Falling to Perfection

Robert I. Sutton makes a very compelling point in offering that one of the most telling elements to the culture of a company or organization is the answer to the question, "What happens to people when they fail?"

This was brought up in the course "Converting Strategy into Action" taught by Johann Lindig. Sutton maintains that fear can paralyze people into inaction, or simply focusing on how not to expose what may appear to be failures rather than moving towards an actual goal.

Just about nothing in dance is possible with trying and failing, usually multiple times. One of my favorite stories is told by former New York City Ballet principal dancer Melinda Roy. She recounted that during her days as a corps dancer (read: ensemble dancer, those who work tirelessly and are not front and center in the show) she had her first chance to take to the floor.

"It was my chance; my moment to shine," she smiled, but each time Mr. B (George Balanchine, arguably one of the greatest choreographers of our time) sent her back, saying she wasn't giving enough. After the umpteenth try, she was starting to get annoyed. "... So the next time, I came plowing across the floor and I slipped and fell, right at his feet. I looked up at him and said, 'Is that it?' and he said, 'Yes, dear, that was it!'" I love the grin on Ms. Roy's face when she finishes her tale.

A rule in dance is to make sure that whatever you do, make sure you end it well. It doesn't matter how many turns you pulled off if you botched the ending. The ending is what the audience remembers. Cruel, but true. I believe this applies to anything, including the office. If you reach your goal, despite a few wonky developments that you then took care of, I'd hope it would still be considered a success.

So where am I going with this? In dance you're almost expected to fail before you get something. In the corporate world, it doesn't seem to be that way. Even though we may not have ever done something before, we're expected to get it right pretty close to toute suite. "Fail early and fail often" can be touted but how often is it a reality? To be sure, dancers need to "get it" after a reasonable amount of time, but it's ok to fail at first. Unless we are in an environment in which we know we can try things, we will never be able to fly off the ground, whether in the dance studio or in the office.

The Orchestra's Strategy Execution Framework

I completed the "Converting Strategy to Action" class today! You can imagine my surprise and delight when instructor Ms. Lindig gave us our last exercise to wrap up the class began with a video clip of the Berliner Philharmoniker playing the 4th and most famous movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony ("Ode to Joy"). Ah, bliss.

What was the exercise? Apply the Strategy Execution Framework to the Berliner Philharmoniker! Please don't be fooled by the mass of bubbles and arrows if you clicked on the link. Once Ms. Lindig took us through it, I found it to be a simple way to gain clarity on a previously indecipherable organization and articulate some sense out of where it is, and where it should be. To do this, you systematically go through Purpose, Goal, Culture, Structure, Strategy, and Portfolio (not necessarily in that order, but it's advisable to start with the first two).

The exercise showed us that the framework can be applied to any kind of organization, not just the corporate kind. The fact that this exercise was used in the class was extremely gratifying to me. My experience dancing in New York City taught me that the performing arts is, after all, a business with a bottom line. Definitions of teamwork and what constitutes success may vary from that of the office, but each ensemble, whether it be a large company like the San Francisco Ballet or the freelance rockstar duo Jacoby&Pronk, there is a raison d'etre, goals, a culture, and a structure that aligns with the strategy ... and a portfolio of programs and projects through which to develop and sustain itself.

The point is, no matter what kind of organization you are (or are in), you can use this method to plan and build a new one, or to make sense of an organization that could benefit from reevaluation. I have already drafted up a version for the organization I am in, and feel a growing sense of clarity now. Although, I must admit it was much more enjoyable to apply the framework on the Berliner Philharmoniker!

Do Do Do

Today was my second day of the "Converting Strategy to Action" class, part of the Stanford Advanced Project Management series. The concept of the "Knowing-Doing Gap" by Stanford Professors Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton was introduced by our engaging instructor Johann Lindig. In a nutshell, it says that despite a ton of classroom time, consulting, and research, people in business don't enact much change. You can't just sit in a classroom discussing things and then expect to be able to DO things that move a business.

Whoever built the slide introducing the concept is to be commended, since it showed an image of a ballet dancer. Dance was never brought up in the class, but yes, I thought, dance is a perfect example! You can't read books about ballet and expect to be able to just get up and show the world 32 fouettes, much less a beautifully turned out and pointed foot.

I realize I take for granted that everything in dance and in music I have to attempt to do before I can do anything. Without doing there is ... well, nothing. You can just stand there and think about how you are supposed to engage your muscles and align your hips and on and on and ... there you are, still in the same place. It's happened to me lots of times when I think about a movement excessively; I'm literally paralyzed. I can't move. I have to get over myself and just try it. It'll take many wonky tries before I even start getting it, but that's part of the process.

For the office, though, I've never thought about it quite the same way. Sure, there's no way you can know everything before you try something, but there's so much planning, analysis and re-analysis, and consensus building going on that individuals and teams are often similarly paralyzed into inaction. Talking is no substitute for action but it can be like a sedative; it makes us feel as if we've done something. Think about it this way: A dance isn't going to create itself from a lot of discussion. At the office, often it's simply a time constraint that forces us to action.

But what if we can see it as trying out a new step, or a new, difficult passage to play on a musical instrument? There's nothing until you do something. It may not be right the first time, so for this approach it's important to be in an organization that supports doing and doing again, with learnings from the first time. Google often encourages teams to "launch and iterate" and yet in some organizations we try so hard to avoid any "failures" at the first attempt due to significant resources on the line. What's the balance here?

I don't have an answer that satisfies me yet, but I do know that going back to the dance and music parallel helps ground me. I'll remind myself: Without doing, there is nothing.

Perhaps that is enough for now.