How Will You Measure Your Life?

~ Clayton Christensen ~

Chapter 4: Your Strategy Is Not What You Say It Is

You can talk all you want about having a strategy for your life, understanding motivation, and balancing aspirations with un-anticipated opportunities. But ultimately this means nothing if you do not align those with where you actually expend your time, money and energy.In other words, how you allocate your resources is where the rubber meets the road.

Titan iLook

TitaniLook

Intended Sales Strategy…

TitaniLook

Actual Sales Strategy…

Titan

iLook

Why?…

Salespeople on commission… make more $ on sales of more expensive machine with larger profit margin.

1 Titan sale = 5 iLook sales

Lesson: Sales strategy and compensation are not in alignment.

Intention Outcome

Non-Realized Feelings… Unanticipated Problems

Emergent Strategy

Deliberate Strategy

Remember this?...

This works if the resources are reallocated to the emergent strategy.

Intention Outcome

You can’t create new habits, patterns, and opportunities if you are fulfilling old ones.

New Deliberate Strategy

Old Deliberate Strategy

But this happens if the resources are not reallocated to the emergent strategy...

The Plan… The Reality…

Business Failures…

Results most often when the focus is on endeavors offering immediate gratification over endeavors that result in long-term success.The same is true of people failures

Unilever…

The Unilever system of developing talent, executives, and leaders…

Unilever strategy: develop breakthrough innovations that will produce significant new growth for company (i.e., “home runs”).How: Through a training system for best employeesDetails:• Train best employees in two-year cycles between financial,

operations, sales, HR, etc. divisions.• Measure achievement of each employee.• Promote highest achievers to most desirable new assignment.Results: • “bunts” and “singles”• Because two-year timeframe forced employees to focus on

short-term successful projects… not long-term.

Changing Social Security…

There is a problem.We know how to fix the problem.The problem does not get fixed.

Our Life Strategies…Merging our life’s resources and goals.

Our resources:• Time• Energy• Talent• Wealth

Our life’s goals:• Rewarding relationship with spouse or significant other• Raising great children• Succeeding in a career• Contributing to our community

The Danger for High-Achievers…

Things like…

• Careers (provides concrete evidence you are moving forward)– Win a case

– Finish a design

– Help a patient

– Close a sale, etc.

– Gain a promotion

“The danger for high-achieving people is that they’ll unconsciously allocate their resources to activities that yield the most immediate, tangible accomplishments.”

Can lock themselves into fast-track careers and high-flying lifestyles for themselves and family… better car… better house… better vacation.

How you allocate your resources can make your life turn out to be exactly as you hope or very different from what you intended.People who struggle…

Make a priority things that give immediate return.• Recognition• Happiness• Promotions• Peace of mind from conflict and discomfort

Rather than make a priority things that require long-term work and which you likely won’t see the return on for decades.

• Raising good children• Having a fulfilling relationship with a spouse of significant

other.• Changing the World

It is not until twenty years down the road that you can put your hands on your hips and say, “We raised good kids.”

Whole chapter has been about…The traps of allocating a high percentage of personal resources towards short-term goals and the benefits of allocating resources toward long-term goals.