Author: Richard Lannon

Strategy Spotlight: Being the Strategic Hero Means Career Opportunities for You

Written by Richard Lannon on September 27, 2016. Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on Strategy Spotlight: Being the Strategic Hero Means Career Opportunities for You

I spent many years implementing strategic plans. Recently, in a conversation with an executive from the resource industry, I was told strategy was a bad word, just like the word transformation.

There was now an underpinning feeling if the company had not transformed yet, it never would. I found that interesting, as transformation in the strategic business analysis world is a requirement word that also means change and implementation requirements.

Where the business wants to focus is on execution, implementation, and integration. That makes sense as there are many companies with great strategic plans but fail to implement them.

One Fortune report suggested 9 out of 10 organizations fail to implement their strategic plans successfully. Another Tech Company report stated 50% of all Tech companies and departments don’t have a strategic plan.

It is difficult to implement if you don’t know where you want to go.

Here’s the thing; strategy, execution, implementation, and integration are all connected. If strategy is coming from the top, then someone needs to translate it into realistic, viable, actionable plans. And someone else needs to execute on it successfully. So I contacted my friend and business associate, Bill Hanniman of Hanniman Recruiting Group Inc (IT recruitment boutique successfully on top of the emerging trends for BA and PM resources) and asked what’s up.

According to Bill, “to address the implementation challenges, organizations are seeking business integration specialists, project execution specialists/analysts, project managers and program managers.”

In walks the strategic business analyst, business analyst, senior project manager and/or senior program manager and like professional rescuers (investigators, police officers, firefighters, medics, teachers, etc.) they become the unsung hero of the business world. They are the people who make a substantive yet unrecognized contribution; whose bravery is unknown or unacknowledged as they set forth to execute and implement the strategic objectives in an ever-changing corporate landscape. What do they do?

Strategic Business Analysts

Strategic business analysts identify business needs and solutions within the context of the overall direction of a company. They develop and implement critical business solutions through information gathering, synthesis, review, and testing. They secure and allocate resources, manage implementation schedules, and facilitate meetings.

Strategic business analysts are commonly part of the IT field and usually work in the financial, banking, computer, or IT industries. A strategic business analyst’s projects can involve software development and acquisition, systems development, and process management.¹

Senior/Project Manager

Project management involves setting project goals, establishing tasks and a timeline for completion by assigned parties, evaluating progress and making adjustments as needed to ensure that clients, internal or external, achieve their desired results. Project managers often work in the computer systems or information technology industries, although they can find employment in almost any industry. They coordinate project activities, budgets, personnel and work with other departments to meet deadlines and project goals within set resources and under firm deadlines.²

Business Integration Specialists

A systems integrator is a person or company that specializes in bringing together component subsystems into a whole and ensuring that those subsystems function together, a practice known as system integration. Systems integrators may work in many fields, but the term is generally used in the information technology (IT) field, the defense industry, or in media.³

After discussing these roles and responsibilities in what I call a ‘did you know session,’ I asked Bill what happened to change management as it relates to the corporate organization and these careers. He told me, “culture change management is also an essential component that needs to be embedded from the project launch and all resources (technical and functional) need to understand what this means and how their role plays a part of it all. The last 5% is what executives often talk about. That’s where the actual ROI is achieved.”

Achieving that last 5% return on investment has always been a challenge, whether you are talking about today or project from 20 years ago. I don’t believe that has changed much. But as a professional, if you know your path is one of execution, implementation, and integration then you can focus on helping the business realize their goals and objectives.

Final Thoughts

All of these positions swirl around one another in some interchangeable role and responsibility dance. The fact is they are all about the execution, implementation, and integration timeline where realizing ROI is the key measurement of success, especially on large enterprise initiatives like SAP or some other large scale project. Those who succeed get to live another day and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

There is a buzz of opportunities in some organizations where teams are being gathered to execute on the strategic agenda. This requires a cross-section of expertise that lends itself well to the professional with business analysis, project management, and system integration experience. I hope this blog provided you some “did you know” insight.

