Dookies™ in the Pool

I experienced an increasingly rare moment of absolute and total lucidity a few days ago. 

I sat through a day-long planning session.  I was online watching and participating when called upon, but not a presenter.  This approach has it’s pros and cons.

On the pro side, remote participants are pretty much tied to their desks so you are compelled to do the things that you know you should do, but that always seem to fall through the cracks.  It allows one to check & answer email and bio-breaks can usually be accomplished without the entire world knowing where you went or what you’re doing. 

On the con side, you can’t really goof off too much because if called upon, you need to know what’s going on.  The web cam doesn’t show the entire meeting room so you don’t always know who’s talking and finally, you can’t always hear everything that’s said.

Nevertheless, as the meeting droned on into the afternoon, I listened to everyone’s great ideas and chimed in when called upon and when appropriate–you always want them to know that you’re there.   During one particularily self-serving presentation by a self-absorbed bore, I snapped to attention when this person said “When all is said and done…”.   Of course, I have absolutely no idea what came next as he mercifully attempted to summarize and end his presentation because at that very moment it became clear to me what the problem is at many organizations: Far more is said than is ever done.

How many meetings have you attended where lofty goals and ideals are bandied about in order to impress one’s peers and more importantly, to impress one’s superiors?  A soon as everyone returns to their offices, it’s back to business as usual.

Anyone can talk-the-talk, far fewer seem to be able to walk-the-walk.  In essence, it all comes down to an organization’s ability to execute their strategy.  It seems as if ’strategy’ is where it’s at.  People embrace their strategy, they internalize their strategy, they personalize their strategy.  What about tactics?  How is that strategy going to be implemented?

Here comes the Dookie: This presenter told everyone what he wanted his strategy to be and everyone seemed to think it was a good idea.  The ‘how’ ended up being the missing link. 

A strategy without tactics is merely a dream. 

And about my increasingly rare moments of absolute and total lucidity, I don’t suffer from dementia or anything, it’s just that when I was younger, I was under the impression that I and I alone saw everything clearly and had all of the answers.  I’m now wise enough to know that wisdom will always be just beyond my reach.

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