Reality First Strategy | Mike Jones

Most strategy starts in the wrong place. Someone picks the destination, the deck gets built, and nobody stops to examine the ground the organisation is actually standing on.

No guest this week. Mike Jones is solo to talk about where the podcast is heading, why he wants more leaders inside organisations rather than commenting from outside them, and what it's been like finishing the book, which is now with the publisher and out on 2nd of March.

Then he gets into the thing he keeps having to argue for. Reality first, aspiration second. Where you actually stand, who else is on the terrain with you, and the constraints that give that ground its topology, because some options look attractive on paper and turn out to be Everest. Start with the aspiration, and you'll do what young soldiers do with a map: shape the ground until it matches what you're holding, then get lost.

The second half is the part Mike finds hardest to get across: strategy isn't a straight line you walk; it's a relationship you're locked into. Move, and other actors move back, whether they mean to or not. So who responds, how would you know it's coming, and what happens if you do nothing at all? That last question saved a client from handing a small competitor the room to grow into a serious problem three years out.

It all runs on organisational intelligence, which is a reserve. Neglect it, and it depletes, and you end up crossing terrain blindfolded.

If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with someone who owns a strategy, and leave a review. What part of your organisation’s “reality” are you avoiding right now?

Enjoying the show?

Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.

🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality

Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Solo Update And What’s Next

Mike Jones 0:07

And welcome back to the Strategy Meets Reality Podcast. It's great to have you today. It's just me today. I'm doing an episode now with me for a bit of reflection about what we've been up to, what we're hoping to go forward with on the podcast. So you just got me today. But we'll resume normal um activity on the next one. We have um some great guests lined up coming forward, so I'm excited to share those.

Recent Guests Worth Revisiting

Mike Jones 0:35

We've had some really great guests since my last one. I'd done it was quite a while. Well, it seems quite a while ago, but I know since then we've had because I'm reading it. We've got uh we've had Stefan Naval, we've had Alex Ball, Jurian, Richard Clayden. So Stefan Naval and Richard Clayton worked together, and that was really interesting to see the different uh perspectives that they bring. You know, Stefan more on the structural side and uh Richard more on the sort of leadership and interpersonal style. Um that was really good to to have um yeah, my good friend Mark Bloomfield talking about AI and the competitive advantage that that has. That was a really good episode if you want to go back. And you know, Mark has a really pragmatic view on strategy uh wrong on AI and the transformation. So he he's one for definitely AI and transformation. So I'd give that a good listen. Uh and there's a few things on there that he he talked about that is quite crucial, especially when we think about AI. I remember him saying that you know, this version of AI is the worst we're ever going to have. So the possibilities of what it could do and what it can do is you know untethered, quite interesting, really, especially when we look here and think about what AI can't do this, A, nothing's saying it can't do. So I think we should probably be thinking about not what it can and can't do, but more thinking about what things do we need to consider regardless of the strength. You know, especially when you think about organisations and viability, you know, what I don't want it to become is just this another tool for efficiency, and then it replaces people, and now we've we've finally got this spare capacity of our people, and we just see that as an efficiency problem and get rid of them rather than thinking what what can we do with this newfound capacity? And I've been working with clients a lot recently where actually they they need that capacity, but all their people have been drawn into sort of mundane mundane things, and they didn't have the time to really focus on the activities we need humans to do, so yeah, definitely give that a a listen. Alice Ying, that was really good one. There's a great part in there where she actually just randomly picked up her kids' toys and made a really good explanation about um understanding interpretation, which was really good, um, and really enjoyed that. And then we had really a good couple of guests after that, which was Andreas Paniatu for Venture Capital, talking about venture capitalists, um, what that's like, and that's really interesting to see about the the amount of risk that goes into that and the long game that they play. I often challenge organizations that they are too myopic, they're too short term. We're actually speaking to Andreas, actually, how how far out that they're hedging these bets is really quite interesting. And what was great as well is because he's in it, so he's not he's not an external consultant, he's in there. Um, and he's advising, but he's within that ecosystem. And then we had uh Alison Guffey Wren, it's a fantastic conversation. She's senior leader in the um in the government, and that was great to have a chat with her. And again, it's that fact that Alison's in there, she's not she's not an external consultant, she's in there, she's in the mix that um she's you know trying to it's easy for me, I can come and say what I want and I can leave, but she's in there, she has to to deal with all those challenges and constraints all the time. And then we've had you know a few things on you know, Evan Campbell's great talking about execution, and then finally the last one, Robin Bolton's great episode, also talking about um innovation, really enjoyed those conversations. We've had lots there. So if you haven't managed to what um listen to some of those, go back and uh have a listen, they're all fantastic conversations.

