How Lincoln Unearthed Leadership and Innovation As Tactics Against Strategy - Jim Woods

  

Lincoln and his hesitant General McClellan Courtesy Museum Syndicate

In 1862 Europe poised to recognize the confederacy, the unthinkable seemed unlikely. The Union was going to lose the war. Wrote Lincoln, "We must change our tactics or lose the game."  To Lincoln it was clear the old ways would no longer resolve new challenges. 

Layered beneath today’s strategic plans organized to ad nauseum and mission statements with all the fervor of stale bread are carry over premises formed years ago during the Industrial Revolution. Day after day leaders and staffs are reminded that these antiquated premises held to by the fearful or unimaginative, no longer address change in the new age of speed. Yet, they do nothing. 

 After months of one ineffective leader after another, the Union anxious for a victory, found one during a minor skirmish under McClellan. Eventually appointed to head the Army of The Potomac, McClellan hampered his ability to challenge aggressive opponents in a fast-moving battlefield environment. He chronically overestimated the strength of enemy units and was reluctant to apply principles of mass, frequently leaving large portions of his army unengaged at decisive points. Sound familiar?

 There is an important parallel to draw with current day leaders and managers. He, McClelland was phenomenal in perpetually assessing the enemy. He created one strategic plan after another. Stock piling ammunitions and supplies for a war that was already upon him.

 Today businesses are in no less of a war with McClellanesque leaders at the helm waiting for more favorable conditions before acting.

 I continue to admonish "leaders" to heed 5 constants: commoditization, shifts in consumer tastes, and hordes of nontraditional competitors, regulatory upheavals, and geopolitical shocks. While they attempt to remind me of conditions and circumstances at play restricting their abilities to compete. I reply, “Grow up. Perpetual victimization is your ever present melody.There are limits to the blame shareholdres will permit "leaders" to place at the feet of the economy." Knowing in advance of the 5 conditions of business should be enough for leadership to step out of mediocority.In this post many will exclaim my insensitivity to the complexities of business. And they are correct. I expect organizations to measure up. So do shareholders. Mediocrity in whoever wears its hat has no comfort with the market.

Hire Jim Woods to speak to your organization. Jim Woods is President and founder of InnoThink Group. A leading innovation and comnpetitive stratefy consultancy. We invite you to request more information on our consulting and speaking engagements. You may reach Jim at 719-266-6703 or  info@innothinkgroup.com