Do your best,
Invest in the success of others,
Make your journey count.
Richard

¹ “Career Definition for Strategic Business Analysts.” Study.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
² “Project Manager Job Description.” Study.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
³ “Systems Integrator.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.

Strategy Spotlight: Be Teaming with Success: Using Assessments and Profiling to Understand Yourself and Others

Written by Richard Lannon on September 13, 2016. Posted in Articles.

I have received a number of emails regarding a statement I made in one of my previous blogs.

In that particular post, I mentioned the importance of understanding yourself and others through profiling. The exact quote, “you should profile yourself and the people around you” (See article Master These 7 Skills to Become an Excellent Interviewer). So let me explain the importance of profiling and give you some options.

A project manager and/or business analyst is a leader who must engage people in order to get stuff done. This reality exists whether through identifying business problems or opportunities, evaluating solution alternatives, or planning and implementing projects. Nothing happens unless you can engage people appropriately. Profiling helps.

Three Profiling Rules and Profile Types to Endure

There are a few rules about profiling that you need to internalize. First, it is not about you so leave your ego at the door. Second, it is all about the other person’s communication needs. Third, you need to adapt to the communication needs of the other person.

Generally, there are three kinds of profiles to consider; intelligence quotient (IQ), emotional quotient (EQ) and culture quotient (CQ). EQ has to do with emotional intelligence and is now considered more important than IQ in achieving success in our lives (business, career, and life). Success is dependent on our ability to read people and act appropriately.

Four Attributes of Emotional Quotients (EQ)

Self-Awareness: You are aware of your thoughts and emotions and the impact they have on your behavior. What you think is what you feel, what you feel is how you act and how you act is the results you get (think, feel, act, results).

Self-Management: Can be defined as your ability to manage your feelings and behaviors. It includes your ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

Social Awareness: This is where you engage in understanding other people. In essence your ability to read the situation around you, pick up on social cues and adjust accordingly. It is all about people and group dynamics.

Relationship Management: Emphasis is placed on your ability to develop and maintain good relationships. This could be short-term (for projects), to influence and motivate others, to interact for the purpose of understanding a problem, to manage conflicts, etc. I like to think of this as your ability to get on and get along in life.

Six Tools of the Assessment Trade (there are more)

There are many tools that can be used to develop your understanding of yourself and others. I believe that throughout your career it is important to use several tools in order to develop a self-profile that goes beyond just the standard EQ assessment. It’s important to look at your career and work fit, your career anchors, and of course the standard emotional intelligence profiling options. Here is a list of options to help you build your ability to understand yourself and others so you can improve your professional effectiveness.

DISC Profile: This is a behavioral model that examines individual behaviors in their environment, their styles, and behavioral preferences. Four areas looked at include; Dominance (control, power, and assertiveness), Influence (social situations and communication), Steadiness (patience, persistence, and thoughtfulness), and Conscientiousness (structure and organization). This is a powerful tool for profiling, building teams and relationships.

Self-Management Pro: This one is used to predict management and leadership potential so that organizations can develop their professionals. The tool has been proven effective in predicting performance and retention. I like the way it looks at your profile and style in terms of process and structure, learning, orientation, self-direction and lifestyle management.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): A personality inventory that measures people in four key areas; how you relate to others (either by extraversion or introversion), how a person takes in information (sensing or intuition), how a person makes decisions (thinking or feeling) and how a person orders their life (judging or perceiving).

Career Anchors: We are all anchored in something. This tool will help you understand your career anchors and other people’s career anchors. Everyone is not anchored in the same things. You and the person you are working with will fall into one of eight categories (autonomy/independence, security/stability, technical/functional, general management, entrepreneurial creativity, service, pure challenge, and lifestyle). Knowing a person’s career anchors tells you a lot about their natural motivation.

