Recently I met with a Sr. Director of Ecommerce at a Fortune 200 company. They told me they wished their directs were better strategic thinkers: “I am so stressed because I don’t know how to find time to coach them on this; I just got to hire for it.”
I said: “Since you have some head count, sure, prioritize that in your hiring. Still, it’s something you must uplevel with your directs; important as an exec to teach and model. Let’s break it down. What is it about being a strategic thinker that you want them to do?”
They said: “Less about strategic planning part and more about them being creative, to be quintessential problem-solvers. We need more innovation to get us where we want to go.”
I said: “Gotcha. Here is a useful framework you can try, yourself, then teach. The model is: EXPLORATION, TRANSLATION, MESSAGING. Let’s focus on exploration today.”
They nodded: “Sounds good.”
I started: “First, there isn’t a substitute for reading everything you can get your hands on. I don’t know of one exec who isn’t reading in all their in-between times. They get steeped in their own function – what I call the vertical. Like, given your role, you have to be ahead of the curve on trends in selling fashion online. You could borrow from other types of ecommerce, as well, like what is happening at Amazon, big, or local commerce, small. This is the vertical piece.
“Second, how can you be a ‘T-shaper’ by adding horizontal thinking – and borrow from other fields – not just other types of ecommerce?”
He said: “Like what?”
I replied: “What about taking a bite out of psychology, studying people’s buying habits or demographics. We often leave this to marketers. But why wouldn’t we study it ourselves?”
They nodded: “Makes sense, yes.”
I added: “Third, it’s not only about reading. Tap mentors and peers from other companies. One of my CFO clients was just talking about this the other day. They asked their directs who they talk with regularly about trends in Finance, and not one said they tap outside peers. My client was really surprised, so they set up a system on the spot. They asked them to have two meetings per month with outside peers and bring one learning to their weekly team meetings.”
They said: “Awesome, even more chance for borrowing. I like it.”
I ended with: “Let’s circle back to being a kick-ass creative problem solver. Ideas don’t come out of nowhere; they’re borrowed. So, the more you read and listen to others, more ideas flow. When we meet next, we can talk about the TRANSLATION of these ideas. Translation corresponds to relevance; the most effective execs distill the most consequential ideas, and go from A to B with aplomb.”
How do you explore horizontal thinking and “borrow” from other fields?
