The Soft Side of Strategy and the Hard Edge of Change
By Buckley Brinkman
Business leaders have a strange and complex job, especially when they are implementing new strategies and / or leading their organization through change. It’s a job that requires different (and often conflicting) skill sets: the hard-nosed approach of an Army general insisting on achieving results while at the same time acting like a Girl Scout leader perceiving the nuances of organizational behavior and corporate culture. It reminds me of the famous Muhammad Ali quote: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
This complexity is particularly true when it comes to executing new strategies and leading change. Each task has what I call a soft side and a hard side: executing new strategies requires a hard approach (focus on operations, performance, and results) as well as a soft approach (focus on market assessments, strengths / weaknesses, strategies, and organizational behavior), while leading change also requires a hard approach (focus on execution) combined with a soft approach (culture change).
Because this job is so strange and complex, it’s very difficult to do. Executive leaders who are able to operate in all four areas are hard to find. My experience shows that top management usually excels with the hard side of strategy and the soft side of change, because these often represent paths of least resistance. Decisions in these areas are usually very clear, involve only incremental change, and result in a minimum of disruption. Although they are easy paths to follow, they rarely lead to the best places. I’ve observed that the “danger zone” is when leaders get caught between the soft side of strategy and the hard edge of change.
The Hard and Soft Side of Strategy
I’ll first address the hard and soft side of strategy. At Manchester Companies, we used a six-step approach to implementing strategy with our clients, which enabled us to address strategy in a systematic and comprehensive way. The organization’s future depends on leadership to examine all the critical elements and this six-step approach provides the guide.
Source: Manchester Companies
These six steps follow in chronological order, with each step building on the actions and decisions made in earlier steps. The first three steps (Management’s Assessments, Management’s Choices, Organizational Behavior) align the organization with the desired target market. Intense scrutiny is given to external factors and how to best position the company in order to maximize strengths, minimize weaknesses, take advantage of opportunities, and neutralize or avoid serious threats. The analysis and decisions made during these steps set the strategic path for the organization to follow.
The first three phases form the soft side of strategy. Setting a firm foundation, aligned with the marketplace, requires thorough analysis, careful planning, and mature judgment. The interaction of these factors is a soft skill – not subject to black and white interpretation. The ability to reach a state of clarity in these phases requires an amalgamation of business acumen, experience, and courage. It’s a tough process and one not subject to the correct answers of accounting or quantitative management.
Aligning all the systems in the company with available market opportunities takes a great deal of external study, internal reflection, and energy to go through the thought and debate required to create optimal decisions. These steps require time to examine the critical issues and forces facing the organization in order to identify, evaluate, and choose the strategic option(s) that will create the greatest success. The decisions made in the first three steps of the process set up the execution and measurement steps in the Operations, Performance, and Results steps.
Those last three steps operationalize the strategy set forth in the first three steps. The focus during this phase goes inward, to the actions necessary to execute the strategy. These are the decisions most managers feel well equipped to handle. They are straightforward decisions, often with black and white answers, supported by clear, hard data. The hard side of strategy is truly the comfort zone for most managers.
Source: Manchester Companies
As a result, many companies short-circuit the process, trying to enter the model in the Operations phase and glossing over the soft side of strategy. These organizations are seduced by the ease of setting measurable targets and applying traditional management techniques. The measurable and familiar take precedence over the uncertainty and difficulty of executing the first three phases. Strategy becomes a financial prediction exercise. This may result in effective execution of an ineffective plan, like a car traveling 100 miles per hour on the wrong Interstate.
Executives must be disciplined enough to focus on both the soft and hard side of strategy. It requires focused leadership with the patience and persistence to provide the “dwell time” necessary to fully develop an effective foundation for their strategies. These leaders drive analysis to the point of thoroughness, without overkill; provide vision without stifling creativity; and crystallize a focused direction in the face of interminable uncertainty. These leaders set the company up for managers to apply their hard side maintenance skills and measures.
The Soft and Hard Edge of Change
Catalyzing change also requires addressing hard and soft elements: hard elements address execution, while the soft side involves culture change. Both play critical roles in change situations, with balance being a vital skill. In our experience, organizations find it much more difficult to address the harder issues of change. More accurately, they fail to put a hard edge on their change efforts.Many times the focus of the change effort is on changing the culture and making the organization accepting of the change at hand. Project teams are formed. Newsletters are started. Massive training efforts begin to teach everyone why the changes are important. The soft skills take the lead in the quest to make the organization a kinder, gentler place. All of this comes from a core belief that if colleagues know the goals, have the skills to attain those goals, and are given a nurturing environment to accomplish those goals, success will quickly occur.
However, by focusing on the soft edge of change, three things generally happen in these environments that cause the change effort to fail:
- Teams fail to accomplish anything of real meaning because they are poorly chartered, poorly led, and/or do not have the support necessary to push through difficult situations.
- Training fails to make a meaningful difference because the skills and knowledge learned do not apply to the situation, are learned without being put into practice, and/or employees are not ready to learn.
- Financial and operational goals either become the sole focus, thwarting change, or forgotten in the change process.
Much of this happens because well-meaning management focuses on the soft side of change – creating a fertile environment – while failing to add a hard edge by using teams and support resources to execute crisply and effectively.
That hard edge comes from the unwavering commitment of the organization’s leadership to support the teams and actions that move the organization toward success, and absolute intolerance for activity that prevents that success. Just as addressing the soft side of strategy requires unique leadership talents, honing the hard edge of change requires leaders to have a clear understanding of what actions and results constitute progress. That can be tougher than it seems because difficult challenges often involve some degree of initial failure in order to gain necessary learning and experience. Effective leaders in these situations make crisp, well-reasoned decisions in an often-nebulous context.
Putting It Together
Successful organizations are experts at devoting the time and expertise necessary to attack the soft side of strategy, setting the foundation for effective implementation. Implementation is a disciplined approach that uses teams and an empowering environment to put a hard edge on change, driving the entire organization toward superior performance. They truly understand that the hard edge of change makes the soft side of strategy a reality.
I believe in strong teams, working within inclusive cultures, executing well-developed strategic plans. This requires organizations to deal with the soft side of strategy and the hard edge of change. Working through those issues require the best that leaders can bring to the situation. The patience, persistence, consistency, and creativity these actions take bring out the best in these leaders. Helping organizations develop this leadership is the most rewarding part of our profession.