Career Fitters: My new favorite profile as I filled this one a few weeks ago and I was surprised how accurate it was. This profile looks at your personality in the workplace and then provides you insight into career options based on your work personality style. It is great for working with teams and individuals to understand fit or even working with other people and their fit to what they are doing. Send me an email if you would like a link.

Coaching Skills Inventory: The coaching skills inventory generates an overall coaching-effectiveness profile. It teaches you how you do in meetings from the opening, communicating, gaining agreement and closing. Don’t let the title fool you as it is not just about coaching. It can be used to improve your meeting performance. Something I found incredibly valuable in identifying my weaknesses and then developing my meeting skills. This is a huge bonus.

Final Thoughts:

The importance of understanding yourself and others continues to grow. I think it has become imperative that the professional step up and take the time to learn how to profile and adapt in order to increase their success. A combination of emotional quotients and career profiling provides valuable insight into the world around you. These profiles are becoming increasingly relevant to organizations and people development, and the ability to solve business problems because they provide a way to understand and assess behaviors, styles, beliefs, values, attitudes and interpersonal skills. All of which impact your ability to do your job.

Over the course of my career I have done a lot of interviews, small group meetings and workshops where understanding the people around me was critical to the initiative success. Sometimes we would profile on-the-fly and other times we would do formal profiling using a combination of tools, one-on-one debriefs and Group to Business Impact Sessions. Something I still do for clients today.

Strategy Spotlight: Master These 7 Skills to Become an Excellent Interviewer

Written by Richard Lannon on August 16, 2016. Posted in Articles.

It’s time for that one-on-one meeting, the interview. You know the one. It’s the meeting that you need to prepare for to ensure it goes well.

This is one of those topic areas that I am never too sure whether to describe as strategic or tactical. Maybe it is a bit of both from an individual micro-strategy and tactical action perspective. But, it is a skill that the professional needs to master in order to acquire the right information from all levels of stakeholders, from the CEO to the frontline staff.

Related Article: Top 8 Mistakes in Requirements Elicitation

I have learned from years of working with people and interviewing them that the one-on-one interview requires you to master a number of skills.

Now according to the BABOK, an interview is a “systematic approach to elicit information from a person or group of people in an informal or formal setting by talking to the person – the interviewee, asking relevant questions and documenting the responses.”

7 Skills to Master to Become an Excellent Interviewer

1. Be Really Clear on Your Purpose: This might sound like a no-brainer, but if you are not clear on the interview purpose then you will have a real challenge focusing the session. Create an interview purpose statement. Use the business problem as a starting point but be clear on the outcome. It is all right to say that you are here to discuss a specific topic and what you hope to gain.

2. Be like a Journalist or Sales Person: The best and most successful sales people or journalists know they have to ask the right questions to determine the needs of the stakeholders. They have studied the art of question creation and asking. I know the response I get when I say “sales people.” I am not talking about the stereotypical fast talking oddly dressed car sales person.

What I mean is to develop your abilities to present yourself professionally and know the questions you need to ask to better understand the stakeholder needs.

Being a journalist (in the traditional sense) is about developing the ability to dig deeper, know when to do so and be prepared when you hit the jackpot.

3. Observe Your Favourite Interviewer: This is a tip I picked up in acting and facilitation classes years ago. Identify those interviewers you really respect for their abilities. They could be late night hosts, hard talk professionals or news professionals. Create a character profile of them. Determine what they are known for (style), what is it they do well and where can they improve. Now watch them and observe with the point of learning and then incorporating some of their skills into your own routine.

4. Develop Active Listen Skills: Do you listen well? Now be honest with yourself. Active listening is a skill that anyone can develop. Research suggests that the mind thinks 4 to 7 times faster than we can speak and in general we only speak about 100 words per minute. It is easy to get distracted and think of other things. It has been suggested that with most people (no matter the gender), active listening increases with the greater interest in the topic. So frame or reframe your topic for the optimum personal interest.

When listening, use techniques to show you are actively listening.

