YEARN TO LEARN...AND GROW

Adopt a new state of mind to succeed next year, and in the long run

Because I am intrigued by the success stories behind some of the most acclaimed individuals, earlier this year I picked up the highly talked about "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.” Among the numerous insightful points, the book brought up the importance of never-ending desire to experiment, learn and develop – do / be better. It turns out, these are some of the key traits of highly successful individuals. Sure enough – I see it with the professionals I know. The most accomplished ones are the embodiment of perpetual learning. They avoid complacency at all cost and look forward to understanding or better yet, creating, the next best thing. There’s much more to success of course, but the notion of learning as its cornerstone has come across my reading and work in the past.

Awhile back I wrote a blog post that alongside articles, personal observations and the book: “The Fifth Discipline: The Art And Practice Of The Learning Organization” developed the premise that in order for professional service organizations to evolve they should become learning organizations. In other words, if service firms could figure out how to inspire and scale behavior that applauds inquiry, open-mindedness, challenges existing norms and rewards learning, they would outperform competitors and thrive. As we are about to close the year and embark on a journey of personal and professional resolutions, I thought it’s only fitting to repost this article.

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SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO BUSINESS GROWTH

I like to challenge my own thinking and so, after writing my last articles, “Creating a Culture of Business Growth” and “For the Greater Good Or Eat What You Kill?” I questioned whether it is necessary to address the full business growth system – strategy, support tools, and skills - in order to make sustainable business growth progress. After all, many firms claim to be successful by focusing on only a select few of those business growth related segments. Or, are they? And how have they defined “success” and more importantly, how will they define it going forward?

The ultimate question comes down to the aspirations of firms and their stakeholders. Are you looking to build organizations for the long run? Or, do you only seek short term success with a measurable self-centered economic benefit? If the latter represents shareholders’ objectives, then the non-systematic, “band-aid” approach - as I call it - might be considered success. However, if the professional services firm leaders are focusing on long term gains, then I am afraid the long and systematic approach to building or enhancing business growth platform is the way to go.

A selective segment approach to business growth might have worked in the past for some firms due to extraordinary external market conditions. Those, blended with the young and entrepreneurial spirit of newly formed organizations often lead to quick success, but is ultimately unsustainable I am afraid. That opportunistic viewpoint takes a linear approach without seeing the full picture, and focuses on a sliver of information and limited events. This approach tends to address symptoms instead of curing problems, identifying trends, and thinking long term. It employs reactive tactics and doesn’t provide fundamental and sustainable systems support to track and measure performance and return on business growth investments. There is no investment in developing skills and sufficient support tools to allow the executioners to utilize the tools that fit them most (“one size fits none” when it comes to business growth tactics) and ultimately, to execute on strategy.

If that’s how you are running your organization, and you consider the last paragraph to be the “right approach” and you do not have strategic long term aspirations then stop reading here. This will be the top of the bell shaped curve for you. Don’t waste your time learning how to develop a systems-based approach to help you build sustainable business growth platform and move your organization up the S - curve.

When I went back to research, looking to rebuff my own systems theory and to find a quick and easy way to help professional services organizations increase the velocity of their business development, one of the sources I reviewed was an old favorite business read: "The Fifth Discipline: The Art And Practice Of The Learning Organization." Reading it was yet again an eye opening experience. Instead of rejecting my theory, the book helped me reaffirm that a systematic way of approaching sustainable business growth is necessary. It provided me with answers of why some of the short term linear approach business development projects work briefly, but not in the long term. More than that, the book gave me possible answers for some of the narcissistic behavior I observed in “For the Greater Good or Eat What You Kill?”, which I determined limits change in professional services firms, and I have been so desperately looking to decipher. Most importantly, the book illustrated that a comprehensive approach to business growth spreads beyond the segments allocated to Marketing, Business Development and Sales. To make a significant and sustainable business growth impact, leaders should employ multidisciplinary approach.

In his book, the accomplished Peter M. Senge, draws on extensive management research and experience to argue that the traditional management approach is not optimal and in order for organizations to survive, continuously adapt, innovate products and services, and overall develop, they should strive to become learning organizations. According to the author, the process of building and running learning organizations rests upon five pillars: systems thinking (the cornerstone), personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, and team learning. And while the majority of examples he uses do not come from professional services firms, I am convinced that applying some or all of the principles from the learning organization model will help firms manage many of the challenges they face, and especially the ones related to business growth.

“Systems thinking is both more challenging and more promising than our normal ways of dealing with problems,” says Senge. I agree. It is about seeing the whole, interrelationships and processes. It helps executives absorb increased amount of information, manage complexity and accelerate change. In business growth terms, it clarifies why when marketing is creating powerful lead generation campaigns, there will be limited if any business growth results if the professionals (or the sales force) are not equipped with the necessary advisory skills, sufficient tools and the system to turn those leads into actual business; why when the professionals bring in new clients, these clients will consider such work commodity and as soon as another service provider comes along with a better value offer they’ll be ready to jump ship, if the organization is not ready to commit the resources to support the new clients beyond technical solutions to build strong relationships and loyalty.

Here is another example of the importance of systems thinking, which will resonate with most leaders of professional services organizations. If a firm doesn’t pursue business growth and provide opportunities for growth for its junior professionals (directors, associates, etc.), after a period of time it faces high chances of losing its talent, which it has invested in developing over the years. The question often asked is: do we invest in attracting, developing and retaining new talent (HR), or do we invest in building a solid business growth engine (Marketing / BD) to provide for business continuity. I’d argue that the real questions here are how to balance those two processes, and what are the forces that increase or decrease their progression.

