Rolling Waves
Your capacity to navigate with a focused, strategic mindset has a direct impact on how you show up as a leader. A client recently surprised me with a copy of the handwritten notes I’d given him from our first session. Scribbled in the upper right corner of the page was a rough sketch of his long-term goals. Now on the cusp of achieving what we’d laid out, he’s built a highly capable team who’ve helped him create a great place to work while doubling the size of the business and providing more opportunity to his community.
When you’re first launching a new initiative or enterprise it can feel overwhelming to sit down and plan how to get “there” from where you are now. There are complex forces outside of your control that are constantly shaping your future – the economy, the availability of skilled labor, the political landscape, your competition. In the vastness of all the unknowns many business owners shutdown, opting to forgo long-term planning to focus on the near-term tangible pieces they can see and touch.
The challenge with this approach is that it’s like driving in the fog. Your eyes are focused just beyond the hood of your car and you have no choice but to drive cautiously and slowly. Obstacles in the road can take you by surprise, appearing bigger and scarier than they really are, so you stick to safe and known routes.
On the other side of the pendulum, I’ve seen business owners throw all caution to the wind and barrel down the highway as fast as they can. Zipping through the illusionary haze, and risking more than they really need to, they over burn resources, talent, and themselves.
Both of these approaches may be effective in the short run but will stunt your business overtime. When you lack clarity about direction and the long-term impact of your decisions your team will lack clarity too. This will drive confusion, frustration, and lack of faith in your effectiveness as a leader.
When working with clients to better manage ongoing strategic planning and execution cycles I introduce a concept from my project management days called the Rolling Wave Approach. Beyond once-and-done planning that can take a long time and become obsolete as assumptions shift, this approach embraces active and ongoing strategic discernment as the path unfolds.
With a clearly defined endpoint, I help clients learn to lightly sketch the road ahead – identifying, at a high-level, potential routes, major thrusts, and possible risks that may snare and tangle the business. Affirming that you can see most clearly what’s closest to you, detailed planning is done in short sprints while always holding this long-term sketch as a guide.
Like the rough framing of a house a high-level plan can be quickly sketched into place, easily adjusted as plans shift and more is known, and serve as a guide when you’re ready for the detailed finishing work to begin.
Most critical to this approach is engaging in meeting rhythms with cycles of reflection and learning that can be funneled into the next round of decision making, planning, and execution. This has the power of opening you and your team to greater awareness of the external environment and its impact on your business while continuously pushing the bounds of your internal capabilities to better respond to these challenges.
When you start any journey, you’re not going to have all you need to know. You are going to make mistakes along the way. Learning to navigate the fog with a sincerity of intention and practice will give you and your team greater discernment and surer footing to meet the unfolding horizon.
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Leadership Development Practices to help you engage with these concepts in your own leadership development journey:
Rough Framing: This week consider a long-term goal that will have meaningful impact on you and your business. With as much dream and detail as you can mix together, clearly define your desired endpoint. Invite others in where you can and, without over thinking it, quickly rough out a broader view of your goal. Identify impacts and actions that will help or hinder you. How does quickly setting up a rough frame of your vision shift your insight over what next best steps to take?