5. Be a Chameleon and Adapt: I believe you should profile yourself and the people around you. I know this can be controversial. But when you profile yourself you learn a lot about who you are and how you operate. You can learn what behaviors you engage in under certain circumstances. It also helps you learn to adapt your natural communication style to the person’s needs, not yours. That is one of the keys to being a successful communicator, therefore interviewer.

6. Preparation is the Key: You have to prepare for an interview. This means doing your research. If you are meeting with someone new, then research who they are and what they are all about, their department, and who works for them. Even check out their social media profile. It all helps. The next part of preparation is to know what you want to ask. The key to doing a great interview is to have great questions. So work with someone and create a list of the questions you need to ask. Make sure your questions directly relate to your purpose and the outcome required. Always create an open and get the most important questions up front.

7. It is All About Timing: Most people miss this important point. They go to an interview session, and they miscalculate their timing and the number of questions they can ask and discuss in any meaningful way. Ask yourself this question. If you were to have a 30-minute interview how many questions could you ask and get answered? Generally, it would be around 5 to 7 questions plus dialogue and add-on questions. In the interview, you need to master the open, connection, questions, linking and close. If you would like a copy of my interviewing meeting timing chart send me an email and I will forward it to you.

Final Thoughts

Interviewing is a significant skill to master as a professional. It requires a balance between art and science. The best thing is that you can study to be an interviewer and practice it with business associates. This skill will be used when working with a variety of stakeholders at different levels in your organization.

Mastering some of the components of interviewing will go a long way towards you getting better business, stakeholder, solution and transformation requirements. Good Luck.

And Remember,
Do your best,
Invest in the success of others,
Make your journey count.
Richard

Strategy Spotlight: Catapult the Organization Forward: Discover a CEO’s Thinking

Written by Richard Lannon on July 6, 2016. Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on Strategy Spotlight: Catapult the Organization Forward: Discover a CEO’s Thinking

I was interviewing a CEO of a successful technology product and service company. We were discussing what made the company successful and also their challenges. He openly spoke of the way they approach business growth and their culture with an emphasis on people – both internal and external stakeholder relationships.

Here are the things that were on the CEO’s mind and the commitments they made. I suspect some of these are on your leaders’ minds and you should know them if you want to participate in your company’s success.

Business Growth

When we started talking about business growth I asked the CEO to define what this meant to his company. It was clearly stated that they measured business growth two ways; by top line sales and bottom line results. From an SBA’s (strategic business analyst) perspective this helps tell you where you can have an impact. For example, if your focus is on cost reduction then you get to impact the bottom line through process improvements or other cost reduction measures.

Acquisition

One part of the approach to business growth for this CEO was through acquisition. The acquisition strategy was about finding complementary products and services that were within the business’s ability to acquire that fit with the culture of the organization. There was a huge emphasis placed on people and culture because acquiring another business that did not fit made no sense to this CEO. The reason was simple; wrong culture and wrong fit mean conflict and negative business impact.

So for this company, if the BA is part of a team evaluating acquisition. they would need to know the parameters of analysis using a combination for financial, human resource and risk management approaches to help determine if a move forward is a good idea. This could apply internally as well as when looking at department adjustments. Not to mention if the company succeeded in acquiring another organization, the BA would need to document all the cultural changes, process shifts and adjustments that need to be made. The BA should be part of the success of this approach.

Organic Growth

The organic growth is a portion of growth that applies to increased output, customer base expansion, new product development, innovation, or the geographic placement of your company to serve a clientele. This CEO explained that this is something they can do at a relative consistent annual rate given the nature of their business. For example, a 5 percent annual growth rate per year would be consistent.

But with a little creative development, they could create a revenue pop in their business. The example provided was when a group of business analysts had the idea of recycling metal from old equipment and selling to recycling companies. It turned out to be a small but doable branch of their business done by a couple of people who cared about the environment, took the time to identify the requirements, recommend solutions and help make it happen.

