@tomcuthbert

...... technology, sports, marketing & life

Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Filed under: Vistage

Corporate Strategy: 5 Critical Alignments To Assess

By 

As businesses muddle out of the recessionary hangover, the fundamentals management matter more than ever. For multi-national enterprises and small businesses alike – it is all about the results. With the pressure to perform ratcheted up to an all time high, corporate strategy and crisp execution are top of mind with business leaders. Crisp execution requires business strategies to be aligned with methodically planned actions. This article addresses five of those key areas where alignment to corporate strategy are essential to business effectiveness.

1.  Strategy and mission alignment

If organizations cannot succinctly explain what they do, how will their marketplace consumers understand it? An organization’s mission statement must be defined broadly enough to allow room to maneuver, yet be direct and purposeful in defining the market(s) served, the products and / or services provided by the firm and the distinguishing characteristics of those offerings.

Let’s look at Target’s mission statement as an example and then break it down into parts.

Target’s Mission:  “Our mission is to make Target the preferred shopping destination for our guests by delivering outstanding value, continuous innovation and an exceptional guest experience by consistently fulfilling our Expect More. Pay Less.® brand promise.”

What are the key elements?

-  Market Served: economy and quality minded shoppers

-  Contribution: exceptional guest experience

-  Distinction: outstanding value, continuous innovation and an exceptional guest experience by consistently offering more for less

This same information must align with the strategy of the organization. Strategies are broad in scope, but should also be capable of being summed up in strategy statements that employees will understand and embrace. A strategy statement, while being simple in structure, must also anticipate the need for adaptability. Too much specificity in the statement will undermine flexibility down the road.

At a minimum, for strategy to yield competitive advantage, it must address three key questions:

- “What do we do?”

- “Who are our customers?”

- “How do we do what we do better than our competitors?”

The aligned strategy statement “shell” for one of Target’s brands might be stated as follows:

“Our strategy is to _____ by offering _____, at a cost that brings value to our customers unmatched by our competition through  ___ and ____.”

Note the alignment of elements in the mission and strategy:

Contribution = “What do we do?”

Market Served = “Who are our customers?”

Distinction = “How do we do what we do better than our competitors?”

2.  Strategic goals and core values alignment

Strategic goals and organizational core values are both extremely important aspects any business, so overlooking the alignment of these elements is a serious mistake.

Strategic goals should define the outcomes the organization desires to accomplish in measurable terms.

Core values serve as the compass to help steer strategic decision making. Businesses should know what these values are and state them in no uncertain terms.

If a core value of the organization is to respect employees and promote quality of life, then setting goals that are unrealistic and are sure to drive employees into the ground is a violation of that core value. Such a violation represents an alignment issue. While super-human feats may bring about short-term benefits, sustaining them over time is not realistic – therefore, no long-term advantages will be gained.

3.  Strategic goals and operational capacity alignment

The best way to ensure alignment between strategic goals and operational capacity is to face realities during planning and do not allow over zealousness projections to take over. Ask questions.

-  Do our internal systems have the ability to support goal achievement?

-  Will suppliers, distributors and partners be able to keep pace in support of goal attainment?

-  Can our managers and employees step up to the added workload an pressure we will be asking of them?

4.  Strategic goals and core competencies alignment

Strategies should follow a simple alignment rule related to business core competencies. Compete where you have an advantage, otherwise do not. Do the skills and knowledge exist in the right levels within the organization to accomplish the strategic goals? In strategy development, the question of “what should we do” is a corollary to the “what we do” question.  This perspective relates to building competitiveness in your offering and exploring tangential markets that might be exploited, provided that the barriers to entry are not too high and organizational capabilities match the opportunities being evaluated.  Truly gauging core competencies is key to ensuring alignment exists in this area.

5.  Strategy and operational execution tactics alignment

Operations-level planning describes the tactics of execution, correlating strategy to action. Misalignment often occurs here, primarily because companies skip over operational planning altogether or do a poor job of paying attention to details.

The goal of the operational planning is to create realistic and comprehensive work breakdown structures (project plans) for the work entailed in all identified initiatives related to the strategic goals of the client. Additionally, accountability and responsibility structures get established at the initiative and project levels when operational planning is done correctly. This activity has an important alignment to budgets, as it affects resource plans, infrastructure and schedules that might have downstream consequences to sales, marketing and other functions.