To adopt a systems thinking method, the author recommends that executives start to approach problems by identifying the source of the issues: what’s the core, not the symptom; the forces that support accelerating or decline growth processes, and the sources that would bring stability and resistance, as well as identifying organizational behavior patterns limiting growth, shifting the burden of blame, and others. I would recommend that firm leaders do the same to build and manage sustainable business development platform.

Mind that, as the name of this principle implies, this is not a one-time event. A comprehensive and systematic approach to organizational development and business growth today must be constantly monitored and calibrated, as a slight adjustment of one segment might skew another. To use an already mentioned example, a series of successful marketing campaigns might generate extraordinary amount of sales leads, which the organization, this time manages to convert in new projects, albeit scarce capacity of execution resources. If the capacity issue is not addressed, in the long run professionals will resist further marketing initiatives of fear of overload. I’ve witnessed a multitude of such vicious circles and how liner approach might bring a short term relief, but not long term solutions. As you see, employing such systems thinking is critical for firms.

The rest of the disciplines of learning organizations outlined in the book are easily discarded by most firms because they are considered soft and hard to measure, and often threaten the established order. Each of them however offers important supplement to the systems thinking principal and are critical for building learning organizations. Before dismissing them, I'd encourage professional services leaders to read on and consider application to their firms, especially the ones of mental models, which among other things, explains why change management exercises and introduction to new business growth systems and programs might fall short of success, and the team learning one, which gives a glimpse of what lays behind the limited success of professional development programs.

Mental Models are generalizations, assumptions, perceptions, patterns of reasoning that influence professionals’ behavior and actions. Mental models can impede and bring to halt important change management exercises. The real challenge is that mental models exist below professionals’ consciousness and as such remain unexamined, hence unchanged. Keeping mental models unchallenged is less risky and comfortable. The opportunity rests with the process of acknowledging and bringing up the current mental models to the surface, testing them and building new ones. For professional services firms that means promoting a culture that calls for collaborative challenging thinking, openness and merit, and skills of reflection and inquiry…a culture that eliminates the “this is how we’ve always got things done” mentality, and asks how well that’s worked in the past and promote “how else” considerations. To create such environment, organizations should discourage reactive and mechanical thinking, accept that there is more than one way to look at complex issues and that different cultures, backgrounds and experiences will influence how professionals see and interpret facts. They should aim to shift professionals’ thinking from winning arguments to finding the best solution and to build safe climate to where professionals feel comfortable to acknowledge reasoning flaws, lack of knowledge or proper factual support. This open-minded approach is especially important to business growth and the rate of success of adopting the processes and tactical tools to support it. Such thinking needs to be encouraged beyond a two day seminar; it needs to be built-in the regular management practices.

The process of aligning and developing the capacity of a team to create the results the team truly desire is defined as Team Learning. It introduces the need to think about complex issues and innovate, the role of other team members, and mastering the process of dialogue and discussion. It brings out the reasoning behind defensive behavior and shifting blame. “Systems thinking is especially prone to evoking defensiveness because its central message that our actions create our reality,” states Senge and again, I agree. Professional services firms are staffed with professionals with multiple advanced degrees, considered experts. They exhibit confidence and believe that they know everything or are expected to know everything, and to protect these beliefs they reject alternative solutions, remain rigid and obscure their ignorance. Such organizations often nurture a culture where to have incomplete or faulty understanding is a sign of weakness, or worse, incompetence. However, it is such defensiveness that is holding professionals back from testing the validity of their reasoning and openness to exploring new solutions for their clients or organizations. This behavior is in the core of “narcissistic behavior,” which as I’ve stated in the past, limits professional services firms’ growth. To break the mold, firms should consider developing a process that calls for reflection, inquiry and dialogue.

Personal Mastery encourages curiosity and continuous yearning to development. It provides the ultimate employee drive and satisfaction, and in turn, it offers organizations the employees’ continuous organizational contribution and commitment. Professional services firms are knowledge based ones, and continual education is not only encouraged, but required in the form of CLE, CPE, and other courses to retain professional accreditation. Yet, what I find interesting is their general disregard of professionals' personal development. Firms might consider offering alternatives to the traditional career development paths and allowing their professionals to self select what they deem might suit them best. This calls for HR services above and beyond currently employed by firms. Grow people – grow business - grow organizations.

The last principle, Shared Vision, provides a sense of coherence and answers what type of organizations professionals aspire to build. While considered “soft” and often disregarded, it provides focus and energy for learning. Visions are often imposed rather than inspired and aligned with professionals personal visions (hence the issue with compliance vs commitment). They die quickly due to the lack of clarity and communication, or due to shift of focus, driven by the demands of the current reality. They focus on today’s problems rather than tomorrow’s opportunities. If long term organizational growth and development is an objective, encourage building personal visions and weaving them into a common shared vision. LISTEN. Let professionals choose for themselves.

Pressured by economic forces and the evolving model of the professional services industry, firms’ leadership should consider innovative management frameworks. A systematic way of approaching professional services organizations is necessary for their survival, it is critical for their business growth, and inevitable as we live in environment moving towards sharing - open source, social networks, etc. To develop a long term sustainable business growth platforms, firms should learn to utilize such comprehensive approach. They should avoid the temptation to employ quick, short term solutions, addressing individual segments (strategy – systems – skills) of the business growth platform and think how specific changes will impact the entire platform and organization.

Special thanks to the author of “The Fifth Discipline: The Art And Practice Of The Learning Organization” for his extensive research, insight and clearly articulated management frameworks. I would encourage the leaders of professional service firms to pick up a copy of the book and think about applying the principles of the learning organization, beyond the points outlined above.

© 2010-2013 Copyright Mira Ilieva Leonard / iStile All rights reserved

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