Business Builders Podcast

Strategic Planning - Why are we doing this anyway?

April 16, 2022 Brenton Gowland & Ron Tomlian Season 2 Episode 18
Business Builders Podcast
Strategic Planning - Why are we doing this anyway?
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Today's episode is part six and the final instalment of the Demystifying Strategic Planning series. Our hosts Brenton Gowland and Ron Tomlian talk about why are we doing this anyway in regards to running our business.

The topics covered in this first part of the series are: 

  • Recap of the previous stages of strategic planning
  • Understanding our why and putting it into action
  • An example of a great why
  • How do we establish our why?
  • What if we don't have a good why?
  • Where does finding our why fit in the strategic planning process?
Adapt_CO
Helping businesses find their new shape.

SA Business Builders
Business leaders social group based in South Australia

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Brenton Gowland:

Welcome to Part six and the final instalment of our series about demystifying strategic planning. In today's episode we're talking about why are we doing this anyway in regards to running our businesses. Ron talks about the way our why keeps us going just like petrol in the car, and we discuss how to find your why. Well, welcome to the Business Builders podcast. We're your hosts. I'm Brenton Gowland.

Ron Tomlian:

And I'm Ron Tomlian.

Brenton Gowland:

And Ron, it's a bit of a sad day, we've come to the end of our demystifying Strategic Planning series. This is the last episode today.

Ron Tomlian:

I'm sure we can delve down into the do other subjects later on. But yep, that's the last one today.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah, well, as you know, as we've gone through the series, we've identified a number of topics we could do whole shows on. And it's actually great to get to this point where we're wrapping up a series. And if you're listening, this is the first time we've done a series, but we're going to do more. You'll hear about that a little bit later in the show. But today, we're rounding out what's been so far a really good series about making strategic planning simple and accessible to as many people as possible. And that's what we're all about here. We're about building businesses and the business builders podcast.

Ron Tomlian:

Absolutely.

Brenton Gowland:

So Ron, let's do a little bit of a recap, what are the four questions that we have covered off in the strategic planning process?

Ron Tomlian:

So all strategic planning can be boiled down to being able to answer for an organisation four essential questions. Where are we now? Where do we want to be? How do we get there? How will we know when we've arrived? And the last one that we're going to talk about today? Why am we doing this in the first place?

Brenton Gowland:

And that's the fifth question. That's the one you threw in at the end there.

Ron Tomlian:

That's right.

Brenton Gowland:

Cool, so before you get into it, though, and we know that if you've been listening, you've heard us say those five questions really time and time again. But part of the reason we do that is so that it burns into our psyche. So when you do come to do strategic planning in your business, that you've got those five questions ringing in your ears as you go through the process, we want to start with our sponsors, Ron.

Ron Tomlian:

So SA Business Builders.

Brenton Gowland:

We had our first event for the year about a week ago.

Ron Tomlian:

Yeah, and fantastic it was to. At Chateau Apollo there on Frome Street.

Brenton Gowland:

And if you're listening internationally, we know that means nothing to you. But we got a group of people together CEOs and Young Guns, that's our focus this year, bringing the two together, so young business professionals and CEOs so that we can basically cross mentor each other. And you know, there's real benefits in CEOs who've got a lot of experience learning from younger people. And of course, there's a lot of experience in finding mentors who have been there before you and can actually help you pave the way as you build your business career.

Ron Tomlian:

And it was great to see the interaction between those two groups on the night. So well done.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah. And just an interesting thing. We are having panel sessions with SA Business Builders now. And our idea is to have at least one young gun on the panel and one experienced CEO so that's kind of going to be our patent for the year. But yeah, it was it was a good show, even though we had a few people that weren't able to be there because of COVID. But we're getting used to living with COVID now, so we're not going to let that hold us back anymore are we Ron.

Ron Tomlian:

No, no, no, you can't. You can't be constrained by that anymore. There's not no excuses.

Brenton Gowland:

Exactly. And our other sponsor is Adapt_CO, which is my business. So we're basically doing outsourced marketing and strategic work with organisations. So if you need a CMO to work within your business, whether it be one or two days a week or on specific projects, then hit me up, and I will be able to help you. So that is our sponsors for this week. Ron.

Ron Tomlian:

Very good.