In conclusion

It is critically important to build alignment into strategic plans as they are constructed and each time they are refreshed. Alignment refers to sensibly attaching strategies to actions while remaining true to the organization’s mission, core values, actual operational capabilities and core competencies along the way.

How Peer Advisory Groups Can Change The World

By 

When you consider the nature of today’s public discourse – with the right screaming at the left and the left shouting at the right – you hear the noise loud and clear, but no one is ever really listening.  And if they ARE listening, it isn’t to understand the logic behind an opposing argument; it’s to collect punch lines that bolster one’s own point of view.  People listen selectively for ammunition they can repeat at cocktail parties or share in blog posts.  I call it ammunition because it rarely serves to strengthen one’s own position; instead, it’s aimed at shooting holes in another’s point of view and, too often, in a fashion that’s intellectually dishonest.

One of my favorites attributes of the Peer Advisory Group is that it is a safe haven for what scholars would describe as “skilled discussion.”   It’s a place where people see others as special rather than different. A setting where participants really listen to one another.  And more importantly, an environment that embodies Stephen Covey’s 5th Habit, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”  It’s not the place for debate – where the goal is to be right.  Nor is it the place for pure dialogue, because helping members come to a decision is an essential benefit of the interaction.  It is where skilled discussion lives and thrives!  Here’s the best definition I’ve found for it:

“A way of talking that leads to decisions. Skilled discussions are infused with rigorous critical thinking, mutual respect, weighing of options, and decision making that serves the groups’ vision, values, and goals. A skilled discussion’s goal is to reach decisions. In its Latin roots, decide means to kill choice. Thus, a discussion is aimed at eliminating some ideas from a field of possibilities so that stronger ideas will win. Groups who are skilled at discussing employ many cognitive operations related to critical thinking, but not in any particular sequence.

“In its most ineffective form, to discuss is to hurl ideas at one another. Discussing ideas, in unskilled groups, often takes the form of serial sharing or advocacy. Decisions are attempted through a variety of either voting or consensus techniques. When discussion is unskilled and dialogue is absent, decisions are often poor quality, represent the opinions of the most vocal members or the leader, lack group commitment, and do not stay made” (Garmston & Wellman, 1998).

While the noise of today’s public debate may spike television ratings, it’s a poor excuse for communication in a civilized society.   It’s a recipe for gridlock and division.  Give me skilled discussion any day.  Peer Advisory Groups can’t change the world, but what we learn from them and how we can lead and inspire others to communicate based on that experience, could make a big difference.  People who regularly participate in these groups will tell you that for them, it already has.

Peer Advisory Groups Bring Out the Best in People

by  

Vice President Biden tells a story of when he first entered the U.S. Senate, shortly after his 30th birthday. Upon his arrival, he tended only to see the differences between himself and many of his 

Republican colleagues and quickly developed contentious relationships with those with whom he disagreed.  Montana Senator and Majority Leader at the time, Mike Mansfield, took Biden under his wing and explained that in the Senate, “We have to work together despite our differences.”  He told Biden that every Senator was elected by his constituents because those constituents saw something inherently good in that member. He challenged Biden to do the same – to find the good in each of his Senate colleagues, no matter how vehemently he may disagree with them.  Biden followed that advice and rather than focus on partisan differences, he looked for common ground.  By doing so, he discovered the good in each of his colleagues.  Over time, despite a rough start, they discovered the good in him as well.

First impressions can be fraught with judgments about differences and unfair speculation about what motivates those differences.  Too often, people don’t move past that stage, at least not very quickly or easily.  Peer advisory groups are hard-wired for helping us seek out the good in others because it’s why we are there in the first place.  We’re looking for the value our peers bring to the room.  By listening, learning, and opening our minds to new ways of thinking, we see our peer group members for their pluses, rather than their minuses. Covey’s Habit #5, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood” could not be more apropos.  As peer advisory group members, we don’t look at others for what makes them different; we look at our peers with an eye for what makes them special.  It’s a big reason peer advisory groups accomplish so much.  And best of all, it influences the way we look at everyone in all aspects of our lives.

On Friday, I participated in a peer advisory group session with my marketing colleagues at Vistage.  Everyone at that table is so special in his or her own right.  They have so much to contribute, both to the individuals in the group and toward our common purpose as a leadership community.  I learn so much every time I’m around them.  It’s one thing to hear Joe Biden’s story and understand the lesson.  It’s quite another to stick your hands in the clay, so to speak, as a peer advisory group member and experience it for yourself.  It’s just one more reason this brand of interaction is so meaningful.

