse is the trap of being "under-resourced," which produces leaders unable to focus sufficiently on what's most important. Being trapped in the "under-resourced" crevasse can lead to excessive multitasking, ignoring important activities, missed deadlines, poor execution and even failure.
The leader I observed trapped in the "under-resourced" crevasse is CEO of a mission-driven organization in need of a strategic plan: Financial backers have asked for it before they will provide more funds, the Board of Directors wants it in place and she recognizes the need. She had started the process of getting a new plan months earlier by drafting and issuing a request for proposals from strategic planning consultants, seeking at least three, and had received two. But, then, other demands and events intervened, including preparation for the organization's big annual gala fund raiser. Now the New Year was nearly here.
A week earlier the CEO found us and asked us to submit the third proposal. She and I had talked about her need to receive our proposal quickly so they could select a firm in early January and get back on track to having a new plan in April. We had committed to get it to her.
MY "AHA" MOMENT
My "Aha! She's trapped in a crevasse!" revelation came in a follow-up phone conversation 10 days later.
Despite the importance and urgency attached, it had taken more than a week to engineer a time when she could talk with me to answer our remaining questions so we could complete our proposal. In the phone call, I learned that she had not yet considered who would review the proposals nor had she plotted out the decision process.
"Aha! She's trapped in the 'under-resourced' crevasse!"
She, like many others, is leading an organization with a large-scale mission and a plethora of programs and services, but with a small staff and a high reliance on volunteers. Too much to do, not enough time to do it in, too few people to do it. Like so many other organizational leaders today, as my associate Tom says, "She's running around with her hair on fire!"
However capable a leader is, with insufficient resources, meeting a big mission and running a complex organization can lead to bad results.
AVOIDING THE TRAP
My view - and that's the view a person who not only knows "under resourcing" when he sees it but who also was personally trapped in the "under resourced" crevasse when the recession closed in and his organization had to cut staff and other support but tried to maintain services - is that avoiding being under-resourced is the responsibility of both policymakers and executives.
Policy makers in organizations - the Board Chair, officers and Board members: Don't load up your organization's leaders - or enable the leaders to load themselves up - with so much that they cannot focus sufficiently on what's most important.
This requires:
A realistic assessment of what it takes to get the job done effectively.
Avoiding the temptation to pile on more and more responsibilities and activities.
Looking to the CEO for a realistic staffing plan against the work plan and then finding the resources to support the staffing plan.
Efficiency is important, of course, but seeking more efficiency while sacrificing effectiveness is foolish.
Leaders - the CEO and other senior executives responsible for assuring the work gets done: Seek realistic staffing against the work to be done and be smart about what you devote time to doing.
This requires:
Prioritizing what's most important: Start at the strategic level.
Slowing down and plotting out the route to getting these big things achieved
Thinking about the route ahead and what it will take to get safely up the mountain.
Is this a case for using ropes and pitons - bringing in help, forming a team and delegating - or can you get there quickly and safely by free climbing on your own?
Be realistic about what you can achieve and what you can do well, and share this with senior leadership and the Board.
