Too often leaders—even the best ones—can get stuck on little power struggles and personality conflicts. It’s understandable and human but not in service to our goals.
The strategy I often refer the leaders I coach to is called “Beat the plan.” When you have many important issues and not infinite time, “Beat the plan” is a way for leaders and teams to speed up decision making and, at the same time, increase quality of those decisions and camaraderie of the team. I refined the approach from Sylvia Mathews Burwell. If you have not heard of Sylvia it’s due only to her humility as she was a Rhodes Scholar, a President of the Gates Foundation, Walmart Foundation and best known for running OMB at the White House. She was so well liked and regarded by Republicans and Democrats alike, she was sent over to run HHS.
Syl explained it this way. In the White House, one might have a million decision points, all important and not as much time as you want for each. As example, say “What are we going to do with a surplus when we balance the budget?” (Yes that happened, she said!) is the question of the day. Hypothetically, instead of OMB getting a proposal shot down, the “plan beats no plan” approach or “beat the plan” gets leaders to come to the conversation with baked ideas and strategies, ensuring people become more aligned, and has the added benefit of strengthening proposals.