Imagine if we had a few Mike Mansfields coaching legislators on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill.   If that happened, Congress might actually accomplish as much in 2012 as our group did on Friday.

Peer Advisory Groups Will Throw You For A Loop

by 

A reinforcing loop that is.  One of the most powerful dynamics of the peer advisory group is the momentum created when peers engage in a cycle of learning, sharing, applying, and achieving.  Whether they 

are executives with different skills sets from the same organization or CEOs collaborating with fellow CEOs from entirely different industries and backgrounds, they participate in a process that by its nature fuels continuous improvement.  For larger companies, even those with robust formal training programs, internal peer advisory groups can play a major role in maximizing a company’s Return On Development.  For small businesses, it’s often a brilliantly effective stand-alone solution for developing people and growing the enterprise.

The prevailing model in many large companies today is what I’ve described in earlier posts as Trickle-Down Leadernomics:Traditional episodic training designed to stimulate positive behavioral changes, aimed to build better leaders who inspire commitment rather than mere compliance, in an effort to create a healthier culture, a more productive workplace, and happier employees whom you hope will one day perform like a well-oiled machine and drive double-digit growth and profitability for years to come. (Notice the amount of “trickle-down” it takes to achieve the desired result).

The two big problems with Trickle-Down Leadernomics are 1)  If you believe the axiom that “practice makes perfect,” then you would probably agree that what you learn in training, while inviting and practical, is not likely to find its way into your daily routine unless you have the discipline and support system to assure its application.  And even then, short term behavioral changes tend to give way to old habits.  2) Since most companies don’t have a formal mechanism for helping individuals share and apply what they’ve learned, the organization by definition gets shortchanged.   It’s a bit like planting a garden and not giving it water or sunlight.

Believe it or not, I’m a HUGE fan of formal executive development, which is the reason I can’t stand to see so much of it go to waste.  That’s why I believe the reinforcing loop inherent in a highly functioning peer advisory group is worth some thoughtful consideration:

Learning – It’s the first stage of the process and, for too many organizations, it’s often the last.  In Peter Senge’sbook, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, he describes learning organizations this way: “…where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, are where people are learning how to learn together.”  Senge goes on to say that we wouldn’t suggest we learned how to ride a bicycle if we only actually rode the bike once.  It’s about demonstrating the capacity to produce quality results repeatedly.  It’s the difference between riding a bike and being a bicycle rider. Peer advisory groups create bicycle riders by fostering deep learning.

Sharing – Whether it’s knowledge gained from reading a book or attending an offsite training program, sharing delivers value to our peers and colleagues and, in our role as teacher or conveyor, helps us embed what we’ve learned.  Peer groups not only engage in rich dialogue about cutting-edge concepts, but the group members tend to ask hard questions and challenge each other to tackle complex issues using their newfound knowledge.  Peers reinforce and essentially give each other permission to try new ways of working.  As I wrote last week, peer to peer influence is incredibly powerful.

Applying – It’s hard to stress the importance of applying what you’ve learned.  Can you imagine a football team showing up for a game without having practiced?  It’s unconscionable.   The best of the best don’t rely on talent alone to excel or win championships.  They take what they learn and apply it until it becomes second nature.   Peer groups hold us accountable for practicing our craft and fine-tuning news ways of working.

Achieving – Good behaviors will replace bad ones, but only over time and after repeated success.  Achieving inspires believing.  And once you believe in yourself and grow to trust a newfound way of working, it fuels the hunger to learn more and the cycle continues.  Achieving also inspires others to emulate your behavior.  Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner call it modeling the way!  As a CEO you can model the way for your peers and your employees and, as leaders in larger companies, you can do the same.   It’s about walking the talk and others following your lead.  There’s nothing more powerful.

If you don’t mind getting thrown for a loop, then you’re an excellent candidate for either joining an external peer advisory group or starting one in your organization.   If you’re planting the garden anyway, why not help it grow?

Why I Decided to Join Vistage: A Member's Perspective

Nytlogo153x23

By MP MUELLER

 

BRANDED

An insider’s guide to small-business marketing.

 

As kids, when we used to wrestle and play around, we had an expression for when someone had you pinned, and you were in enough pain that you wanted to concede — you would yell, “calf rope!” The rodeo term is not one I have used in running my business. At least not until recently.