AI Beyond Efficiency And Job Cuts

Mike Jones 4:31

But it really brings me to what I want for the podcast because we've had some great um great speakers, some great people. I almost forgot Martin Pfeifenham as well, who gave a really good pragmatic view about Bible systems model neurology of business. But where I'd like to go with this is I want more people that are within the business. So, yes, I enjoy having some great thinkers, but I also want some actual leaders within the business. So if you know any great people that will come onto the podcast, um have a chat with me. Um please advise them to come along. I know it's probably difficult for people within business because they probably feel that you know you may feel quite exposed talking, but you know, assure them that I'm a good host and you know I'll look after them. But I I really want that different perspective. Of course, I'm still going to have thinkers, but I would like to have more leaders of businesses, maybe some internal strategists. Uh we had Joel before, um, he was really good and he was inside the business. Um, he was senior strategy leader, so that was quite good to have that perspective. So, yeah, so leaders, business leaders, operational directors, strategists would be great to have on. Um so please bring them on, especially people that are trying to deal with strategy within business or execution, that would be also a great chat. So, anyone, just please message me on LinkedIn, email me, or go on the website. There's a form on the website where you can put um put people forward to talk. I know Matt Finch Finch has used that a few times to send me some people, that's great. Um, and that'd be really good. I definitely want it'd be really interesting to get strategies, but my problem, my challenge is, and I'm gonna be a bit snarky here, is that a lot of the time when you speak to people that are got the strategist title in in organisation, they're not really I wouldn't consider them to be proper strategies, they're they're more like branding or marketing. But prove me wrong, you know, come on, prove me wrong. I'm always up for that that debate and challenge. So that's where I'd like to start going with the the podcast. And you you probably realize that um with the podcast, it hasn't been every week, has it once started to be? I have unfortunately had to push it to um every two weeks. Um and I haven't been as active on LinkedIn or um on the channels as much as I was was, and I I really want to. Um I have my own battle with with social media at the moment in the sense of I I try to be more active, but God, it's tough, isn't it? Um going on there. Um I'm trying to get on go on there for five minutes without wanting to throw my phone. But there are reasons why I haven't been as active. So one is I've been extremely busy with with a business. We've been really busy this year off doing some great things with clients around strategy. I've just got back from Germany, uh it's been a week over there with some clients, which was fantastic. They really it was really great because they really embraced the approach that we we take for strategy development um intuitive way of looking at strategy. I'll come on to a bit more the dynamics of that a bit later on that I want to talk about. Yes, I've been uh way busy, and we are really busy all the way into next year, which is always good, it's a good problem to have, but obviously it does limit my time on the podcast, uh, especially when I'm living a lot of times in hotels, it's really hard to um have conversations. I remember last one I'd done with Don McLean, I was at a hotel then, and that was really challenging because his signals um really not great, and there was a lot of pauses, stutters, but um Don was great and he he he powered through. So, but it does make it really difficult in those things. So I will look to pick it up, and I am looking for new guests to come

