Projecting is not what they do in the movie theater. Well, it actually is, but that is not the type of projecting I want to talk about here. What I want to discuss here is the idea of projecting yourself into the position of someone else. By putting yourself in the position of your business associate, customer or boss you can try and gain some insights into what factors are important to them, how they might respond to you, and what you can do to be prepared for those eventualities. By anticipating what the people you are doing business will want or how they will react, you can be prepared for future business actions. It is also a key to the art of thinking ahead.
The business environment has been relatively unstable for some time now. This has driven a focus on seemingly shorter and shorter term deliverables and objectives. As the focus has become shorter the number of controllable forces that can affect the desired outcomes associated with the business has gotten smaller, and in most instances has become more internally oriented to the business. In short we have a tendency to think and act more and more on our immediate needs, drivers and goals, and less on those needs of the customers, the others we deal with and the future.
We cannot afford to be only present day demand / response driven in how we conduct business. We need to remember that each activity is a link in the business chain. It was driven by the previous business activities, but more importantly it will drive other different future business activities. When we focus on only what we want, and are concerned with only what we need and how we will react, we are looking at only one half of the business equation.
Our business activities do not occur in isolation. We are working with customers and responding to the requests and requirements of other business groups. We have to project ourselves into the other half of the business activity. By taking this next step and anticipating how those we are conducting our business with will react, we can adjust our current activity to generate the future response that we desire.
I admit that this is a pretty basic concept, but it seems to be one that we are paying less attention to as we look at today’s meeting calendar, or try to worry about this month’s or this quarter’s numbers. When the headquarters staff teams are looking for forecasts, the first inclination is to get them some numbers (whatever numbers are handy at the time) and get them off your to-do list so that you can get back to actually conducting business. The problems that occur next month or next quarter because of the hasty forecast or early customer sales recognition are to be worried about next month or next quarter. Hence we seem to be always explaining the present and not planning on the future.
When you start looking at why people are interacting or conducting business with you in the manner that they are, it should change the way you interact and respond to them. Instead of just providing a number in a forecast, add a trend and an explanation of the trend. I think that’s what I would like to see when people provide me a forecast, so wouldn’t others want the same type of information? By providing that extra anticipated piece of information you have already provided the answer to the next question.
Sun Tzu in “The Art of War” always noted that the good battles to fight were the ones you had already won, before you fought them. He also stated that by anticipating and preparing for the future conditions, the best battles were the ones that were won without ever having to fight them at all.
The same should be the case for business. By taking a minute and trying to understand why the business request or the customer interaction is in its current form, projecting yourself into the requestors or customers position and anticipating what the next or future interaction will be, you can start managing the future and not just the present. “Good” issues are those that you have ready solutions to. The best issues are those that you never had to deal with because you were able to anticipate them and avoid them all together.