When I started my advertising business 17 years ago in Austin, Tex., I knew I needed to learn some things about running the business. A steady diet of self-help, business and motivational books taught me just enough, and my instincts took over from there. And then luck kicked in. We eventually grew to more than $8 million a year in annual revenue. But the lingering effects of the recession left me scrambling a bit late last year when many of our clients cut their ad budgets for the second year in a row.

There was a time when I could check the bank account balance monthly, and things would always work out. Those days are over. More recently, whenever my staff looks to me for answers, I dance as fast as I can and try to make it look effortless, but the answers that come out often sound hollow. Gradually, I have accepted that I need some new financial tools. I have to start making better projections and paying attention to the right ratios. I need to get some advice on when to pull the trigger when hiring additional employees. 

These thoughts had been building for some time, but something really clicked when, in an exit interview, a departing employee asked, “Why hasn’t this company grown more?” This person clearly had been expecting a bigger career arc here. And, it bothered me that we hadn’t managed to produce one. We have never expanded meteorically like other agencies. Of course, we have never had layoffs either, something that is very important to me. But why haven’t we grown more? I came to the conclusion that maybe I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

Yes, I was in need of some real time, real world advice. And while friends and family are wonderful and well-meaning, I have learned it’s best to stick to questions like, “How do you grill a turkey?” So, last fall, I began to think again about joining a business group, the kind where you meet regularly with other owners and talk about what’s working and what isn’t.

I had been approached a few years ago to join Vistage by a client who belonged. I attended one session and decided it wasn’t a good fit or investment. At the time, the meetings seemed a bit too structured for me, and I didn’t really connect with the group chair. Three years, and a recession later, a guy who serves on a nonprofit board with me and whose business acumen I respect, encouraged me to meet with his Vistage group chair.

I was first vetted over drinks by a couple of the group’s members, a tradition they use to conduct chemistry checks. The checks, I learned, are important in a group that reveals all to one another with a pledge of complete silence to the outside world (a pledge I will not violate in these posts). As we were leaving, these two personable, accomplished businessmen gave each other a hug and said, “I love you man.” Somehow, as I contemplated becoming the only woman in a group of men, that openness reassured me. Of course, I was also impressed by a 2010 Dun & Bradstreet analysis (pdf) that showed Vistage member companies in the United States had grown between 2005 and 2009 at an average annual rate of 5.8 percent while other D&B companies had declined at an average annual rate of 9.2  percent. Sign me up.

The concept of Vistage is to gather chief executives from complementary businesses into small groups. There is a group chair, usually a former chief executive who enjoys mentoring others, who organizes the monthly all-day meetings, and who also meets monthly with each member one-on-one for an hour and a half or so to offer individual coaching. When I first met our group chair, Bill LaRosa, a native New Yorker and a former global semiconductor executive who dresses Savile Row but with handmade, exotic leather cowboy boots, I was a little hesitant. Could my small business benefit from someone who had spent much of his time in huge corporations?

It turns out it could. Bill sees his business group as extended family, sincerely wants you to succeed and is truly on the leader board for smarts. For all of his corporate experience, his demeanor is closer to that of a counselor or therapist. He never tells you what to do; he leads you to a logical course of action through a series of smart questions. Recognizing that success is holistic, our one-on-one and group meetings always start with a numerical assessment — one for poor, five for great — of how each member is doing in three areas: health, personal and business. In our one-on-one sessions, we sometimes spend more time talking about family matters than business. And there’s a release in that, too. Getting feedback on personal matters can free your mind to focus better on issues that affect  your business more directly.

The fact that I am the only woman in this group has had its advantages. Much of my thinking and communications style is high-touch relationship centered. While this can be a strength, I also recognize it has shortcomings. I want to assimilate a more direct approach. At one point, the group asked how I felt about cursing. I responded with a sentence that included some four-letter evidence that I’m O.K. with it. It was a bonding moment.

Part of the appeal is the supportive honesty. While I encourage people at the agency to be honest with one another and with me, I know there’s always a tendency to hold back a bit around bosses. It’s been refreshing to have someone say, as Bill did, “I’m not going to accept that, MP. What is it I’m not understanding?” I think it was in response to my saying that I didn’t know what to do about a certain business challenge. Deep down, of course, I really did know. But I needed someone to tell me that.