More Leaders From Inside Business

Mike Jones 8:28

forward, or I'm trying to find new guests, so please, if you know anyone, put them forward. Um, and the other one is more exciting, is that I have been busy writing my book, so any spare time I did have, I was busy writing my book, which I can say is is with the publisher now, and that's great. Uh it's quite a daunting experience, and I'm not quite sure if I've enjoyed it or not. I did think when I was gonna hand the final draft into the publisher that I had this like really sort of sense of euphoria, like you know, relieved and excited, and I didn't really get that. Um, and it's not saying I'm not excited, I'm just thinking the whole process of writing a book was quite a challenge for me. And but I you know I'm really excited with what I've done, and I want to be really thankful to the to the kind people, kind friends that I've reached out for to help give feedback. So done a lot of beta reading for me and gave me feedback, and it's always tough to get feedback, but I'm really thankful for it because it helps shape the book in a really good way. So thank you for those that took the time to to read my drafts, my messy drafts often. Um, and had some great feedback also, which I looked forward to sharing as I share how the book's going, and also to the publishers' inspirational publishing with Allison Jones, they've been absolutely fantastic all the way through and helped me and put out my various you know breakdowns and dilemmas as I'm trying to understand what I need to do when writing this book. Funnily enough, it reminded me when I first um went to university because I didn't do university till I was really late, I was still in the army, and um I got shown to a master's, so I've never really written an essay until that point of suddenly I'm writing an essay at um master's level. I remember writing that first um um essay, and I was in complete turmoil. I was up all night thinking, I just don't know what what they want, so I don't get it, I don't understand how you want this. And there was a there's a great lady um who was a fellow student of mine, and she bless her, she she helped me through. Once I understood what you wanted, I I'd done all right, and you know, I'd done it, but I just didn't didn't understand because I didn't do the degree beforehand, so I never really understood that. And I think that's a bit like writing this book. You know, I read loads of books, um, and I've got loads of them all down the sides here. I should really put them behind me, but um I read loads of books, but I realized that I was reading the books and I was taking the information on, but I wasn't really paying attention in to structure or sentence lengths or stuff like that, um, which was which is an interesting reflection. And I write in a very certain style, which I enjoy, which is very concise. You know, if I could write a whole thing in bullet points, I would. Um I didn't so I did write a you know proper book and I've tried to make it really practical so that you can apply it. Um so hopefully you you'll enjoy the book. It's out second of March, early released first of March for the Kindle. Um but I will share all that stuff as we we go through is on Amazon and I will be sharing the um pre-order link um over the next sort of coming weeks um for you to to come on. I'll be sharing parts of that. I I probably should have done a little, you know, photos of me or you know, the journey of me writing it, but um you you probably wouldn't enjoy that because I'm very stressed. Very stressed because I had um, you know, quite a sharp timeline, and I was busy cutting around the country or various countries with clients as well, um, and trying to write a book on a plane or on a train and other places, hotels is is not always great. I've got my best work done when I was back in my office here, where I had you know peace and quiet and the support of my wife to get me through and keep me focused. But yeah, so it it is done, it's there, it's with the publishers now doing the typesetting um and doing all the design, which is exciting, so I can't wait to see that, and I can't wait to hold the book in my hand. But I do sort of understand a bit when you think about people like John Boyd who never really wrote much down, and I can understand it because it's quite a challenging thing to immortalise your thoughts into a book that's always there because things move on. Like if I think about what my views and strategy were or or leadership or anything when I first left the army to all it is now is miles apart, so I think it's quite a daunting thing to think that you know this is forever immortalised, and that was something that was playing on my mind. And I saw uh a post um from an author from one of Allenson's lots as well, and he put on there that he wrote his book three years ago, and he was doing a QA, and one of the questions he said to ask was, you know, what's changing my thoughts from what I've written in the book, or something like that. But it was really on about challenging, you know, has his thoughts changed from what he's working, you know, does

