“Strategy is a style of thinking, a conscious and deliberate process, an intensive implementation system, the science of insuring future success.” - Pete Johnson
with Alistair Kerr
Jargon & Doublespeak: Diminishing The Power of Words…
Buzz words and jargon such as ‘strategic’ and ‘inquiry’ dominate the cynical comments and games of buzz word bingo played by jaded public servants in the health and education sectors. This dark humour stems from the occasional misuse of such buzz words by the powers that be to marginalise the efforts of those on the front line. George Orwell, critically acclaimed author ofAnimal Farm and the dystopian masterpiece1984popularised the term‘double speak’once saying – “If thought corrupts language, then language can corrupt thought”. From my experience, he’s right…
…”Why can’t they be more ‘strategic’ about patient care”bemoans the health executive when referring to his senior hospital facility leaders, who seem to be perpetually operating in a ‘sky is falling’, reactionary, crisis driven way…
…”Student learning and behaviour would be greatly enhanced by school leaders embracing an ‘inquiry’ approach” complains the senior education administrator…
Yet, under further questioning, the confusion of buzz words begins to reveal itself. Strategic of course means ‘identifying issues within the overall aims of a plan’, however this is not anywhere near the type of commentary heard when seeking clarification from executives about the specific shortfalls of health staff who are ‘not being strategic’.Inquiry simply means to‘ask a question or to investigate an issue’, however when education administrators are asked about the specific question or topic of investigation school leaders are apparently missing, they often draw a blank on the specific details... .
Despite this occasional misuse, these two words: ‘strategic inquiry’ (i.e.,‘to identify and investigate issues critical to the success of a plan’ ) have great power when used in their truest sense – and sit at the heart of deep dive discussions – something that the highest performance teams regularly engage in using a specific and disciplined approach in order to massively increase the value of the work they do.
Strategic Inquiry: Deep Dive Discussions in High Performance Teams
If 'strategic inquiry' neatly describes the content or the ‘what’ that High Performance Teams focus their attention on, then Deep Dive discussions would be the simplest description of ‘how’ they go about it in a disciplined, time efficient, and easily understood manner. Below, we’ll unpack the simple genius behind Deep Dives so that you can see that with even as little as 15 minutes set aside in a regular team meeting agenda (as well as a little preparation time), every team can stretch their strategic inquiry muscles! However, like any apparently simple process, the devil is often in the detail so we'll step out some important processes for preparing and running Deep Dives successfully...
Preparation P1: Getting 'In The Zone' with The Big Question
The first step of the Deep Dive process is the preparation that happens outside of the team meeting. For those who will be running the Deep Dive it is important to 'get in the zone' and switch gears in their brains from reactionary crisis driven mode into logical strategic mode. This is best done through a simple reflection activity answeringThe Big Question:
Describe the most significant problem impacting upon your team or organisation...AND
A) what is the best possible outcome if the problem is solved?
B) what is the worst-case scenario if it is unsolved?
Answering this simple question provides the scaffolding to reveal the most important strategic issues, otherwise known as the “5% Issues". 5% issues are the issues that usually sit at the periphery of our thinking because they are either too ambitious or too time/energy draining to tackle during the course of the day’s regular business. However, these are also the issues that if resolved will push the team the farthest, making other team actions easier (or in some cases unnecessary) – allowing for effort to be spent elsewhere.
Once the 5% issues have been identified, the next step ofpreparing a Deep Dive is to devise a probing question that is worthy of the group’s time and consideration. Too often questions that are raised within meetings are too vague/general or of low strategic importance. These questions don’t meet the standard of question required to conduct a deep dive and are better asked in other forums.
A formula that many High Performance Teams find useful for forming their Deep Dive Discussion questions is:‘How can we ensure/guarantee that (OUTCOME) by (TIME) so that everyone can benefit from (IMPACT)?’.Remember a good question is one that ‘stretches’ the group – that creates an almost impossible challenge – opening up our minds to think as laterally as possible.
Preparation P2: Coaching & Worksheet…
Preparing a Deep Dive is challenging as it is easy to be tempted by daily distractions into non-strategic thinking. Because of this, we recommend using a template such as the one shown in the example and ensuring that the ‘presenter’ has a ‘coach’ to help them complete the preparation process. The role of ‘coach’ should not be under-estimated for both the support and quality assurance provided – most Deep Dives that do not yield magical results are simply prepared poorly often in isolation without the benefit of an objective coach ensuring the topic is adequately prepared for the group discussion.