More on what I’m getting from my Vistage experience in my next post.

MP Mueller is the founder of Door Number 3, a boutique advertising agency in Austin, Tex. Follow Door Number 3 on Facebook.

How Do You Pick the Right Business Group?

Nytlogo153x23
By JAY GOLTZ
Thinking Entrepreneur

There are many variables to consider before you join a business group. The harsh reality is that whether you spend $100 per year or $13,000, business groups can provide a mediocre experience. If you’ve read my other posts, you know I’m a veteran (and a dropout) of four groups, which I think leaves me well positioned to suggest some questions you should ask yourself and the group before you decide to join:

1. Why exactly are you joining? There are no good or bad groups — just the right or wrong groups depending on your goals and your needs. Are you looking for people to compare notes with, to do some networking with, to commiserate with occasionally? If so, a Chamber of Commerce group might do the trick. But please don’t think this is the same as a professionally run group that spends an entire day examining all aspects of a business from its financials to its sales plans. There is also a huge difference between running a $1 million business and running a $1 million business that you want to turn into a $10 million business. Try to be honest with yourself about whether you will be comfortable spilling your business guts to a group of strangers. Do you really want input? Or do you just think you want input?

2. Who, if anyone, will be running the meetings? Does the person have the right background, experience and training to do a great job? Are you comfortable with the person? Is there a one-on-one component?

3. Will there be outside speakers? Are they paid? How are they chosen? What topics have they covered in the past?

4. Are there any events, Webinars, or other opportunities to meet other people and see other things?

5. Where and when are the meetings? Are you confident that you will be able to attend on a consistent basis? I have seen numerous problems with people who planned to attend but frequently had to miss meetings.

6. How many people are in the group? How often do they add new members? What are the qualifications to join? How many meetings can you miss before it becomes a problem?

7. What do they do, if anything, to ensure that all of the members contribute? This can be ugly. A nice person shows up at every meeting but has nothing to contribute or for whatever reason doesn’t participate. What do you do? Remember, you might be spending about $1,100 and a day of your life to sit through a meeting with this person who has little ability to help anyone else, or doesn’t take anyone’s advice and continues to make the same mistakes year after year. Maybe you are nicer than I am, but I have a problem with this. Business can be cruel. I want to be in a group that has some mechanism in place to maintain the quality of the experience. I have seen first hand what happens when the expertise of a group gets dragged down. The better people leave. Just like a business. And that’s the point: to be well run, a group has to be run like a business.

8. How much will this kind of feedback be worth to you? I cannot emphasize this enough. If you can’t make back the $13,000 cost many times over, you are in the wrong group. If your company is small and you can’t handle $13,000 per year, there are cheaper options that are available that are probably a good start. But again: a networking group is not a business advisory group. Sure, there can be an element of networking, but the primary function of an advisory group is to educate or advise the chief executive on how to run a better company.

I know there are many groups around the country that people are very happy with. Please feel free to give us your 2 cents.

Jay Goltz owns five small businesses in Chicago.

 

Decisions, decisions...

by 

decisionsOver the past couple of weeks, I’ve given a great deal of thought to an article I read in The New York Times by John Tierney called, Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue? The article comes from a larger body of work which Tierney co-authored with Roy Baumeister – a book titled, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.    Baumeister notes, “Even the wisest people won’t make good choices when they are not rested and their glucose is low.  That’s why the truly wise don’t restructure the company at 4:00 p.m.  They don’t make major commitments during the cocktail hour.  And if a decision must be made late in the day, they know not to do it on an empty stomach.  The best decision makers are the ones who know when not to trust themselves.”

The concept of decision fatigue takes many forms, whether it’s understanding the best time of day to make decisions, knowing when are least likely to accept tradeoffs, or connecting our eating habits to our personal willpower.

For example, Tierney explains, “…even people with phenomenally strong willpower in the rest of their lives can have a hard time losing weight.  They start out the day with virtuous intentions, resisting croissants at breakfast and dessert at lunch, but each act of resistance further lowers their willpower.  As their willpower weakens later in the day, they need to replenish it.  But to resupply that energy, they need to give their body glucose.  They’re trapped in a nutritional catch-22.  In order not to eat, a dieter needs willpower.  In order to have willpower, a dieter needs to eat.”