Brenton Gowland:

So back to our topic. And as you kind of indicated earlier, this is a question that we kind of threw in at the end, you know, strategic planning is those key four questions that go from where do we start from to how do we know that we've got there? But then we threw this question in at the end, as a final question. Now, tell us about this final question in our series.

Ron Tomlian:

Well, let's, let's just go little back a little bit, people can answer what we do, because that's the purpose of their organisation, or what you know, it's what you produce. Most people can articulate this, they can also articulate that how they do what they do, because quite frankly, that is more about how am I different from the opposition, there are other people who do what I do, but how am I different from them. And people can usually articulate that I'm faster, better, cheaper, better quality, those type of things.

Brenton Gowland:

All the hallmarks of innovation.

Ron Tomlian:

And that's usually the basis of your marketing messages. But sitting behind that is the core of why you do what you do. And a lot of people have never thought about this. And a lot of people struggle with it. And it's a really important question. It's a difficult question to answer, but it's an important question because it gets to the DNA of your organisation. It gets to what makes you tick. Why what motivates you and what made it motivates your organization's do what they do? So it's a really important question to be able to answer.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah, absolutely. It kind of aligns with that thinking of why do you get out of bed in the morning, yeah?

Ron Tomlian:

Well, it is that. It is why do you get out of bed in the morning? What what makes you do what you do? And understanding it is really important because, as Simon Sinek says, and you know, I'm a great fan of his thinking. People don't buy what you do they buy why you do it. And that's because all purchases, I don't care whether we're talking about government agencies or down to the individual. Emotion is an important part of it. And even for government agencies, or businesses, confidence is an emotion that is invoked, by the way people present themselves.

Brenton Gowland:

Or brands yep.

Ron Tomlian:

Yeah. So emotion plays an important part and emotion gets to the why, of what organisations are doing, and it's that, core question of what is the driving force behind your organisation? What is the driving thought behind your organisation? So it's really important that you can articulate that if you don't know why, why would your customers buy from you, they're not going to know why until you are able to articulate this. And when I say you, I'm talking about people within the organisation, everyone should understand their why.

Brenton Gowland:

Okay, so let's talk about this then. So we've been talking about strategy for the last five episodes. Why is why important for the strategic planning process Ron?

Ron Tomlian:

Well, I like to use the analogy that we've been using before, why is the fuel behind the the trip that we're going to take.

Brenton Gowland:

So from the map analogy?

Ron Tomlian:

Yeah, using the map analogy, the why is the fuel. It's what gets you going it what it's what keeps you going, and you can use different types of fuel. You know, if you're on the base grade ethanol can you can get there.

Brenton Gowland:

It's a bit harsh on the tank.

Ron Tomlian:

Yeah, very harsh on the engine. Yeah. But if you're using premium 98, it makes things run a lot more smoothly.

Brenton Gowland:

So if this is the first episode that you've joined us for, we've been using a map analogy right from the start. And that makes incredible sense that it's the fuel that drives us. So what does that look like then within the organisation, In a practical sense, when that why is one understood, but then put into action?

Ron Tomlian:

Okay so, it's important for customers as we've just established, it's the basis on which they differentiate between you and other people. But just as importantly, I think probably more importantly, it's what inspires people within the organisation, firstly, to be part of it. And at a time when everyone's looking to recruit people, that becomes an important differentiator for your organisation. But it's the what gets me out of bed in the morning question, if what gets you out of bed in the morning is I just need to make some money and do a job, it's not particularly inspiring, and absenteeism is probably likely to be a problem for that organisation. But if what gets you out of bed in the morning is I'm inspired by what the organisation is there for and what it's trying to achieve. And the big picture, that's a lot, that's the discretionary effort that everyone is looking for. That's the extra energy.

Brenton Gowland:

And of course, we were having a discussion about this earlier. So the why affects your vision and your values, which we've talked about before. And you've just been talking about getting the right people in the right mindset. So it's the values of the organisation it kind of filters and we were talking about the fact that in organisations, you will have those people watching the clock, and you know that they're the people who are just there because they need a paycheck, but their heart's not in it. And then those those people, and it's not about working extra hours, but it's about who are passionately believing in the business from the inside. So it's one thing having customers believe in the business. But if you have staff in the business, like you were talking about, if if the why then indicates if you're using premium fuel, or rocket fuel, whatever it is, that's really supercharging your organisation. And that's going to make a huge difference if you've got passionate people there to make that business everything it can be and to implement and put into action, the strategy that you put into place.