Three-Legged Stool Analogy

This analogy has been around for a long time and is sometimes referred to as the Three-Legged Strategy. When this CEO and I started to discuss this business approach we had a good laugh as we both understood that the Three-Legged Strategy applies to a lot of things. But our focus is the CEO’s perspective. In this case, we talked about customer service, product sales, and maintenance agreements.

They placed a lot of emphasis on training their people to do three things. First, making sure they are solving the customer’s problem no matter what. Second, asking their customers who else should they be speaking to in their company that could also use their services? Third, the simple question, how can we help? All three of these things helped build the business through relationship building and can be part of the external and internal culture of the business.

Their product line was twofold, soft consumables and hard products. Their business growth starts first with customer consumable products. This particular technology company sold customer products that customers would consume on a regular basis, creating a regular cash flow. The consumable products helped the company create a wedge in their customer’s business, opening the door to other opportunities. Think an inch wide and a mile deep. Once they opened the door, they could sell other products.

Their hard products, he felt, were things they could sell once due to the cost. Generally, it would be a capital purchase by a client. They are always looking to sell their hard products, but the real cash flow is in the maintenance agreements to service the equipment. So the emphasis was placed on ways to maintain these contracts and to find additional offerings related to this service. This way they were focused on value services. Their BAs helped define the service and maintenance programs through analysis of the business intelligence data.

There are many lessons learned here relating to the Three-Legged Stool approach. You can see that their culture is a customer focused environment where making sure that the needs of the customer are completely understood and solutions were forthcoming. The culture also reflected that they thought out where their revenue streams were and they emphasized actions towards supporting that area. From an internal perspective, I could see services of an IT department (or any department) following a similar approach for their internal clients. It just needs to be defined.

People and Culture

This was the final piece of the puzzle for this CEO. Not necessarily the last. It just happened we agreed at the start of our discussion to follow a certain flow.

Their culture, he felt, was one of the most important parts of the business success. They were always having discussions on how to improve that part of the business. He was proud to tell me of the $250 annually that each employee gets to give to charity and the company match on top of that and the weekly call out sessions where employees complimented their peers on the work they did. Basically creating a culture where people are engaged and work together to solve problems. But the big word was FIT. People they hired needed to fit with the organization and live the business values. As we reviewed the values, I had the CEO provide examples of what living the values looked liked. Given the nature of the project we were about to embark on this was important to know. Overall this company wanted a culture of trust. Something a BA can learn to do when working with people using the formula; like you, know you, and trust you and I will work with you. But maybe that is another blog on how to build a culture of trust.

Final Thought

As I share this blog and the interview that I did with this CEO I can’t but help think about what I found out. This was a reconnaissance mission to understand the business, the issues, the driving forces and risks. I did get what I needed. This important conversation provided me insight into what was on the CEO’s mind, the leadership commitments of the organization and the lessons learned. I got to ask all sorts of questions related to the business to gain perspective and thinking. This provided valuable information to help define the future, analyze commitments and implement solutions.
As a strategic business analyst, I believe that information and business intelligence data can be used to help business’ achieve its goals and objectives, to analyze aspects of the business to solve problems and provide solutions that fundamentally will help catapult the organization forward. It is important to discover what is on the minds of the CEO. Hopefully, you do too.

Remember to:

Do your best,

Invest in the success of others,

Make your journey count,

Richard

Strategy Spotlight: 5 Common Mistakes to Avoid During the Strategic Facilitation Process: Part A

Written by Richard Lannon on June 21, 2016. Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Strategy Spotlight: 5 Common Mistakes to Avoid During the Strategic Facilitation Process: Part A

There are times when a business analyst is asked to step up and become a strategic business analyst, effectively guiding the strategic facilitation process. Strategic facilitation is focused on the skill and art of guiding a process to solve business problems or leverage opportunities at the enterprise level.