Since reading the article, I haven’t spent time contemplating the challenges, so much as thinking about how, once empowered with this information, we can better understand and modify our behavior.  How can we make adjustments that will help us make better decisions and remain disciplined, both personally and professionally?  How can we combat decision fatigue most effectively?

To use the diet example, we know that skipping breakfast and eating a small lunch is likely to catch up to us by the end of the day.  It’s probably best to modify our eating habits so we can fuel our willpower as we’re trying to lose weight.  The many findings from this article, combined with some honest reflection about our daily routines, may be extremely helpful to learning more about ourselves as leaders and as people.

So do you make better decisions in the morning or in the afternoon?  Under what circumstances do you believe you negotiate best?  At what part of the day are you a more effective listener?  Or a better writer?    I invite you to read the article and share your thoughts about when you trust yourself, when you don’t and, most importantly, what you try to do about it!

 

5 Reasons Peer Advisory Groups Can Work For CEOs

via @ vistage by Leo Bottary

In my last post, 5 Reasons Peer Advisory Groups Work, I talked about the amazing benefits shared by organizations and employees when peers work together.  The thing is, peer groups aren’t just for employees; they work really well for CEOs also.  Imagine for a moment being the CEO.  It’s your responsibility to make good decisions that are best for the company as a whole.  While you may have a terrific senior management team and a highly engaged board of directors, the people giving you advice also have a personal stake in the outcome.   As a CEO, I’m not suggesting you don’t listen to your senior people or your board, who are in most cases (hopefully) sincerely offering their best input and counsel, but it begs this question:  Would a CEO also benefit from being asked tough questions and receiving counsel from fellow CEOs, who have no personal vested interest in the outcome?  As you may have guessed, Vistage member CEOs have been answering yes to this question since 1957.  Here are five benefits (among others of course), a CEO will realize by regularly engaging with a group of his/her peers:

1) Empathy – If you’ve never been a CEO, it’s nearly impossible to put yourself in a CEO’s shoes.  It’s difficult for most of us, regardless of how much we care or how objective we believe we are in offering counsel to our CEOs, to imagine what that’s really like.   Fellow CEOs aren’t looking through the lens of marketing, finance, or HR, they’re looking at the whole picture because it’s what they do every day.  The empathy that one CEO shares with another is a priceless benefit of the CEO peer advisory experience.  Its impact is not only felt professionally, but personally as well.

2) Objectivity – An employee or board member, regardless of their espoused objectivity and true sincerity, has a personal stake in the outcome.  Fellow CEOs from non-competing businesses are not burdened with that extra layer of consideration.   They can ask the hard questions without regard for sacred cows, personal relationships or other organizational/industry blinders.   It’s an eye opening experience for many CEOs when peers looks at a specific challenge through a completely impartial lens.

3) Shared Challenges – While the CEOs in the peer group may serve entirely different types of customers in widely varying industries, they share common challenges regarding employees, growth, profitability, executive development, technology, and uncertainty, just to name a few.  The more they talk, the more they realize how much they have in common and how much they can learn from on another.

4) Learning – While they have shared challenges, the myriad industries they represent set the table for rich conversations about common practices in one sector that are often quite different from practices in another sector.  Sharing ideas across industries help CEOs learn from one another.   What’s more, these CEOs will also share their personal triumphs and failures.  This display of trust creates an environment where the CEO can be truly vulnerable to learn and grow.  And unlike one-to-one executive coaching, which can be a rich complement to the peer advisory experience, there’s nothing quite like the power of the group dynamic.

5) Accountability – As CEOs share their challenges and aspirations with their peers, being CEOs as they are, they tend to be serious about holding their peers accountable to make the tough choices and to deliver on their stated courses of action.  As I’ve heard from so many Vistage Chairs and members, this atmosphere of shared accountability may be the most powerful dynamic of all when it comes to the peer advisory experience.

My personal disclaimer is that I’m not promoting Vistage per se, but more broadly, the peer advisory model.  I’ve personally experienced the benefits, both as an owner of a small firm and as a university adjunct professor.  When it comes to simultaneously working on your business and working on yourself, the peer advisory model has no peer.  I also don’t mind saying that I don’t believe Vistage is the best at this because I work here, I work here because I believe Vistage is the best at this – offering an unparallelled professionally facilitated peer advisory experience to all levels of business leaders in every size company.   Sit down and talk with any of our Chairs who lead these groups, most of whom are former CEOs, and you’ll discover what I’m talking about.   That said, I wholeheartedly encourage anyone to take a closer look at how peer advisory groups could work for your organization, regardless of whom you choose to assist you!

Why Peer Advisory Groups Will Be The Next Big Thing

By Leo Bottary
I realize it may seem odd to some that peer advisory groups, which have been around for decades and, prior to that, existed long before anyone probably ever referred to them as such, will be 

the next big thing, but I believe the time has come for this time-honored practice to take hold as never before.   The perfect storm is here.  In part it’s because the fundamentals of the peer advisory process itself are aimed squarely at problem solving, visioning, and personal and professional development,  but that’s always been the case.  The reason for the perfect storm; however, is revealed in the environmental and demographic trends that make the prospects for rapid growth nearly unlimited.  First, let’s look at the peer advisory model versus what most companies do today:

Peer advisory groups turn the traditional executive development model on its head.  The old model, which people have been using for decades now, is designed to train people to be better leaders with the implicit expectation that it will make a difference in how they lead and manage.  And that somewhere down the line, the company will actually see the fruits of this investment in its corporate culture and financial performance.  The problem is that most executive training is episodic/event-oriented.  Someone goes off to training, learns some interesting new concepts, and within a few weeks time, is back to the same old, pre-training behaviors.  What’s more, the training and the actual work of the company are often so poorly coordinated that measuring its effectiveness and value are next to impossible.

Peer advisory groups work in exactly the opposite fashion. By having a professional facilitator bring peers together, whether they are colleagues from different areas of a large company or CEOs from different businesses, they can work together as equals with the primary goal of meeting difficult challenges or setting a course for the future.   The diversity of the group, coupled with real dialogue, works to create an environment of trust to address larger issues that tend to transcend personal agendas.  By setting specific objectives, it’s easy to measure the ROI.  Peer groups will ask the hard questions and arrive at their own solutions rather than have to comply with recommendations of trainers or outside consultants.  Over time, during this repeated collaborative process of actual problem solving, the participants become better listeners and better leaders.  Great results lead to improved leadership behaviors and the cycle continues.  It rarely happens the other way around.

So sure, the peer advisory model makes perfect sense, but why will it be the next big thing?

  1. Large companies are forced to do more with less and are challenged to create alignment within their newly re-organized organizations.  To do so in a manner that’s effective and measurable, they will no longer be able to rely on the old “executive development” model of training executives to be better leaders and managers, in the hopes that what they learn in training actually finds its way into meeting the day-to-day needs of the organization.   And the continued inability to link training expenditures to producing more competent leaders and better bottom-line results, will result in companies seeking out a more practical way to accomplish both.
  2. Leaders of smaller companies are finding that the world in which they operate is becoming increasingly complex, especially on the international and technology fronts.  The good news is that these challenges are common across industry sectors.  As a practical matter (also challenged to do more with less), CEOs and business leaders will likely turn to their peers for guidance  instead of paying high-priced consultants or investing in leadership training programs.  (And like their larger company colleagues, they’d be wise to do so).
  3. Today’s younger CEOs are digital natives versus digital immigrants.  They grew up with social media and are natural networkers who are much more inclined than their predecessors to engage their peers for advice and counsel.
  4. There’s been a fundamental shift in management education aimed at leveraging the experience of the increasing number of adult learners in the classroom, in both traditional and online education environments.  The practice of andragogy, or learning centered environments geared to adults, is becoming increasingly more popular, replacing pedagogy (a teaching centered/lecture-oriented approach) that relies more on the knowledge of the instructor than in the inherent experience and collective insights of the group.  It’s only a matter of time before it finds its way more prominently into private enterprise.
  5. As I pointed out in my last post, there are many similarities between learning teams and peer advisory groups.  Adult learners who’ve grown accustomed to working in peer groups in school, will seek to continue the practice in the workplace in greater numbers.  Peer groups at work will replace the learning teams they left behind.

Professionally facilitated peer groups simply make too much sense in today’s world not to catch fire – and soon!  Now I understand if you’re skeptical about a Vistage employee making the case for why professionally facilitated peer advisory groups is the next big thing.  Since it is what we do, I might be wary as well.  So I ask you to consider the argument on its merits, offer your comments (positive or negative), and understand that no self respecting advocate of peer advisory groups would ever presume to write such a post without consulting his peers.   This is not my opinion alone.  Thanks to my colleagues at Vistage and Seton Hall University for your contributions to this piece!