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Book Review - Strategy and the Fat Smoker; Doing What's Obvious But Not Easy
Mar 19, 2019
Length: 275 Pages
Life Design Applications: Personal Growth, Work, Leadership
Recommendation: Not for Most People
Three Sentence Summary: Although we usually know what to do and why we should do it, most businesses and individuals fail to do what’s good for them. The primary reason is because the ultimate rewards and benefits are in the future, but the discomfort and discipline needed to make progress are immediate. By intentional implementing supportive structures and systems, we can reliably overcome our short-term temptations and act in our best long-term interest.
Who This Book is For: This book is best suited for leaders or change agents within an organization struggling with culture, communication, or employee engagement issues. The ideal reader will have a strong appetite for challenging the status quo within an organization and a skepticism towards traditional, hierarchical thinking. If you are seeking to improve organizational performance by tapping into a higher purpose, you might find this book insightful. Anyone looking to get a new take on strategic thinking and planning for their organization will find some wisdom within these pages.
Who This Book is Not For: This book is not ideal if your primary goal is personal growth and development. Although there are some great nuggets in this book for you, I’ll share most of them in the sections below. This book is definitely geared towards organizations, leaders, and change agents. If you are not interested in making organizational-level change, there are more efficient ways to get the personal-level insights.
What I Liked Most and Least: I spend a lot of my professional life working with organizations to improve their culture and communication. I appreciate the way this book shines a light on the crucial role that leadership plays in the overall shaping of the organization, particularly when it comes to strategy. The book challenges leaders to challenge themselves in how they think and how they prioritize. I appreciate the systems-view the book takes when it comes to organizational change. It is not enough for leaders to simply state their values and goals. They must authentically believe in these things and then must implement systems to support and drive these things. The book points out that leaders must walk the talk.
Some Highlights:
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In order to change an organization, the leaders themselves must be willing to change. If a new strategy is to be followed, leaders must establish credibility by demonstrating they are willing to change how they act, measure and reward.
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"A large part of really bringing about strategic change is designing some action or new system that visibly, inescapably, and irreversibly commits top management to this strategy.” (p.12)
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“One of a leader’s roles is to act as a coach, drawing people’s attention to imperfections in the status quo (i.e. creating dissatisfaction)…” (p.14)
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Leaders should seek a process of continual, small improvement, affected over time.
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Everyone has reasons for why it is especially hard for them to be strategic. Most of these reasons are excuses and reflect risk aversion and lack of courage.
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"Successful people often appear to have a rational career progression, with each step a seemingly sensible preparation for the next. The truth, however, is that most successful business careers have been based on experimentation and opportunism." (p.36)
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Few business strategies are tested or chosen based on how motivating individuals and groups within the firm will find them. Most choices are made on how attractive the market will find them.
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Many more organizations have “mission statements” than actual missions. Missions are a set of values the organization adheres to. Furthermore, a mission should help the organization achieve greater things, not simply angle towards improving public opinion.
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It often helps more to stop talking about “final destinations” and start talking about the “rules” that will get you there. It’s not about where you want to go, it’s about what you are willing to do to get there!
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Firms often try to encourage long-term investments using short-term focused systems and rewards.
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Management’s essential role is to elicit the energy, discipline and focus it takes to overcome short-term temptations and win by focusing on the long-term and by serving as guardians for the organization’s standards
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Success comes not to those who swing for the fences every time at bat, but to those who commit themselves to a continuous program of constant improvement, base hit by base hit.
My Biggest Learning or Takeaway
I’m not sure that I really discovered anything that was truly new to me, as this book reiterated a lot of the core tenets that I’ve held dearly for many years. I’ve long believed that organizations grounded on authentic principles, openly expressed and enacted, will outperform the alternative. I appreciated hearing these ideas being echoed and supported with research. Ultimately, I think the biggest takeaway from this book is the following...By intentional implementing supportive structures and systems, we can reliably overcome our short-term temptations and act in our best long-term interest.
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