Perhaps the most famous example of a company that revolutionised itself by shortening cycle times is Dell. When Tom Meredith became CFO at Dell in 1991, it had a cash conversion cycle of + 63 days. When he retired in 2001 it was -21 (yes that is a minus!). He did this by streamlining manufacturing, working closely with suppliers and having customers pay in advance.
When there are pressing challenges – there can be a tendency to forget about purpose. The survival instinct narrows the mind and the focus of attention. Sometimes we may regard it as a positive. But in narrowing the mind we risk eliminating a lot of useful data and therefore being blind to many of the options and opportunities presented by an immediate challenge.
As Jim Collins discovered in his research for the book Good to Great, “Productive change begins when you confront the brutal facts.
Great coaches lie awake at night thinking about how to make you a better board member. A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see so that you can be who you always knew you could be. An important part of the coach’s skill and service is to never wait to give feedback – a great coach coaches in the moment.
The prove → plan →execute model doesn’t work in agile land. Instead it’s a case of Act → Learn →Build.nAction is primary. You can’t do a financial plan if a customer has never seen your new product or service. You must put something out there!
Each of these has its place and can heighten our understanding of what is really going on – but without the critical 4th mechanism of acting from shared awareness – the difficult problems as exemplified by housing, health and climate change will persist. That shared awareness must extend to cultural awareness.