I was speaking with someone on my team the other day… we’re working on a big hairy audacious project to support a global roll-out into over 10 countries, based on sophisticated mathematical modeling (underlying the products) and significantly different environments to which the products, technologies, processes, governance and, ok, lots of other stuff needs to be adapted to “fit.” We’ve been working with “deep experts” in a variety of fields, globally and this person, let’s call her Nell, was intimidated. “Jump in – and guide the discussion,” I encouraged her. “But I don’t have the expertise any of these people have,” was her response.
Precisely… and that is precisely Nell’s value, and what she is gaining an appreciation of, and what increasingly people are recognizing as one of most important skills we need to bring to any audacious project (or, ok, just about *any* project).
What is the value of (and I’m intentionally having fun with adjectives here) deep experts? Their *deep* expertise, of course. And, what is a challenge with *deep* expertise? Their *deep* expertise, of course. It’s the connections among these experts that are often lacking, but critical for effective execution.
Translating expertise (remember Saliari in the great movie Amadeus) into “language sets” that different folks / stakeholders can consume in the language in which they consume information & insight is vital. So too helping these experts understand the context in which they are engaged and where, how, and when their expertise impacts and is impacted by other expertise. If traditional expertise rests in the “nodes,” then new expertise (and sources of value) lies in the lines that connect them – requiring us to shift attention, and investments, in people, techniques, & talents to the lines, to what connects traditional expertise.
And therein, I explained to Nell, lies her expertise, and so, so, so important source of value. Looking at the “connections” – the lines that connect the nodes – is becoming the new expertise critical to get done what needs to get done.
Complexity, as a field of inquiry, is quickly making its way into business & technology strategy, and everyday execution. We’ve always known that “different stakeholders exist” and it is critical to get them aligned. We’ve always known that ripple-effects exist throughout an organization, based as much on unintended as on intended actions. But now we have a “language,” one of increasing rigor and visceral relevance into what strategists & decisions makers need to wrap their heads around to understand why so many of their intents never get realized and what to do about it.
That’s why one of my favorite books on business strategy & execution, for years, has been Connected, and my analogy for effective alignment, the game of GO (a topic for another time).
So Nell, *change* the unit of execution focus! Be not intimidated by deep expertise which we need to leverage, of course. But change the unit of focus and focus not into the deep wells of specific knowledge, but on what connects them, and, arguably most important, how to do so. Focus on the lines, rather than the nodes! That *is* the value of today, and tomorrow… and allows us to ask, incredibly interesting, provocative yet pragmatic questions – such as how *do* you monetize the networks in which your customers are embedded? How *do* you nudge the ecosystem in which you are embedded? How *do* you identify – and amplify – early challenges / opportunities to your business? Here is where and how analytics comes in, to change the game, helping us to break from the ‘same old, same old’ approaches far too often taken. Topics for later. But, in the interim, check out the MIT Center for Connection Science and Engineering, a new center based on this recognition of the criticality of changing the unit of focus – to connections!
Strategic Edge 