Ron Tomlian:

Absolutely. And it should influence that strategy as well. You know, another author that I'm a great fan of Daniel Pink, talks about what what motivates people and the science behind motivation of individuals. He talks about three things, number one, mastery number two, self direction, and third is being able to make a contribution or if you like, the transcendent purpose of the organisation. Now going back to the three questions, or the four questions you need to ask as a basis, where are we now where do we want to be is the vision for the organisation and I've said before in our discussion, it's time limited. So by such and such a date, this is where we want to be, but think of the why answering the question, why do we do this, as the transcendent purpose, the long-term vision for the organisation. You know, in the end, which you never get to anyway, in the long-run, this is what we want to achieve. And it might be a more sustainable world. It might be harmony amongst people, it's usually something that is a desired end state for more than just the organisation. It's a contribution towards an ideal and that's if you like the long term vision for the organisation not just the organisation, but the environment that works within.

Brenton Gowland:

And let's be honest, you know, every business owner or CEO, I would imagine, would want that to be how their staff, how the people who are running the business, think. That they're actually connected the real challenge and the real skill, because you were talking about mastery, and you know, those items, which, you know, help

Ron Tomlian:

Mastery and self-direction.

Brenton Gowland:

Yep, it's that ability to inspire as well, I work in one business where I remember there was a, one of the managers in this business has said, I want to spend the rest of my career here, because I love what's been created, I love what the owner of the business has put in place. And I love the people here, and I just want to keep going. Now, his thinking may change in a few years if the personality of the business changes. But in that business, there's an inspiring leader at the top, who's pushing people to achieve more. And that makes a huge difference as well. But that person has a why that's driving them. And that why then translates through to the rest of the company.

Ron Tomlian:

Let's let's put forward an example. Let's think about an industry or any industry, let's let's think of the solar installers at the moment. Okay, so you've got two companies, both of them are installing solar, one company in terms of articulating its purpose or it's why, says well, we do this so that we can make money. Now, that's not particularly inspiring for customers, they might still do a good job, they might have technical expertise in that area, but it's a kind of, well, I don't really want to know about your profitability, and so on. And it's not particularly inspiring for the employees either because it's all they're doing is trying to make money. You know, and it's, there's nothing wrong with making money, but it's not the reason that I come to you. And it's not the reason I work here, because it's about you, it's not about your customers or about the society I live in. Take another company doing exactly the same thing, installing solar, who said we do or who says our why is to make this a more sustainable world, to make us we're less reliant on fossil fuels and create then an environment that we can we can sustain forever.

Brenton Gowland:

And a future for our kids.

Ron Tomlian:

Yeah, I gotta say, that's more inspiring as a customer. That's the company I'd want to deal with. And as an employee, that's the company I'd want to work for.

Brenton Gowland:

Well as a customer it says to me, that one, that these people will look after their employees because they're interested in the future, and they have a value set that aligns with, you know, what we're thinking. So yeah, that is a very different proposition.

Ron Tomlian:

And it's, it's also, it creates strategies and actions that are congruent in line with that philosophy. So you know, that if that's the purpose of the organisation, the why for the organisation, you can imply or infer a number of different things about the organisation, as you say, they'll look after their employees, they'll look after my place, because they want the environment to be better. They care about people, there's a whole bunch of implied values that go with if this is what inspires them. I want that too. So we're aligned.

Brenton Gowland:

Exactly. So we were just talking about and I think the really important question then becomes how do we establish our why I gave you the example of the inspiring leader, that leader has a why, but I know from working in that business, they haven't necessarily articulated it through the business and not everyone could necessarily answer it, but because his Why is so strong, people follow it, right. But they haven't put it into verbal practice. You were just talking about solar company who has put into practice as a differentiator and also is what drives them to their business. So how do you find that why?

Ron Tomlian:

It's a good question, how do you how do you get to the point where you've, you can articulate that to everyone within the organisation and outside the organisation?

Brenton Gowland:

Because that inspiring leader I said, if they could actually articulate their why and every employee can understand it, that business will go from where it already is, from good to great, and I'm probably referencing that book. We'll talk about that another day. But you know what I mean, if if that leader can get that why out, then that'll make a huge difference to the business.