Publishing Rhythm And Social Media Friction

Mike Jones 13:42

he still agree with elements that he's written in this book? And that quite helped me understand it because, you know, what I've written I'm proud of, and I think would be really useful and practical. And I can't wait to hear uh you know stories of people applying it and telling me how they got on and supporting people to apply my thinking and approach to strategy. But the realization that things do change and adapt, um, and I've got to be open to that and be open to be challenged on that and be challenged on my thoughts, and you know, it's quite a freeing thing with that. It can be fluid, it doesn't have to um be permanent. But I think a lot of the stuff I've written is is hopefully going to be you know very long lasting because I've I've took the inspiration a lot from people like San Zu and all those lot, and you know, he he existed two and a half thousand years ago. So if it's still relevant, then hopefully mine will last another two and a half thousand years as well. So that's all good. But yeah, I think there's there is that part that we must be open to things adapting and changing. And someone joked, well, if it does change, you could do a second edition, and I'm thinking, I don't know, I've got that in me again, but we'll see. Yeah, so that's exciting. So I've been busy doing that, and I've now got a bit more spare time-ish. I'm still really busy until quite late into next year with client work that we've got coming up. But hopefully I've got a bit more ordered space where I can get back and be more active on the podcast, being more active on social media, uh, especially LinkedIn. I used to write a lot more and I will write more again and try and get a bit more involved in LinkedIn. But it's it's it's always a challenge, in it. It's always a challenge everything going on. But I I tried I like being on there to share my thoughts. I don't really like all the other nonsense that comes with it. Um and I find I bite my tongue a lot, but I will think I will get back and engage. So you'll see that again in the next few weeks. I'll be back up and again uh engaging more and you know sharing more stuff on the podcast and stuff like that and get more great guests on. And hopefully if if if my timeline or you know, my times allow, I'd like to go back to um publishing an episode every week. Um that'd be i ideal, but I just don't know. I've got to look to see where I am around the country and uh what the hotel rooms are like and wifi is like, etc. Which I think is pretty mental that we're in 2020 and you know, Wi-Fi, good Wi-Fi is still still a struggle. I'm gonna have to start packing my Starlink and putting that up and then we'd be laughing. But I don't think the hotel will be to impress me hanging a Starlink dish out the window, but we'll we'll see. But anyway, that's what I've been up to. So yeah, you know, great news. Well, I think it's great news anyway about the book. So I can't wait to share to share with that, and I can't wait to get a physical copy in my hand. So that's where we've been up to. So um I will share more stuff about the book as we go forward. Um, if you've got any great podcast guest recommendations, please send them my way. Um, I'd love to get them on, especially if they're business leaders uh or they're in businesses, the strategists, they're ops directors, they're CEOs, etc., please put them forward and we'll have a great conversation about all things strategy and execution like we do on here. So that's it. And then um so but my reflections that I've had recently, um I think working with a lot of clients on strategy is is I think an element that gets neglected, and I think I've I've spoken about this before, but this is more about the sort of dynamic relationship that exists, and it goes well into the idea of reality because to understand the dynamic relationship you're in, you must understand your dispositional state. Where are you currently? What's your strategic position, what's your um actual organization's capability? So understanding your your own self, not necessarily your own self, but your own organization, what it's capable of, what is done, it's past decisions, you know, what it what's his identity, what's it actually there for? And then understanding the terrain that you're on. So, you know, all the different actors, you know, how they shaped, what are the what are the constraints around you? Internal constraints, and a lot of the constraints are internal to the organization, you know. So recently with some clients, the union rules

Client Work Travel And Time Constraints

Mike Jones 18:23

and stuff that constrains a lot of what they can do, be it policies that they've set in, created these constraints, but also external constraints that you have. Now I like to manage these like a um topology. So the constraints give you a topology of the ground that you you're standing on. So some things look great and you can do that, but really constraint that you've got really makes that like travelling up Everest. You can do it, but it would take a lot of time and energy for you to be able to traverse that ground, where you know, other options are more like a downward slope, so it's got more, you know, a stronger trajectory for you that you can go down to season opportunity, and that's downward, so it's a lot easier, it's more afforded to you to do that. So you you need to understand the reality you're in for that to happen. Because if you start with aspiration first and you're thinking about, oh yeah, I'd love to do this, wouldn't it be great if we can do this, or wouldn't it be great if we could be the best at this? You're going to aspiration first. And the problem with that is, and I'm not I'm not anti-ambition. Of course, you know, I I'm all for ambition, I'm all for it, but you you you need to have a good understanding of reality putting you on now because you start with the aspiration part, all that then happens is that you it skews your perspective on what you're looking at, your orientation, and you start to shape things to what you want to see. And I've seen it, so I remember being in the military, and uh we obviously in the military we had to do a lot of map reading, so you'd have to do that, and it's amazing how you can shape the ground to appear like the map, and we do it all the time. We start to see and try to justify that oh yeah, I must be here because you know, look, that's the that's the hill, that's the hill there, and you that's that water feature there, and we start to shape the the the ground to fit the map, and then we get confused, we get lost. And I've seen this happen a lot, and I may be guilty of doing it a couple of times in my younger times, but that's the same way when we look at this, is that we don't look at the ground and see what the ground's doing, we can examine the ground, and uh we we then look at that way. We sort of we sort of um shape it to what we want to see. That's dangerous because it's not what we want to see, it's what is actually there and actually present is what's more important, otherwise you'll get lost, you'll start taking paths that you think you'll lead you to um the direction you want to go to, but they're not, they're going to completely off in a different direction. Now, this is why I said we must look at reality first, not shape anything. We must look at where we are. So, what's the organization we've got, what we have, what's the actors, the control uh uh the constraints, what does that

