Simplicity, what could possibly go wrong?

​Colleagues,
 
We are leaders. What does that mean? In an organizational sense, we see a problem, we develop and implement a solution, and we check to see if we got the results we wanted. Simple, right? What could possibly go wrong?
 
Of course, all kinds of things could happen:

• We misdiagnosed the problem
• Conditions changed
• People changed
• The solution was more complex than we thought
• People resisted
• Other things become more important

 
That’s just a partial list, you could add to it I’m sure.
 
The beauty of strategic action cycles (SAC) is that they mitigate all of these problems. It isn’t that the problems don’t exist, they just don’t matter as much.
 
When I’m enacting incremental change, and something goes wrong, I haven’t lost much. Maybe a week or two of time, energy, patience, and money. We can quickly reevaluate and make adjustments based on what we learn. In fact, there is no such thing as a failed strategic action cycle. When an incremental change doesn’t work, it provides us with critical information that can inform our next step.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick