Business Strategy – with ease, grace and joy

As a facilitator, one of the most important parts of my preparation for strategy retreats is the Focus Question.  This Big Question sets the tone for the entire exercise – which may extend over a period of days, weeks, months and even years.  Strategy is continuous and ever evolving and it’s easy to lose focus.  The Focus Question is the glue that holds the group together and keeps them moving along in the same direction.  I spend much time on the Focus Question.  The outcome is often very, very simple and not at all reflective of the effort and time I have devoted to it.  Finding the right Focus Question determines the success of the workshop.  I know I have it right when my client says “Yes!  That’s IT!” the moment it emanates from my mouth.

 

Typically, Focus Questions are termed in the lexicon of business.  After all, strategy is all about business, isn’t it?  Well, yes.  But in my view, strategy is really fundamentally about people – the organization’s employees, leadership, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.   Strategy is about people doing things to benefit other people.  It’s that simple.  As with anything that simple, it’s also that difficult.

 

I took a step out of my strategy consulting comfort zone two weeks ago.  I was preparing to facilitate a long-standing client’s strategy retreat.  This company has survived the recession and is thriving.  However, they do so with a great deal of stress on team members.  I wanted to capture this in the Focus Question as I sensed that it is such a big challenge for them.  I shared the Focus Question with the CEO: “What critical, targeted actions must we take to achieve our 2011 profitability target”?   I felt quite uninspired speaking it, and the silence from my client told me he wasn’t excited either.   Something was missing.  Quite tentatively I added “But you know Albert, I really would like to add something like: with ease, grace and joy”.  “YES”!  said Albert “That’s IT!  I LOVE IT”!

 

On a deeper level I learned a valuable lesson.  In my work as a business consultant, I must not be afraid of putting myself and the things I feel deeply about forefront to my clients.  I must not fear putting forth ideas and principles that I think people may find uncomfortable.   To live my life in integrity, I must work with integrity.  I cannot hide my spiritual essence from my work.  I must bring my whole self to the client, for that is how I provide maximum value.  I must bring ease, grace, joy and laughter to my work, for that is who I am.  That is when I do my best work – when I am in a place of each, grace and joy. And I believe that all human beings are like that – we each do our best work when our lives express ease, grace and joy.

 

Unfortunately, work has come to be accepted as a serious place devoid of joy and laughter.  Is it any wonder that organizations struggle with lack of productivity, demotivation, job dissatisfaction, stress, and burnout?    We believe that the solutions lie in new strategies, reengineered processes, and restructured organizations.  Yes, those are important, but THE fundamental underpinning of success is a team of people who feel whole and complete at work, who know that work is an expression of their highest self and whose lives are valued (not just their work) – by the people in the organization and themselves.

 

So off I went to facilitate a workshop with “ease, grace and joy” – laughing all the way – and to help my client develop a strategy that is grounded in “ease, grace and joy”.  WOW!  Can you imagine doing business with this company?  Ease, grace and joy!