Through preparing a probing question, outlining what is known about the issue (Left Brain [facts], and Right Brain [emotions]), and what has already been tried to resolve it, a Deep Dive focuses the group to move beyond the obvious and greatly improves the relevance to team purpose and scope, the team’s comprehension of the issue and specific needs, the quality of ideas and solutions shared among the team, and the extent to which next steps and new pathways are now evident for the presenter.BONUS TIP: The Deep Dive Worksheet, not only helps refine and sharpen the focus of the Strategic Inquiry but is also a great 'briefing paper' for pre-reading by the team and/or a 'hand out' to refer to in fast-tracking the presentation component of the Deep Dive discussion.
Action: Running The Deep Dive Discussion…
With proper preparation, and the effective use of the Deep Dive Worksheet as an aide in the presentation (and/or pre-reading), even the most complex issues can usually be presented effectively within the 7-minute allocated time. With the group now well versed on the intricacies of the strategic inquiry topic as well as fast-tracked to the possible solutions and outstanding concerns, the subsequent 7-minute brainstorming session (noting key points on a whiteboard as discussion progresses) will ALWAYS create powerful insights that can be quite astounding as well as innovative ideas and solutions that would not otherwise have emerged.
A great Deep Dive discussion creates an almost 'mystical vibe' as the magic of a team 'in sync' with each other and the issue at hand leads to rapidly flowing ideas and innovations. As the 7-minute brainstorm concludes and the 1 minute takeaway summary from the presenter wraps the session, the team is left buzzing with excitement about new possibilities to solve previously impossible problems and change the world in new and better ways!
Deep Dives In Action 1: Health
The Executive Health team were stuck. They’d been going around in circles regarding their role and scope as they were about to set out on a new 10-year strategic plan, the success of which largely hinged upon effectively managing series of external partnerships… (captured by the Deep Dive NON-EXAMPLE below:How does exec ensure that strategic partnerships are delivered successfully?). Their strategic focus was neither sharp nor narrow and frustrations were growing as executives argued about the specifics of how to best manage the situation…
Having recently completed HPT Meeting Training they realised the topic need to be dealt with using a Strategic Inquiry focus and thus a Deep Dive was scheduled for the following meeting and a presenter and coach was assigned. During the subsequent Preparation process and Presenter and Coach usedThe Big Questionas a reflection tool to be able to identify the “5% issues” within the topic. With this reflection completed an appropriate, sharp and narrow deep dive question which satisfied the recipe (‘How can we ensure/guarantee that (OUTCOME) by (TIME) so that everyone can benefit from (IMPACT)?was able to be established and a the Deep Dive Worksheet completed and sent out as pre-reading before the next meeting.
With the revised question now in focus, (How do we ensure appropriate Executive Engagement in each partnership so that: 1.All relevant execs are a) always up to date, b) able to input where needed, and c) able to proactively support; and 2.Maximise the benefit to the whole organisation both during and after the partnership) every executive at the table could see that they had 'skin in the game'. This led to a significant improvement in the quality of the brainstorming discussion and solution focused ideas generated by the executive team that far exceeded anything that had been done in the previous six months! Today the team is performing better than ever as they go about executing on their ambitious strategic plan.
Deep Dives In Action 2: Education
Another example of Deep Dives in Action is from the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) of a large State High School who were struggling with ways to improve student outcomes in year 12. As you can see in the example below, the most obvious question ‘How do we increase the number of students getting a high OP score at the end of year 12?’ was really a ‘red herring’ or distraction from what the more significant underlying issue was (within the direct control of SLT).
The 5% Question was“How do we as the school leadership team improve consistency so we can guarantee that every year 12 student who gets an ‘A’ in our school also gets an A on an independent QCS assessment?” The ideas and solutions that the SLT generated from this (EXAMPLE) question created a much higher quality and consistency of education for all students across the school compared to the ideas generated from the non-example question which simply focused onband-aid approaches such as ‘one-off’ exam preparation strategies….
Bringing It All Together…
As we have seen, returning to the true definition of strategic inquiry by providing teams with a simple,time efficient ‘Deep Dive’ process to focus on their most challenging 5% issues can help to shake off the cynicism and inertia that usually goes hand in hand with strategic discussions.
Deep Dives, if prepared properly, ignite incredible innovation and allow any team to conquer seemingly unsolvable problems all within a 15 minutes meeting discussion. What are the 5% issues that your team needs to solve?...
Dr Pete Stebbins PhD
Dr Pete Stebbins, PhD,is a workplace psychologist, executive coach & author of the recently released book:"Level Up! Building The Highest Performance Teams". Pete has many years of research and professional practice behind him working extensively in education and health. Pete is the director of theHigh Performance Schools Programworking with a large number of schools to maximise staff and student outcomes.
