Control the Controllables! — Lionesses of Africa

By Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

During the last three weeks we have written about our frightening and ever changing world. One in which life will never be the same again (it seems) and one in which changes happen not only with increasing size, but with an ever increasing speed. How this will impact in the long-term for some of our businesses remains to be seen, although for many of us, we have already felt at first-hand the immediate results. 

This week we look at having empowered your Team (as we wrote here) to look after the small stuff and day-to-day noise, which in turn allows you to spend more time on Blue-Sky thinking and being able to react quicker when there are real issuess. You now need to tighten the processes and turbo-charge their decision-making to fit this new uncertain world. It is no good if the first reaction to a problem or issue is to sit down and have a meeting to discuss why (for example) the train is bearing down on you. Or where the train will hit you. Or even, if your team is metaphysically so inclined, why do trains exist (and we have all been in those types of meeting that just drift and just do not go anywhere!)? When all is required is for a leader within your organisation, or you yourself, to MAKE A DECISION and make it fast! Your team look to you for leadership, not yet another one hour meeting that just drags on and on.

How is this possible to tighten the decision-making process with such uncertainty around us and so many moving parts? As the world around becomes more uncertain and uncontrollable you and your Team must learn to simplify and 

Control the Controllables.

Once you know the controllables are controlled, making decisions become easier…

…which brings us back nicely to the Olympics! This is because ‘controlling the controllables’ is what every athlete knows is an essential part of their success.

When the incredible and most decorated American gymnast of all time, Simone Biles, pulled out of the Olympic Team Gymnastics event following what could be clearly seen (even to our amateur eye) as a well-below-par vault, she revealed that she had realized mid flight (upside down, inside out, whilst performing some crazy mid-air tumble – sorry for the description, but we did mention we were amateurs at this!), that she was lost! What happened to her was the ‘Twisties’, a mid air realization that she was indeed lost that brought home the fear that she had no idea of how to even land! If you ask the experts they will say it is “A dangerous condition where gymnasts lose their sense of spatial awareness” (here). For those accustomed to seeing this incredible gymnast and strong woman so in control, just imagine being upside down, mid twist and like a Cat just assuming that you will land on your feet, only to realize that you have left your tail in the changing room and in the next split second you could land on your head, hard. That is the Twisties. Worse than nasty.

Sportswomen and sportsmen know that there are some things they simply cannot control and that’s ok. In individual events, they cannot control what their opponents will do, so that is uncontrollable. How their opponent will score – so don’t worry about that! They do not know what the air temperature will be in the hall, so again why waste time worrying about that! They don’t know many things and certainly cannot control most of those – so do not worry about that. BUT what they can control, they make sure they CONTROL. For the world’s greatest gymnast who “during a training session in Tokyo, …completed the “Yurchenko double pike” on the vault apparatus, a somersault that no other female gymnast has attempted in competition…[In which] She sprints to gain speed, does a backflip on to a springboard to gain height and then flips over twice in “pike” position — with the body folded over and legs straight — to land upright.” This control of the controllables, suddenly collapsed. The ‘Twisties’ is a classic case whereby the sportsperson suddenly realizes that what they once controlled, they no longer control. But most frighteningly, at the very time when they need control the most. As we said, worse than nasty.

In business during such incredible uncontrollable times, we have to reach the place where the ‘Twisties’ are banished.

So what can we control?

To give you an idea, here is from Forbes a list of controllables and uncontrollables in the Airline industry:

• “Ticket pricing

• The availability of flight routes

• The snacks and beverages offered

• The availability of power adapters

• The hiring of friendly flight attendants

• The proper training of pilots and maintenance personnel

• Overbooking flights

• The speed at which customers receive a response on Twitter

But an airline generally cannot control:

• Weather delays

• Unexpected maintenance problems with an aircraft

• Security delays at the airport

• The order in which air traffic control allows planes to depart or land

• Crying babies” (we can all relate to this one!)

So what does this mean in practice? First, make a list of those uncontrollables and accept these, relax – but be aware they might happen. When they do, be flexible (don’t worry you won’t have all of them on the list!). Then list the controllables, and the middle management in charge of these areas. They need to fully know this is their domain. Don’t be wishy-washy, we are way past the time when that can ever be a good idea. Part of empowering your team is making them fully aware of what responsibility they have and then ensuring they have ownership over this. 

As McKinsey says (here):

“Everyone working on a team must be clear about what needs to get done by whom, when, and why. Employees must also be equipped with the right skills and mindsets to solve problems, instead of waiting to be told what to do. And there must be disciplined follow-up to make sure actions were taken and the desired results achieved.” They call this “Step[ping] up execution excellence.” adding: “Just because the times are fraught does not mean that leaders need to tighten control and micromanage execution. Rather the opposite. Because conditions are so difficult, frontline employees need to take on more responsibility for execution, action, and collaboration.”

Of course this does not mean that you walk away from the company, sit in a bubble, not be involved and blue-sky think all day, but your Team must know that being empowered means that they truly have the power to make decisions. As Mckinsey say that in order for the leadership to concentrate on fewer yet more important decisions “…means tolerating mistakes that don’t put the business at risk; a slow decision can often be worse than an imperfect one.”

But there are some rules from the CEO and one of the most important is:

Keep me informed of your decisions (note ‘information only’ after the decision has been taken, this is not for you to change their decisions – because mistakes will happen and we shall “tolerate mistakes”, but you must know) and most importantly – 

Tell me the bad news early.

News where the decision taken has made the issue worse or where there is a problem that will make a meaningful negative difference to the company.

History has shown that the messenger is often the one shot (literally in the bad old days!) upon delivering bad news. This results in bad news being kept back and you will then only find out about it when it is too late (“we think it might be a train coming towards us, but let’s not worry the boss yet…”), during uncertain times, (and especially with trains!) this is highly dangerous. You must hear bad news fast, to give you the maximum time to make a decision. 

In the engine room (Finance/Operations, etc) this means you must tighten up the processes that run your business. These processes are where control is essential. Again, this is not necessarily something for you to do, but middle management must ensure that the process, the ‘engine room’, is not something that can be a sudden ‘Twister’ worry.

Lastly create a strong mental message for yourself, such as:

Do it, Delegate it, Dump it, or Diarize it, and encourage your management to do the same.

In business as in sport, muscle memory means everything. This can be trained, this can be driven, this can be improved. If you find your company in too many meetings, too slow to make decisions, in the quagmire of ‘analysis paralysis’, just as the world around us becomes significantly more volatile, then you will understand what Simone Biles felt as she realised she had the ‘Twisties’. But do not fear, do not hide under the duvet. Simone came back to win Bronze on the incredibly fearful Beam, and this shows above all that the ‘Twisties’ is not about fear, it is all about control and…

Controlling the Controllables.

Stay safe.