Many new ventures and acquisitions fail because they haven't been properly stress tested before being launched. It's so much less expensive, less embarrassing and more successful to get our proposals and decisions thoroughly scrutinised at the start rather than trying to correct mistakes later.
Human beings make mistakes, especially in a complex world, under pressure with limited time and information. We make false assumptions, fail to foresee threats, strategic shocks and opportunities and get outmanoeuvred by competitors. We have many emotional, social and cognitive biases which distort our judgements and decision-making, such as groupthink and wishful thinking.
Whether you are an investor deciding about whether to put your money into a particular business or an entrepreneur pitching for funds to launch your new venture, it's in your interest to thoroughly test the pitch, the proposition, the business plan, strategy, the leadership team, the financial projections and every aspect of a deal before it is done.
The mediaeval church knew this. They realised that all sorts of people were being selected as Saints and then found themselves embarrassed after they had been canonised realising they had not done their due diligence properly. Consequently, the Pope created the role of the Devil's Advocate- someone to thoroughly test the assumptions, look for alternative explanations, independently and critically evaluate the reasoning, evidence and judgements so as to improve the quality of the decisions.
The military understand this. When the military thoroughly tests their strategies and models beforehand, they are successful such as in the Battle of the Atlantic and D-Day. When they forget to do this, things don't go so well, such as in Vietnam and Iraq. There was a time when no one could beat Napoleon, who seemed unstoppable. The Prussian Army officers knew that individually they were no match for him, but they believed that if they worked together as a team, they might be able to beat him. So they played war games in which some of them played the Prussian Army in their blue uniforms and others played the opposition in red uniforms- the Red Team. The job of the Red Team was to get into the minds of the competition and to test the Blue Team's strategy from every possible angle conceivable. They found the weak points in their strategy and creatively discovered ways to make it better. Napoleon spent his retirement in prison in the South Atlantic.
And so it is in business. To improve your chances of making wise decisions and implementing successful new ventures and investments, it makes sense to thoroughly test and optimise your decision, pitch, strategy, deal, plan or acquisition before launch.
Applications:
- Prepare and practice your pitch
- Challenge and optimise a strategy, plan or policy
- Rigorous facilitation of decisions (business, career, political, personal)
- Prepare for a successful launch, presentation or interview
- Due diligence on a potential investment, deal, acquisition, business partner or joint venture
- Test and practice your negotiation strategy
- Facing a new competitor or disruptive technology
- Developing new products, services and concepts
- Leadership assessment and development
- Relationship analysis and strategy for improvement
- Create and sharpen your future vision
- Manage a crisis, conflict or strategic challenge
- Achieve breakthroughs and overcome barriers, blocks and resistance
Benefits
- Test and improve your strategy, plans, product or service
- Make better decisions
- Foresee risks, threats, vulnerabilities and outcomes
- Test and optimise your pitch before you seek investment
- Assess potential business partners, acquisitions and investments
- Demonstrate rigorous due diligence with independent, objective scrutiny, checks and balances
- Generate and test new ideas, opportunities & options
- Increase success of a merger, acquisition, joint venture or change implementation
- Achieve breakthroughs and overcome barriers, blocks and resistance
- Anticipate and create disruptions
- Bring things to a head
- Get direction, confidence and clarity
- Identify alternative options or outcomes and/or explore the consequences of a specific course of action
- Negotiate successfully
- Outmanoeuvre competitors, adversaries and other players
- Enjoy a safe environment to explore sensitive, controversial and risky subjects
- Receive robust, constructive challenge, honest, objective feedback
- Avoid errors and strategic shocks
- Deal with challenges
- Avoid the opportunity costs of doubt, procrastination and analysis paralysis
- Decide between potential strategic options
- Overcome cognitive and emotional biases, complacency and groupthink
- Get objective analysis independent of internal corporate politics, egos and interests
- Innovate and adapt to thrive in a complex and uncertain world
- Perfect your inspiring future vision
- Face uncomfortable truths
- Thoroughly test your arguments, evidence, logic
- Practice fielding rigorous questioning
- Discover your Achilles heel and weaknesses and turn them around
- Integrate the shadow side for maximum authenticity and power
We run this in 5 phases:
1. Preparation phase
- The person who has the authority as the decision-maker and budget holder must be fully committed and engaged
- Assure discretion and confidentiality
- Being engaged at an early enough stage to make alternative choices
- Identify a clear question, clear objectives, defining the scope, timeframe and delivery mechanism for the task
- Identify constraints and limitations at the start. If there are limits to what the assessment is allowed to assess then say so at the start
- Understand the decision, strategy, pitch, proposal, leadership team, business or strategy to be tested
- Understand the decision maker's values, interests, criteria and priorities
- Understand the competitive landscape
- The client's need might require anything from a 90 minute Devil's Advocate conversation at a point of decision, to a one day D-Day Decision Facilitation or a or a fully staffed facilitated Red Team process.
- The timing and scope depends upon the urgency, complexity, amount of information, number of people, locations and time available
- Appoint an impartial, independent, skilled decision-facilitator who has no conflict of interest or undue pressures placed upon them
- Agree provision of proper access, information, openness and access to subject matter experts
- Develop a good working relationship, including regular contact and accessibility throughout the task;
2. Diagnostic phase
- Create a safe, confidential, creative space
- Interviews, 101 questions, Observations
- Get to the bottom of things; see the wood for the trees
- Identify, challenge and test assumptions, assertions and logic
- Assess the strength of the evidence base or the quality of the information and understanding
3. Creative phase
- Assess the situation holistically from multiple perspectives, different paradigms, value systems, different ways of thinking, mind, body, spirit, relationships, group dynamics, strategy, politics
- Fully explore alternative courses of action
- Consider the internal and external factors which may affect the outcome
- Identify alternative theories and explanations
- Identify potential outcomes and scenarios
- Discover unforeseen risks, threats, vulnerabilities and consequences
- Identify potential opportunities
- Explore the consequences of a specific course of action;
- Understand the perspectives and options available to competitors and other actors;
- Facilitated analysis by teams of key players, customers, stakeholders
- Appreciative Inquiry - identify what's working, what could be better, what the Heaven on Earth, Rolls Royce version looks like and how to implement it
- Engage the whole system of leaders, employees, customers, stakeholders, investors to answer key questions
- Offer solutions for identified problems
4. Challenge phase
- Bring things to a head
- Say what needs to be said
- Face uncomfortable truths
- Give constructive challenge, honest, objective feedback
- Challenge ideas and theories
- Apply contrasting views, alternative theories
- Test competing hypotheses
- Test the resilience of the plan, system, proposal
- Identify and assess the probability of surprises and strategic shock
- Assess the probability of success
5. Communication phase- King's Speech
- Having decided what to do, communicate it effectively
- Create, practice and rigorously test the pitch, proposal, presentation and strategic communications
- Ensure that the findings are heard, and acted on, by senior decision makers
Reports and Presentations
- A verbal brief and presentation;
- A written report, if requested.
Feedback, facilitation and coaching
- Inspire the leaders to be the best they can be
- As required.
Adan's executive coaches have decades of experience working at the executive level with leading organizations around the world. We have expertise in leadership, productivity, organizational change, team building, marketing, sales and motivation.
Our on-the-job experience coupled with extensive knowledge of the markets and functional areas enables us to deliver a variety of practical, high-impact presentations that engage, enlighten and entertain.