The Book Journey And Release Dates

Mike Jones 21:22

make for our dispositional state? Where are we now? So once we understand that, we can then look and appreciate the ground and see what's afforded to us. What directions can we take that are within our capability, within our gift that we can do, and they still are going to give us ambition. And it doesn't mean that you know that one track there is is going to take us to the pot of gold. But what it does is it means that you know I can look at the ground and go, Well, that's all I can see is that horizon. So I'm gonna try and take this because it's the best path that I can take to get me. That next horizon, and once I get to that point, I can reorientate to the ground and then see what else is afforded to me because I know where I I want to get to the end state to you know for viability of the organization in the moment that's the directory that gives me that, and then it will open up options for me as we go along. So you must start with that reality first, and that's what I'm talking about. Understand the train, understand yourself, understand the actors, bring those three, and they emerge to what is options for you, and which is the strategy. Then there's a dynamic relationship, and this is what I really wanted to get into. I think that a lot of people understand what I've just said, and it makes sense, it's intuitive. Leaders do this, they go, Well, this is where we're gonna go, and that's our strategy, and that's our focus, and now let's execute, and that's where it stops. I see a lot of the times. What I don't tend to see, or I find you know quite a challenge to get people into that thinking is to realize that um the world is a lot more dynamic. That if I do this, there are other actors, so on that train, there are other actors occupying that train. Some are competitors, some are suppliers, some are customers, some are regulators, you know. But they some are watching you quite closely, maybe the regulator or uh customer or client, some aren't, but you're there. And if we make a move on that terrain, it's not just us we're impacting, it's other people. Because we have done that, we have changed that that ground in some way. It's going to cause a conscious or unconscious reaction by another actor. Now it could be a competitor, the most obvious one, that you know, if they do that, they'll watch you, so they'll do something else to counteract it or to do something to them. Could be customers, you know, who do that, but the customer didn't respond the way that we expected them to respond. They respond in a different way. It could be the fact that, you know, we've we've we've made this manoeuvre and a regulator doesn't like it, it's a merge, a loophole they didn't see, so they're going to put a constraint on what we're doing, which could then limit further options that we're going to take. But the point is, is that we must understand the dynamic relationship we're in. So it's not a case of this is our strategy, and right, let's you know, fix bayonets and just head that direction, and we'll achieve our goal, God willing, and you know, all that good jazz. It's about realizing that yes, we are going to take those maneuvers, but we must think about well, what could happen in response to those maneuvers, and can we anticipate what those responses can be? And how would we know that those responses are going to happen? So when you look at doing strategy, we must think about we model it all the actors and we look at it, but then we then go, well, if we're going to do this strategy, what would that mean to our current position? What would that mean to us? So if we do this, say for instance, you know, our whole standing is based on our positioning there. And if we then take that strategy, what's that going to do to the current positioning we have? And you

