 The key to strategic reflection is creating room for dialogue and not hiding behind PowerPoint presentations. Sometimes instead of people engaging in dialogue, they are waiting for their turn to present and be relieved. While presentations are important because they inform and give perspective, dialogue must not be stifled or sacrificed. The more people dialogue, the more light is shined onto issues. The value of a facilitator in strategy and planning sessions is to help stimulate dialogue, ensure that airplay is fairly distributed and give the dialogue a structure.
The highway to the failure of any organisation and life is to sanctify some sacred cows and hobby horse ideas that are insulated from strategic scrutiny and operational reality. To move forward you need to confront the elephants in the room. These are the key issues that are evident to everyone but not easy or comfortable to confront. They made have been dodged for months, even years. Hiding is never a strategy, it only postpones the day of judgement and come it will. No matter should stay voluntarily unresolved. Confront, overcome! Oftentimes we hide behind schedules and endless plans, but never quite seek to confront and correct that one or two issues that mean life and death to our Organisations or Lives. We find comfort in our quagmires because we would've generated enough excuses to calm ourselves and pat ourselves "it's alright", it's not your fault", "it's beyond your control." Don't let today's challenges rob you of your zeal and passion for life. The first and principal base of setting new standards, change and growth is Questioning. Questions get our minds to think, they unleash our creativity. Question for clarification and remove the veneer of excuses. Subject issues to intense questioning for reality, evaluation, performance and execution. Plans that excuse non-performance, makes planning sessions joking holidays. While questions can make people uncomfortable, lack of questions is only a false comfort and a time bomb. Realities never go away because they have been ignored. No amount of pretending can atone for a lack of strategic examination and treatment. It must be noted, though, that raising questions is not the same as interrogation. Personal attack is not the same as honest dialogue. Sulking and shunning responsibility is cowardice. Cowardice is fighting battles that are lower than you. It is the lacking of that boldness to measure up to any task and attempt fearlessly. There is no way from childhood to adulthood except by growth, and unless we face what is before us we can never conquer what is beyond us. Whatever crisis, challenge, or obligation you are facing. Be Bold! Confront, Overcome. Do not resist the call to greatness, it always comes in the form of seemingly unsurmountable tasks, apparently great and untamable jungles. Never let your Organisation fall, because there are sacred issues that can't be taken to task. A wise one once said: "If anything is to be done, let a man do it, let him attack it vigorously!" Today, make it your vow, not to shirk your work, responsibility. Opportunity comes as an unfolding, it is linked to your growth. By virtue of taking the timid stance, of letting things happen and not making things happen, we delay our appointment with greatness, we sell ourselves short - depriving ourselves of the very best! Committed to your greatness. Milton Kamwendo |
