Book Predictable Result Unpredictable Times

8/4/2019 Book Predictable Result Unpredictable Times

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Every summer a colorul crowd o cyclists race each other

in what is billed as the greatest human endurance test o all

timethe Tour de France. On the at, sunny terrain, they

bunch up in a peloton, or platoon, some jockeying or the

ront, some coasting along in the slipstream o a rider inches

ahead. But they mostly stay together. When the going is rel-

atively easy, the peloton speeds along at a predictable pace.

Then comes the severe test o the mountains. Uncer-

tain weather hits. Improbably, even in July the Alps can

produce reezing rain and sleet. By contrast, the desert-

like Mont Ventoux in the south o France is heatstrokewaiting to happen. As the cyclists climb thousands o

meters, the peloton strings out. Riders tire and drop

away. Teams all inexorably behind.

Its in these extreme conditions that the great teams

take the lead.

You are exposed to the improbable only if you let

it control you. You always control what you do.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Predictable Results in

Unpredictable Times


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ii PREDICTABLE RESULTS IN UNPREDICTABLE TIMES

At times, your team or your company or your or

organization will ace extreme conditions, with steep

terrain and dramatic changes in climate. No one cansee beyond the next hill.

Even in a turnaround,

theres no likelihood o

an easy rideweve moved

into a world where the mea-

sured risks o the past seemtame compared to what we ace today. Future crises might

be more severe than anything weve experienced. From here

on, everyone agrees, we may be in the mountains.

Thats when the great leaders will move into view.

Great leaders are dierent. They anchor themselves in

principles that are certain and solid, even in an uncertain

and uid environment. They know the world is unpre-

dictable. Still, they get predictable results.

How do they do it?

Beore we go there, lets consider the reasons why

so many competitors alter and drop out when they hitthe mountains. It isnt usually a lack o strength or abil-

itymost Tour de France participants are superbly con-

ditioned or they wouldnt be there.

The Tour is actually a team eort, and losing teams

lack the disciplined execution o the winners.1 Win-

ning team members must be able to trust each other

without reserve to do their jobs precisely. They must be

constantly ocused, actively taking every opportunity to

move the strategy orward. Otherwise, an accumulation

o small mistakes will mean disaster.

The Tour is actually

a team effort, and

losing teams lack the

disciplined execution

of the winners.


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iiiPREDICTABLE RESULTS IN UNPREDICTABLE TIMES

Long experience with thousands o private and pub-

lic entities around the globe has taught us that this lack

o discipline makes all the dierence in the mountains.At FranklinCovey, we have studied the team disciplines o

more than 300,000 people in 17,000 work units in 1,100

organizations. We have interviewed most o the people in

5,000 o these units. We combined interview results with

fnancial, operating, and customer-loyalty data rom a large

number o matched pair organizations. This combinedresearch has helped us understand the actors that truly

dierentiate top perormers rom lesser perormers, the

Lance Armstrongs rom the also-rans.

Four Hazards of Unpredictable Times

Like the Tour de France cycling teams, companies trying

to navigate in unpredictable times ace our key hazards:

Failuretoexecute

Crisisoftrust

Lossoffocus

Pervasiveear

Failure to execute.Youve thought through the cri-

sis. You have your strategy. Now the question is, can your

teams execute? Will they? Some people in your orga-

nization are getting it done. Some arent and probably

never will. Then theres the great middlehow muchmore could they contribute i they perormed more like

those who are getting it done?

Crisis of trust. Levels o trust drop in uncertain times.

Securities markets plunge due to crises o confdence.

Peoplelosecondenceintheirownorganizations.On


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iv PREDICTABLE RESULTS IN UNPREDICTABLE TIMES

an uncertain road ull o pitalls, everyone decelerates: its

not called a slowdown or nothing.

Loss of focus.You have ewer resources, ewer people,moreconfusion.Peopletrytodotwoorthreejobsatonce.

A person trying to do two jobs has hal the ocus o a per-

son doing one job, and hal the likelihood o doing either

job well.

Pervasive fear. Economic recession causes psycho-

logicalrecession.Peopleear losing jobs, retirement sav-

ings, even their homes. Its piling on. And it costs you.

Just when you need people to ocus and engage, they

lose ocus and disengage.

As you probably recognize, these our hazards occur

together in times o turmoil. They reinorce each other.A crisis o trust stirs up ear. Fear and anxiety lead to a

loss o ocus. And a loss o ocus puts strategy execution

at risk. In such times, you simply cant aord to execute

your strategy with anything less than precision.

To succeed in the mountains, like the great cyclists,

you must anticipate these hazards. You can dodge thehazards and win i you:

Executeprioritieswithexcellence.

Movewiththespeedoftrust.

Achievemore with less.

Reduceear.

Execute priorities with excellence. The win-

ning companies have simple goals repeatedly revis-

ited, together with clear targets and strong ollow-

through, including the measurement o results.2 As

with any great team, all team members know the


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vPREDICTABLE RESULTS IN UNPREDICTABLE TIMES

goals and their roles in carrying them out. And they

execute precisely.

Move with the speed of trust. Low trust slows ev-erything down and raises costs. Thats why the economy,

your clients, and your cash ow slow down in times o

turmoil. But when trust levels rise, everything speeds up

and costs go down. The winning organizations are ca-

pable o quick action with the agility to respond ahead

o, or at least stay even with, rapid changes in the neweconomic environment.3

Achieve more with less. O course, everyone is try-

ing to do more with less, but the real question is more

o what? Shouldnt it be more o what your key stake-

holders truly value and less o what they dont want? The

winning companies ocus totally on valuethey are not

just cutting back, they are simpliying, reducing complexi-

ties that customers and employees dont value. Instead o

having everyone do two or three jobs, they ocus on doing

the job that key stakeholders really want done.

Reduce fear. The root o psychological recession isthe sense that people have no control over what hap-

pens to them. Winning organizations help people break

through that hopelessness and ocus on what they can

impact. Much o the ear is caused by unclear direction,

by a less-than-compelling purpose. Entrusted with a

mission and strategy they can believe in, they channeltheir anxious energy into results.

I theres one thing thats certain about lie, its uncer-

tainty. The great teams, like the great cyclists, perorm

consistently and with excellence, regardless o the condi-

tions. This small book is about getting predictable results


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vi PREDICTABLE RESULTS IN UNPREDICTABLE TIMES

in good times and badwhether you believe this time

is dierent or not. The reason? You can rely on these

our principles. They just dont change. And they willnever let you down.

In this book, theres a chapter on each o these our

essential principles, together with a plan to help you ap-

ply them.

One o the best ways to learn rom this book is to

teach its principles to someone else. Its a commonplace

that the teacher learns ar more than the student. So at the

end o each chapter, youre invited to fnd someonea

co-worker, a riend, a amily memberand teach him or

her the insights youve gained rom the chapter. You can

ollow the Teach to Learn guide provided or make up

your own.

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Book Predictable Result Unpredictable Times