Ron Tomlian:

And it look it needs to be led, but there's there's processes and and it's it's not a difficult process, if you can articulate a sentence and that requires some effort on the part of the people who are involved in the organisation and particularly the leadership of the organisation. Our Why is to what contribution you want to make, so that when impact we are going to have Iwai is to instal the best solar equipment on people's houses so that we can create a more sustainable future for our country or our environment. Yeah, it's as simple as that. But it's a matter of really getting down to the basics of being able to answer those questions. What's our why? So what contribution do we want to make and what impact we want to have?

Brenton Gowland:

Now I've done this for a number of different businesses, and I've observed this as well is that that statement that you've just talked about sometimes is really difficult for people to put into words, particularly when they've been in an organisation for a long while. Because they're so close to it that actually sometimes finding that thing, which seems so simple can be very, very difficult. So I've worked with three companies now where I've actually written their why by interviewing all their staff and then they've gone wow wee! That's it. So that's an interesting experience. So how often does that happen? But how can that organisation get to find ways to make that statement, something they can actually write themselves?

Ron Tomlian:

I think it's like, with so many different things, it's like with leadership, you know, I deal with with people all the time who are leading organisations, and it starts with self awareness. Okay, in the case of the organisation starts with organisational awareness. How do you get an awareness of what you're like? It's by asking other people. So as you said, sometimes you're too close to it. So talk to your customers, talk to your suppliers, talk to people who you interact with, as an organisation and ask them tell me more about the organisation what impresses you what you see in us that maybe we don't see in ourselves. Get triangulation! I love this analogy. And you talk about how do you find where something is? Well, the way that it's done in the military is to get information from three different points and you triangulate from that. So get triangulation, talk to a number of different people and get their perspectives and feed that back to the organisation and say, this is the way other people see us. How do we see ourselves what's driving this, they seem to be inspired by this aspect of what we do? Have we missed that? Is that something that we're not seeing, because we're too close to it?

Brenton Gowland:

Sometimes finding our why, based on what you're saying, and I love what you've said, here is actually a research piece as well, you got to go exploring. And that's so often true with things that we know intrinsically, but we don't know how to put into words. And I think that's what you've just shared there is really vital for people to actually come to a place of understanding their own business and the value that it contributes,

Ron Tomlian:

it's sometimes difficult to really extricate your motivations, it's much easier to talk to other people about what they see. And imply, or infer those motivations. In looking at yourself as an organisation I'm talking about. I think the same could be said of individuals as well. In fact, in in his book, "Start with Why", Simon Sinek says and find your why that's for the individual to. So it's not just organisations that need to have an awareness of this. And if you're the leader of an organisation, often the wife or the organisation is highly influenced, if not stated by what is your why.

Brenton Gowland:

Well when you're in a smaller business, I think it's the business owner who kind of carries the why. It's about what motivates them, etc. And that, you know, people jump on board with that. And as the business gets larger, that of course, spreads out to the way the business operates. And the management team and the way they kind of work could be leader led, depending on the way that business is structured, but you know, oftentimes it starts to become part of a greater whole.

Ron Tomlian:

Yeah, absolutely. And there's no question that if you've got a whole bunch of different people who have gotten all different sorts of why's, and they've never looked at what is our common why. It might be that I'm inspired by the leader of the organisation. And I think I know what he's why is, because that's what he talks about all the time. You know, this is a relatively new idea that has been developed over the last 20 years or so, is to get this out on the table. The truth of the matter is, it's been going on for hundreds of 1000s of years in terms of society, people align themselves to other people who have the same motivation, or the same idea about the way the world should be.

Brenton Gowland:

And I think we're starting to understand leadership better and the attributes of leadership because good leaders have always been able to articulate their why in some fashion, even if they in themselves, it's just like a built in part of who they are. So that's really good now, but what about the scenario, Ron, back to strategy and finding a way within our business? What if we get to the end of this journey of strategic planning? And we realise once we've done all those interviews that we don't have a good why?

Ron Tomlian:

No, you got to go back and develop it. And don't forget, strategic planning is not something that stops. Strategic planning or the process of implementing plans, developing plans, implementing plans and so on is an ongoing process. So it doesn't matter if you don't have something at the moment or as a starting point, it might have been intrinsically there and just never articulated for the next iteration, you've got the opportunity to start with that discussion. So don't think that I've got this beautiful plan, but it didn't have a why in it, so it's useless. Think of it as I can now implement in the next iteration of my planning cycle, I can implement this discussion or can involve other people in this discussion. So that the next iteration or the next change that we make, I mean, I'm a great fan of the idea of at least on a monthly basis, depending on the size of the organisation having people sitting around talking about the strategy for the organisation, you can inject this all the time, because that will start to influence the next version or the next changes that happen in your strategic plan.