Start With Reality Not Aspiration

Mike Jones 25:31

know, can we afford to lose that? Is that the right time to move forward in that sense? Do that. But also thinking about, well, if we took this strategy, we do these manoeuvres, who is likely to respond and in what way? Just think about that in the sense of all the different actors, model it through. It's like sort of uh a form of war gaming. So, what's likely to happen in response and how would we know? So if we do this, this actor, actor B will respond in this way. Is that something that we can handle? And we think about the likely course of action, worst course of action. Can we handle that response? What would we do if they responded in that way? How would we know that they respond that way? What signals do we need to look for? This is all the things that we need to do all the time. Think about that. So you do that all the way through. So if they respond, how do we respond? What would force us to change our direction if certain things were to happen, certain things to emerge with with those relationships? But also, and this is quite an interesting one that we we done recently was that we're working with a client and there was loads of options, abundance of options, they weren't in a bad place, they had an abundance of options to choose. And we looked at the relationship of what happens because they wanted to go into a new market, and it's thinking about what happened if you didn't go into that and do that. So often we look at um, you know, what would happen if you go into it and how would you respond? And you know, by doing that, it'd be great because you'd get more you know, revenue or turnover, all those sort of things. But you know, but this one was looking at what happens if you didn't go for it. And it's quite interesting to look at that question because that gets you to think about your own situation and what could be the second or third order effects of a decision. And that the fact that if we didn't go for that, that means that this actor over here that's relatively quite small could go for that, and if they go there and they're quite successful, that will increase their strength, that they could then build up and grow their capacity to challenge us in a different market. Um, and that was quite interesting to think about because they hadn't thought about that. So, where they originally thought about that option being a great option because it looked viable, it looked great, it looked like great returns, but adding that different perspective of thinking about what happens if we didn't go, actually um unv unveiled um couldn't get my word out there, unveiled um other effects that if they didn't go for that, that could potentially in the next sort of three to five years make them vulnerable from an attack from such a small actor right now that they wouldn't have considered in their strategy or as a threat. So it's it's thinking about that, and that's why I think that when you get to that idea of of looking at the terrain in a different way and modelling that, that it gives you the options to play out these in a more 360 dynamic way, and always thinking about not just looking forward and the direction you're going, but also looking at your your left and right flanks and from your rear, what else could be happening around you, what are the responses and moving beyond this static view of strategy that yes, we're just gonna go to point A to point B and thinking more about okay, so what could happen, who could cut us off? And it's not just looking at who would cut you off consciously, but just thinking about that because we go this way, what are other actors doing that their trajectory could impede us in a way? And I think it's it's really looking at dynamic relationship that it's not just you, it's other people, and that for for every response that you have is going to elicit a conscious or conscious or unconscious response. And how do we deal with that? How do we know? And all this is useful information because by understanding this, it gives you that cognitive capacity to identify those signals early enough, you can identify them early enough, it gives you space and time to respond, and that's a luxury in business. I think that's the really vital point, and so there's the dynamic part, and I've hopefully done that, and I'm going to write some more stuff about this, so I'm I'll be more active on that. But if you if it's resonating in a way, you know comment and message me back and what you want to know more about. But I do think this dynamic part is a is an overlooked element in strategy. Then we must always be thinking about the potential responses by our manoeuvres or potential responses by people that could hinder what we're trying to do. And the fact that it's it's not static, there is that relationship you're locked in. So you do something, they will respond, they do something, you'll have to respond. And the more that you can understand this, the more capacity it gives you to respond. And if you're always thinking about second order of third order effects before anyone else, it gives you that luxury of time to do something about to anticipate it, to identify it's happening. And because you've already thought about and you've gone through these scenarios about how you react, it's quicker to get that organized get your organization ready to do what's required rather than it being a shock that it's happened. That's happened and it's a surprise. And because it's surprised, your only footing is to react. And if you're just reacting, it's always