However, that does not mean you forget the operational aspect of the organization. As a strategic facilitator, the business analyst brings together tools and techniques, methods and processes, and key business artifacts available for the strategic planning purposes.

In all forms of facilitation, there are some common mistakes that are made, mistakes that can be avoided with preparation and a keen sense of the deliverables.

Related Article: Group Dynamics and Requirements Elicitation

Here are 5 common mistakes to avoid during the strategic facilitation process – part A.

Not Having an Approach

This is a significant issue. There are many times I had to audit strategic business analysis gone sideways and have found a lack of a defined approach. Strategic facilitation only works if you are clear on what you need to do. For example, the S.E.T. Approach. In the S.E.T. Approach, you structure your approach, engage people and transform the business. The first part is about structured analysis and might include a combination of preparation activities including one-on-one sponsor and stakeholder interviews, short answer (open-ended questions) surveys to no more than 6 or 7 people for clarity purposes and maybe document review. The purpose is to understand the situation using an approach.

Lack of Clarity on the Issue

In strategic business analysis, planning and implementation there is usually some issue driving the situation. You need to answer the question, what is the driving force for strategic analysis and facilitation process?

For example, I had a situation where an important contract was not re-signed and the company lost 25% of its revenue. Due to rapid growth, another client experienced a lack of cohesiveness which negatively impacted their organization’s culture and its ability to perform. The point, something is driving your work, what is it? You do not want to be in the situation where the primary purposes strategic facilitation and planning is unclear. Get clear.

No Defined Method or Solution Domain

I am amazed at the number of meetings I have gone to, and professionals are trying to solve problems without a method to apply. Even worse is when there is a standardized method to apply, but they don’t know what it is. It happens all the time. You need to ask if there is a solution domain that you should be using. In this case, I am looking to understand if the business environment has a lean or six sigma standard, are they ITSM/ITIL, a Balance Score Card or Setability Model in the environment. There are lots of possibilities. It depends on the situation. Maybe you are introducing something new. That is fine as long as it fits. If you are the strategic facilitator, then you need to ensure that the method for discussing the issue is clear and communicated well in advance. Sometimes you will need to provide training in the method used to discuss and solve issues. This should be part of defining your approach.

Participating in the Solutions

It is easy to become the solution person and add your opinion, be the trainer and start teaching people stuff, or set yourself up as the expert and people look to you for the answer. They will ask for your opinion. Don’t allow this to happen. As a strategic facilitator it is not your job to participate in that way. You need to become neutral in the process and learn to be a guide to ensure that the discussion is lively and relevant at any particular point in time. This means you need a toolbox of approaches that you can use. Learn to deflect through redirecting questions or statements asking for your opinion. If you are to participate, recommend that you use a neutral facilitator, someone with experience in strategic analysis and planning. Remember strategic facilitation is about guiding a process through a maze of progressive elaboration to eventually converge on a common decision and direction.

Failing to Involve Various People Types

The engagement activity is a people skill on a number of levels. First, the introvert versus the extrovert. You need to engage effectively in leadership to avoid having a few opinionated attendees taking over. The people who talk the most do not necessarily have the best ideas. So get the quieter people engaged in the process. Second, learn to profile on the fly and adjust your behavior and communication style to the other persons or group needs. This means learning not to be you. For some people this is a difficult skill to master. But the better you understand you, the better you can understand other people. Third, learn group dynamic approaches to deal with the various characters in the room. Have private nicknames for the participant’s persona that give you a bit of a snapshot of the person’s character in a group meeting and approach you can apply to the situation.

There are lots of mistakes in strategic facilitation that the business analyst can avoid making. Often it means investing in developing a set of skills that go beyond documentation and providing technical solutions. These skills can be applied at a variety of levels in the organization and to a business analyst’s work. If you are a business analyst who is focused on strategic analysis, then the bar is raised when it comes to your strategic facilitation abilities. It is best to invest time and effort in avoiding some common mistakes.

Do your best,

Invest in the success of others,

Make your journey count,

Richard