Brenton Gowland:

Fair enough. So if strategic planning keeps going on and on and on the why becomes a constant part of that, and look really, again, from my discussions before, it's almost like you really need to sit down and work out your why before you start doing the strategic planning. We were putting this in as the fifth question. But if you lead with why, if you go into the looking at where you are understanding, does that actually align with our why, how have we got to where we are, and then you start looking at where you want to go? Looking at Vision, Mission values and all these things? Why is a great influencer of how that's put together?

Ron Tomlian:

If you're, from my perspective, if you want a place to put this discussion, its when you finished your discussion about where are we now and before you get into the vision and purpose of the organisation. This is the place that you put the discussion about the why. When you're having a discussion about values, and when you're having a discussion about where we're going to go from here, what will influence that if the if this is the time limited vision for the organisation, let's say five years, okay, in the long run, what do we what are we out on about what is our why will help shape that vision for that time limited period.

Brenton Gowland:

Well it actually makes perfect sense. Because if you're looking at where are we now the first question, why is a part of that?

Ron Tomlian:

Yes.

Brenton Gowland:

Is our why and look, the reason I asked what if you find out you don't have a great why, let's say for instance, your why gets to, we're here to sell a widget. Well, and there's a lot of companies that that's the whole why, like you read the vision mission, and it's I want to sell the most widgets and be the best of the best of the best with honours. Thank you, sir.

Ron Tomlian:

Yes, and a good question to ask those people who have those, what I consider to be quite superficial visions for their organisation. Is ask that question, why? Why do you want that? I want to make a lot of money. Okay, is that what you're on about? Just continually asking the question to really get to the nub of what really gets you going. And it very rarely, I would say, very rarely people are about I just want to make more and more and more and more and more money.

Brenton Gowland:

So all we need to do is come up with a why that really motivates us to why are we in business? Why are we why are we doing this? And that why then actually drives us to grow the business. And that's how strategy will work. Because if you put a strategy together, and we're just going through the motions, sure, we might make a bit of extra money. But like we said earlier, there's no real jet fuel in the engine or premium fuel in the engine that's really going to make this car, make this bus, whatever it is just hum with brilliance.

Ron Tomlian:

That's right. And it comes to the question of and we could maybe do another podcast on this one, what is being able to answer for yourself and for the organisation? What does success really look like? A lot of people's vision or idea of success is driven by external factors. What other people tell them, that they're next car, the next house, it's not particularly satisfying. And they then are struggling for what's next after that, being able to articulate for yourself what is success in life look like for me? And what does success in life look like for this organisation is a very worthwhile discussion.

Brenton Gowland:

Great. And I think we'll wrap it up there. So that has been our series on demystifying strategic planning. And this last question was, why are we doing it anyway? And as we've kind of talked about, why becomes that motivator? It's that fuel that we put in the engine to get us there. And we want a bumpy ride with high-ethanol fuel. I think you were saying earlier, or do we want to a really smooth ride with an engine that's got lots of torque and lots of power?

Ron Tomlian:

Well, let's be contemporary, or do we want a perfectly smooth ride and go for electricity?

Brenton Gowland:

Wow wee! Elon Musk would be proud of that comment.

Ron Tomlian:

As an old electrical engineer. That will that was always my idea.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah. Fantastic. So thank you for joining us for this series. We hope you've enjoyed it. And we hope you've got some useful information out of it. What we're going to do over the next few weeks, we're going to look at interviewing a couple of people who've put what we've talked about into action. So actual business leaders that can come and talk about how they've implemented and facilitated and communicated strategy throughout their businesses and the difference its made and then at the back end of that we're going to start a series on business development, which is one of the key aspects of really getting a business to grow. And that is of course, not sales, but business development, which is an important distinction. But we'll talk about that in coming weeks Ron.

Ron Tomlian:

Very good.

Brenton Gowland:

Okay, so thank you for listening, and it's bye from me.

Ron Tomlian:

And bye from me.

Intro
About our topic, why are we doing this anyway?
Understanding our why and putting it into action
An example of a great why
How do we establish our why?
What if we don't have a good why?
Where does finding our why fit in the strategic planning process?
Conclusion