Dynamic Strategy And Actor Responses

Mike Jones 31:18

going to be suboptimal and it will take longer. And as you can imagine, all this stuff takes great what I call organizational intelligence. And organizational intelligence is a key reserve in organizations, and that is your all your organization's orientation of what's happening in reality. So, you know, it's a the intelligence is really about external and internal. So internal intelligence of your actual capabilities and organization, what you can do, you know, how your different subfunctions are doing in terms of health, they overstretched, you know, the challenges they have, the bottlenecks, but also externally. So who are all the actors? What's the train like? What's the constraints like? Um, and have real understanding about what the different strategies these actors are playing, because that gives you that anticipative capacity to understand what's going on. And when you're then developing strategy, it has a greater richness. And this is something you can start off, and it will it won't be as effective initially because it takes time. You've got a bit, it's a reserve, you've got to have those feedback loops in place to get that information. Those areas you don't know, you need to uh invest resources and time to investigate, to understand it, to bring that information back in. So you're building and building that organizational intelligence over time, and it's reserve, it gets it you you know, you've got to build it. But uh, like all reserves, if it gets neglected, it'll deplete pretty quickly. And your organizational intelligence will atrophy, which means that you will be essentially uh you know blindfolded walking through a terrain that you can't see, and that's not a good place for anyone to be. So you need to really build these reserves up, um, and that organizational intelligence is crucial, thinking about all those, and you have to have time and resources, and it's a great capacity of the the leadership, and this is why we always talk about the leaders need to step back and think. And I'm trying to think who what episode we talked about this, and I think it was in Richard Claydon's episode we talked about this, and then the the fact of leaders having that space to think and understand what's going on to strategize, but you know what I mean? That space to actually think about these things. Like, you know, do we have the feedback loops externally, internally to find to produce that intelligence that we're seeing on the front line? You know, frontline is saying this is changing, this is a different response from customers, or this is a different response from end users, this is a different response from competitors. We've seen this, all that is useful stuff that we need to build up, and we need to build up because that then gives you a better understanding, a more rounded understanding of the dynamic relationship that could happen because you intuitively understand the actors more, and the more you understand the actors, the more you understand the topology of the train. So when you're going and modelling these different options, it's more realistic. At first, it's a bit like guessing, you're like, Oh, could do this, could do that. But as you build up that reserve, you get more pointed, get more truer to reality, and that gives you the greatest, you know, um advantage to in strategy because you're you're moving from just a static point and thinking that you can get through to understanding more of a dynamic response and these dynamic relationships and how they may do and how you may respond to a shaping footing, and that's what you want to get to. You want to get to a shaping footing that you can start to shape the environment to your advantage. And this is why I talk about what strategy is for, strategy is for the pursuit of viability and advantage, and that advantage is all about can we shape the external environment to our advantage, to our positioning? And that's where we want to get to. And there's that sort of three-stage growth that you need to look at. Where are you in that sense? Are you quite reactive and you're quite linear and it's all about that's our strategy, let's go? Do you or do you appreciate you know the dynamic relationship there? And do you sit and model that war game it and think about the different responses all the way to shaping? Are you looking beyond that and thinking about how you can shape um the environment? And I have written an article about shaping um that you can find on my Substack or on my LinkedIn. So recommend that. And I do talk about that in the book, but maybe you will my next reflection, I'll bring more about shaping in. But hopefully um you enjoyed my reflections. I'm talking about, you know, thinking about the great episodes, go back and watch those. You haven't missed them, we've had quite a lot of good ones. Also, thinking about the dynamic relationship, organizational intelligence, and the importance of that. And if you want me to explore more on that, please let me know. But um, and moving forward, I will be sharing a lot more about the book, which I'm excited um to share. And I probably haven't made it made out the how excited I am about

Second Order Effects And The Cost Of Inaction

Mike Jones 36:34

it, but I am really excited. Um, I just like to contain my emotions. But um, thank you for listening to this week's episode. Um, and please, um, if you enjoyed it and you want to know more about it, please comment, like, share to people because that really helps us grow and reach more people that can find use from um hopefully the practical advice that we give people on this this channel. So please share, um, let's grow the audience so we can grow um strategic thinking in businesses and organisations so we can move away from the nonsense and get back to strategy that actually can meet reality. Thank you very much. It's been great to talk to you today, and I look forward to our next one where we'll have a guest again and we can have a more great conversation. So, thank you and take care.