Leaders can’t fix the tendency towards complicating things just through communication. It requires true prioritisation, and not just the appearance of it.
“We have a discipline that we call ‘think quarterly, play weekly, act daily’,” Peupion says.
He suggests the executive team reviews its strategy once a quarter, and asks themselves one simple question. “If everything remained the same, and we could change one – at most, two – areas, that would have the biggest impact on performance, what would we change?”
“Before you even communicate, you need to reduce the number of things. Don’t ask what’s urgent, or what you would like to change.”
Executives need to define this very clearly. Everything else, they shouldn’t do now. And only after figuring this out should they communicate with their staff.
In trying to summarise Peupion’s thesis, this reporter posited that it seemed to be about ‘mindfulness’, or purposefully taking care not to focus on too many things at once.
Peupion disagreed.
“We need to move beyond mindfulness. If people are only mindful, over time, the day-to-day takes over. The hardest thing to do is to make this way of planning a habit. Making people aware is a first step, but staying that way needs to be a discipline and then, a habit.
“If something is a habit, even when times are tough, you can keep the discipline. That’s why we work with organisations over a few months. We are changing habits. Little by little, it becomes the norm.”
Myriam Robin is a journalist with LeadingCompany. You can follow her on Twitter at @myriamrobin. This article first appeared on LeadingCompany. Download your free LeadingCompany eBook “10 Key Considerations for Succession and Business Exits”.
Myriam Robin is a media reporter at Crikey. She’s an economics graduate who previously reported on business for LeadingCompany and SmartCompany.
