Figure out the journey, not just the destination

So much of the management world is focused on the “what”.

Consultants, business schools, articles, and books all try to answer “what” questions. For example:

• What should our strategy be?

• What emerging technologies should we focus on?

• What is the best way to structure our business?

The “what” is about the destination. It’s about where it is that we think we want to be further down the road.

Very few focus on the “how”:

• How do we realign our teams around the new strategy and create strong buy-in?

• How do we integrate untested new technologies into our time-proven systems?

• How do we update our structure with minimal disruption to realize the promised benefits?

Once you’ve decided where you want to go, getting there is about leading change. And unless you’re a one-person operation, that means having a deep understanding of how individuals, teams and organizations behave, and using that understanding to create new behavior.

“What” is analytical. “How” is behavioral.

There are pivotal moments where knowing “what” to aim for is decisive, but these are few-in-a-lifetime events.

Most of the time, “how” is what decides the winners from the losers.