The policy was clear – consultation done, legislation passed, guidance published, comms and support all in place. Ready, set, go! Or so we thought.
Then the questions started rolling in: “What about when…?” “But in our case it’s different because…” As Director of an operational arm of government I soon learnt that even the most well-developed, evidence-based policy was just the start. The harder work came when we started to apply it in practice, when it came into proper contact with all the beautiful variety and complexity of ‘in real life’. And so, I made sure I was in the room when policies were being discussed so that I could give the operational perspective. But even then I knew that when it came to delivery there would be more work to do. We would need detailed operational policies to turn the in principle decisions that Ministers had made into something that worked.
I see this now in the work I do with leaders and teams trying to translate their decisions into action, from how they shift organisational cultures to how they run their businesses. Coming up with the principles is a necessary step, but it’s not enough. Making the decision is just the end of the beginning – the devil’s in the delivery.
What guises does that sneaky devil take?
🤔When we agree ‘in principle’, but we mean different things: when I say empowerment and ‘letting go’ I mean only having two check-in meetings a week while you mean getting a report once a month
⛓️💥When we just don’t follow up, for any number of reasons from passive resistance through to something just falling off the long to-do list. Forgetting that a decision was even made is not uncommon
🤐When we fudge making hard choices to avoid conflict or loss, and so everyone beneath us just trudges on through the treacle of uncertainty and confusion
🚀When our decision is disconnected from reality. Great strategic plans that we have no hope of delivering given our current capability? Mission aborted.
🗣️When we think that saying it makes it so. Defining our values and telling people what they are is only one step. What if they don’t understand? Or don’t agree? Or don’t know how to do it?
I’m sure there are many more 😈s (answers on a postcard please).
So, what can we do to maximise our chances of breathing life into our ideas? I’ve written before about what makes for good delivery, so my focus here is on what it takes to translate the decisions of a leadership team into action, #IRL.
Here are three suggestions to start with: prioritise, experiment and get to ‘how’
🐘Don’t ignore workload (or change load). We talk a lot about there being ‘just too much’ to do and we recognise the weight of lots of changes being expected of our teams at the same time. And yet rarely do we actually tackle this head on. It seems to be dutifully put on the table and then left there to be ignored like a giant (tired) elephant. Sometimes we scratch at it a bit by talking about delegation or changing mindsets on perfectionism, but how often do we have the energy to face it head on and say, what’s going to stop? The most ambitious and courageous leaders I work with are the ones who aren’t afraid to take things off the list too. This prioritisation is incredibly hard – more so in the public sector when you can’t chose to ignore some people or problems – but without it we’re dooming our decisions before they’ve even left the room.
🧪Listen, test and learn. To understand the realities of operationalising a decision you need to give it real airtime with the people who you will rely on to make it happen. We tend to know that about complicated, technical things – we ask the experts what will work in practice – and yet on complex, human things, like how teams collaborate we run the risk of not asking and listening enough. An experimental mindset is essential here. Rather than going in with a pre-determined view – if we do x it will result in y, so just do x – go in with hypotheses and engage people in discovering the way together.
🤹Give equal attention to why, what and how. We all know that when it comes to motivating our people to change we need to inspire with purpose – after all you want more that just compliance. So, spend time describing the goal, listen to challenge and show patience in explaining your rationale, especially if there isn’t scope for the decision or principle to be changed. But don’t stop there, unpack the ‘what’ and engage people in the messy business of the ‘how’ too. If you want better performance management, what does that look like in practice? What would be happening? How would you know? And how do managers need to operate differently to bring that about?
I think prioritisation is the hardest step in good delivery. What do you think?
