Creating Approaches that Fit
Ok, we are here(-ish)! We’ve talked about clarifying your mission and the emotions that define it. We did a quick check on your ability to survive your mission and make choices that support it, while recognizing how your own needs come into play. Hopefully, I’ve convinced you that you cannot predict the future. If I have not, please re-read that piece a few more times and then start making predictions: specific, quantifiable and timely and see how well you do. Even better, put money on it, so reality really kicks in your teeth. (Really though, please don’t, just believe).
Now let’s dig into your approach which is your strategic method to achieve your mission. While approaches take many forms: political action, writing, speaking, taking a job, joining a club, starting a company or organization, they are a series of actions that you seriously believe will bring you closer to your mission. This belief is crucial to begin as its certainty energizes you, propelling you toward success. Until you hit your first roadblock, then second, then third. The hits pile up and you risk quitting. Sound familiar? Fear not, for we are here to discuss both the fitness and sustainability of your approach(es).
Let’s start with fitness. This is the likelihood that your initial approach hypothesis will lead you closer to achieving your mission. If you are reading closely, you will notice that two words appeared there, “initial” and “hypothesis.” I’ve included those words to remind you that since you cannot predict the future, you have only a working theory of cause and effect. Additionally, because every plan is made at the point of maximum ignorance, whatever you embark on now is much more likely to be wrong and require a change. Embracing this uncertainty up front is the key to navigating through it.
Let’s first, start with your mission. An example: Create ways to have a wonderful time providing great care to people (joy and hope!). Using this as our example, document your hypotheses of cause and effect so that you can learn as you do. Remember that discipline allows the separation of signal from noise when feedback cycles are long and erratic. Follow these generative steps:
Write your initial approach down: To achieve my mission, I will become a doctor.
Next, append “so that” to the end of the sentence: To achieve my mission, I will become a doctor so that I can learn the clinical skills necessary for providing great care.
Reflect on the internal validity of that approach: Is it sufficient to achieve your mission (enough to win)? Is it necessary to win(can’t do without)? It is important that you do NOT bullshit yourself here. There are plenty of doctors and few have created environments of great care, so becoming a doctor is NOT sufficient. However, to both understand the complexity of clinical care and have the gravitas to change it, it really, really helps to become a doctor. So probably necessary. Shoot, that means becoming a doctor is ONLY the first step!
Repeat this process to generate multiple parallel approach ideas. I could pursue a different clinical path (nursing, pharmacy). I could partner with a clinician, but then what do I bring? I could get an MBA. I could join a startup, get a mentor, go into academics, study the problem, get a job at a hospital or insurance company. I could learn about alternative medicine, exercise and diet. So many paths!
Choose an initial approach. The next post will get into depth on how to prioritize and choose amongst alternatives. To Medical school we go!
When solving a wicked problem, throw efficiency concerns to the wind, get ready to waste work (see pilot system) in pursuit of something worthy. Effectiveness now, efficiency later. Your goal is ultimately to understand the problem so well that you can generate multiple initial solutions from which to embark. However, given that we are taught to be so solution oriented, it is often easier to start with what you think the answer is to then back into the question at hand.
As you move forward in your journey, cultivating alternatives and documenting your hypothesis of cause and effect, you can continually refine your approach as you learn. Don’t worry about exhausting all possible approaches, just generate enough different ones so that you have other moves if and when your first approach falters. You must get comfortable with adapting to feedback. Think of learning as a cycle of doing, followed by feedback, reflection and then more doing. Feedback comes in many forms, but should follow the approach. If you are writing, you want feedback from readers. If you are applying for a job, you should see progress. If starting a company, you want customers. This agile approach works for all manner of goal setting (a future post) and I use it often when I do strategic planning and product strategy with my advisory portfolio of companies through Schutzworks.
Remember that the journey is long and can be tiring. Next time we will dive into choosing approaches that you can actually sustain!