Pink President's Blog

Even When You’re Doing All The Right Things - Watch Out!

Before you buy any other business book - read “The Halo Effect” first.

I had just written a brief review of “Good To Great” by Jim Collins (see earlier post) when a helpful reader - James Finister - suggested I check out “The Halo Effect”. I’m glad I did. The conversational style is very easy to read. The explanations are totally understandable. The arguments compelling. The conclusions just make sense - there are no quick, easy, one-size-fits-all answers. Good practices -  vision, strategy, leadership, communications, customer focus, execution, etc - are probably all good but they cannot guarantee success. There’s still the impact of things beyond your control - the context for your business. Even luck and the random nature of things.

The two books I had read immediately before “The Halo Effect” - “Risk” by Dan Gardner and “The Drunkard’s Walk” by Leonard Mlodinow seemed to prep me perfectly for this read. Rosenzweig’s arguments on cause and effect really struck a chord with me because of what I had learned in “Risk” and “The Drunkard’s Walk” (the fact I had also recently read “Good To Great” was a big help too!) Although we all can be suckers for the romantic notion of “being in the right place at the right time”, it’s probably tough to accept that even if you do all the right things - luck, randomness and all the stuff that’s simply beyond your control may well be what determines whether you succeed or fail. If that sounds a bit too doom & gloomish, don’t worry, there is a happy ending - of sorts!

In conclusion, I was less bothered about Rosenzweig’s revelations on the flawed research of Peters, Kotter, Collins et al, and more interested in Rosenzweig’s own thinking with regard to what makes an organization a high performer. As it turned out - I was inspired. Strategy and execution ARE the chief enablers - and one is likely more important than the other (read the book!) - but don’t forget to keep a close eye on the world around you.

For those working in ITSM, that means watch out for changes to business strategy that will have a direct impact on you - regardless of how well you’re doing. I’ll give you a for instance - a few years ago Pink worked with a large organization to help them develop and deliver top class support services. They were delighted with the work that we did and the outcomes - for IT and their business. That didn’t stop the business deciding on an outsourcing strategy. It had absolutely nothing to do with the performance of existing functions in IT, let alone IT support. So, just like Rosenzweig says, things beyond your control can determine your future - even when you might be doing all the right things.

Oh, and one more thing, Rosenzweig explains that there are certain types of business that are more susceptible to volatile outside forces (innovative industries), and some that are more resilient (stable industries). So if you want to increase your chances of success - by all means do all the right things that the gurus tell you, but also make sure you work in retail, consumer goods or government, not in the high tech world!

Thanks, James, for the recommendation.

PS
In previous posts I’ve expressed frustration at how some naive souls keep repeating the mantra “run IT like a business”. The conclusions in “The Halo Effect” explain - albeit indirectly - the critical differences between “the business” and an internal department (such as IT). The context for business is NOT the context for IT. You’re overcomplicating internal IT if you think it’s just like a business. We can use some of the same enablers (vision, strategy, leadership, etc) but we’re insulated from the uncertain and uncontrollable world outside the business. It’s tougher to manage a business than to manage IT.

1. Glad to be of service.

   The lesson I took away is that often the things we think led to the success of an ITSM project are actually just symptoms of the success.

   Every conference I go to I hear people say “The secret of our success was top management support”, but successful projects will always have top management support, at least in retrospect. It doesn’t help you understand how to generate that support. Often we only succeed because our project happens to coincide with senior management’s more obscure agendas. Yes in IT we are shielded from some of the uncertainty the business faces, but then we are also more constrained in what we can do to drive change.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  09/18  at  06:23 PM
Page 1 of 1 pages