I’m currently helping a number of very talented R&D leaders in a variety of contexts. What they have in common, is that across the board, they are dealing with significant growth and change at all levels including technical, organizational and process. Specifically, this change has led to challenges including how to scale, how to stay vibrantly attached to the voice of the customer and how to deal with deep, multi-site collaboration.
In my work with each of these leaders, a pattern is emerging in how they approach these changes. In sharing that pattern with you, I’m hoping that it provides you with the insight needed to move toward progress in your world faster.
First a bit of background.
Every major move forward requires both technical and adaptive competence. Technical challenges are met by expert knowledge, while adaptive challenges force us to assess, shift and learn (more on technical and adaptive challenges here).
To unpack that, let’s look at an example:
Let’s say that you’re taking on a project that will use blockchain to track the shipment of your delicate instruments on the way to the client so that you’re better able to see the shocks they endure moment to moment. To move this project forward, you need two tracks:
- The first allows you to gain insight around the tech itself. How does it work at the device, communications and analytics layers? Who are the experts and how can we put that to work?
- The second path is softer work. What process will be used to install this in the existing client’s delivery process? How will we manage the data and use it to develop value through internal and external client interaction? How might our and our client’s processes need to shift to access these benefits?
Here is what I almost always see: the technical path receives the lion’s share of the investment of time, money and resources. The implications of this are a rapid optimization of the tech needed and an increase in system risks in delivering the promised results. It is entirely possible to win at the technical elements and fall short on the intended benefits.
This plays out in the larger context, as well. When we receive our education or talk with colleagues, for example, we lean very heavily on technical competence. Then when it’s time to put that competence into action, we run into a wall.
You see, many of our best technologists have a rarely admitted secret.
While they are absolutely thrilled to work on disruptive tech in the abstract, the work of getting messy in the disruption built into the system gives them shivers in their core. The very drive that takes them to the top of their subject matter expertise is pushed by a deep need to find a solution that is so overwhelmingly superior, it requires no conflict during implementation. When it comes to the adaptive work, they would simply like to head back to the lab and create the next big piece of intellectual property.
Now let me share the gift behind this dirty little secret. That internal gyroscope that drives them to avoid risk and conflict is also a very big opportunity. You see, to calibrate their internal gyroscope, they have developed a nearly instant ability to quickly discern all the human tensions involved with implementing the new tech. As I work with these subject matter experts, each of them has outlined to me, with deep insight and specificity, exactly how each person on the team will respond and why.
This raw insight can unlock amazing implementations.
The secret to moving from a journeyman tech leader to full wizard status is to take this intelligence and put it to work in unlocking the “soft side” of implementation.
Noting that this is a very bespoke journey for each leader, let me provide a couple of points to get you started.
The Extraordinary Path Least Traveled
Get comfortable with these three skills and you’ll be well on your way to being able to both dream it and get it done.
- Be able to look at a problem through another leader’s lens. Influential leaders take the time to understand exactly how the change looks from the other leader’s point of view. We use a system of four leadership personas to allow tech leaders to take exactly the right approach to get heard. Doing this work unlocks paths forward that these leaders simply didn’t think would ever open.
- Task stacking. When we work in tech, we can modulate the pace at which we attack tasks. Sometimes we get on a tear and do an all-nighter, sometimes we can only move the ball an inch in a full day. When we get deep into implementation, however, we lose much of this ability and have to get comfortable moving at the speed of change. I specifically work with leaders to move them beyond their usual task saturation levels. We use techniques borrowed from high-stress environments like aerospace to allow them to task stack, reprioritize and execute like a pro.
- Collaborative assessment. This may well be the toughest journey for tech leaders. The hard work here is having the humility to realize that there is more to be discovered through dialogue. This task involves sitting with their colleagues and sharing what they see and collaboratively laying out insights and options. Why is this so hard? Because tech allows us to work towards a single path, and implementation of tech is a multi-path journey where a number of paths can lead to success.
If you are an entrepreneurially-minded tech leader and would like to know more, please reach out at 847-651-1014, or put an appointment on my calendar with this link, and we’ll have a discussion to get you on the right path.
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