"Business As Usual" (BAU)
We’re here – it’s a new financial year!
It’s the perfect time to achieve extraordinary outcomes. It’s time to look at the short, mid and long-term horizons for the market and our business.
Now is the time to step past ‘business as usual’ (BAU).
When we’re stuck in BAU, we’re fighting fires and dealing with a myriad of issues, none of them particularly big. They’re not about where you’re really going, and the risk is you live in the urgent (out of control) ahead of the important (in control), and you may find that when you get to your period of reflection at the end of this financial year, you are in much the same place as you are right now. It’s all about what you focus on and how you can move the dial for 2024/25.
Starting Big
Stepping past BAU and thinking big. Start with the big stuff and the long-term before we can build the architecture of the mid and short-term that begins to tell us how we will get there, and what we need to start with now.
Halo’s Business Advisory strategic framework starts there, because it works. We start by crafting a long-term vision – where do you want to be in two or three years?
Ask Yourself
How clear are you on what success would look like in two/three years? Are you able to picture what your business would look like if you achieved the goals that you’re working on now?
What would you need to achieve in that timeframe to want to celebrate?
What is your vision about? Leaving a legacy? Achieving your dreams? Making an impact on people? Or even making an exit from your business?
What are the milestones you would need to reach along the way to know that you were on the right track?
This part of our sessions with members is the most exciting as it’s where the big energy comes from, a clear vision is inspirational. The key is to stop and spend time there, before your brain takes that initial clarity and dives back into rapid-fire decision-making again.
Pause on the decisions to look around you.
We need to give ourselves enough of the right questions to turn over so we can produce the best solutions. In Halo’s Business Advisory program I often see members that get halfway along and then hit a “that’ll do” answer. This is where we can really help to push you past that point and ensure you don’t accept a lower-quality solution.
Broaden your thinking and take a moment to understand external factors that are impacting your marketplace and the world and your competitive environment, or affecting the people who work for you. Ideally this should be your one-year horizon.
You know where you’re going, but you don’t know with certainty what is going to happen. There’s power in being aware that certain things might happen. Be prepared to be agile and make decisions as they come.
Look at where you will play, both geographically and your target customer. Look at what critical differentiating factors you can create and excel at in your world. Consider how you will win – the unique value you can create relative to the competition. How can you do things better for your customers?
From decision to action
Once you have a strategic plan, you will have clear direction. Our brain’s reticulated activating system filters out the information that it deems unnecessary, to enable us to focus on the most important stuff and avoid information overload.
Our brains also support this process with unrivaled pattern recognition ability. The human brain has evolved to recognise patterns perhaps more than any other single function; it’s our brain’s core capability. We’re incredible – and currently still better than any machines – at recognising many different types of patterns and transforming these into concrete, actionable steps.
With the architecture of your strategic plan, you will start to see the patterns – in the behaviour of your customers and those within your business; in social and technological trends; in environmental changes; in the moves and mistakes your competitors make that you can avoid.
Working back from your goals, it then becomes obvious what you need to do – this quarter and next – on your way to getting there. This plan helps you to prioritise and provides clarity on the subsets of activity that you will and won’t do.
Ask yourself
What are the things you need to fix, change or implement to start you on that journey now?
What are the things that you can impact immediately to make your journey towards your desired reality more likely?
You might already be fighting fires or feel like you simply want to hit the ground running and get stuck into that task list, but I urge you to take some time out to plan first.
