Through my volunteer work with the Boulder Center for Conscious Community, I've had a chance to learn about and practice Holacracy<tm>, a non-traditional alternative to the top-down hierarchical approach most organizations use to self-govern. One of its tenants is "dynamic steering", which loosely translates to setting a goal, making decisions no sooner than they need to be made, and operating under the assumption that things will change. Rather than the predict-and-control approach, we're doing sense- and-respond approach. We expect that situations will change, more information will be available, and every decision can be revisited as appropriate for the situation. Yes, sometimes it's hard work, and the results are remarkable.
As I was talking with a coaching client today, I realized that this approach works for info-entrepreneurs as well. We're one-person businesses, so we have eliminated the organizational hierarchy entirely! But I used to approach my strategic planning from that old predict-and-control mentality. As I wrote my annual marketing plan, I would lay out the entire year, month by month, with bulleted lists of to-do items that I could check off. Done, done, done!
Now, I'm looking at my marketing plan from a more organic point of view. I know what my goals are for the end of 2011, and I have a good sense of what I need to do each quarter in order to accomplish those goals. But I no longer include month-by-month lists. Instead, I decide what I need to do this month, and do it.
At the end of each month, I look at what my results have been (using whatever metrics I find meaningful). If I'm making progress, I keep doing what I've been doing. If I'm not making progress, I stop and evaluate what needs to change. I usually ask myself:
Am I giving this approach enough time? How long does this effort need to take before I see results?
Am I talking to the right people? Do I know that the people I'm marketing to want, value and can buy my services?
Am I talking about the right things? Have I been 100% focused on my client in every interaction, or am I talking about my features and what I think the client cares about (experience, service-orientation, I save you time, blah blah blah)?
After I've answered these questions, I can decide how to best focus my time and energy in the next month. I know that I will be doing things this year that I can't even imagine now. That's OK; I am willing to dynamically steer my business so that I can get to my goals as easefully as possible.