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How to think clearly under pressure

Strategy consulting projects can be very pressured environments. Often they are initiated because the firm is already under performing, facing a significant threat, or facing a time critical opportunity. Often the sponsoring executive may feel his/her career is at stake. Often the board and other senior stakeholders are paying critical attention.

And so it is important that a strategy consultant is able to function under pressure.

Being independent can a great asset in these circumstances. Not being personally invested in a situation can improve objectivity. Being an outsider can bring fresh insight.

However, even as an independent consultant, you are still committed to a successful outcome. Your ability to win future work depends on your past successes.

And so it is vital to be able to think clearly under pressure.

Pressure produces a physical response in the human body. Breathing changes, becoming shallower or stopping altogether (holding your breath). This triggers the brain to release the stress hormones, cortisol and adrenaline, which activate the fight, flight or freeze responses. The brain goes into reactive mode, leading you to become more critical and negative , and to take things more personally. We lose our ability to be imaginative, creative adaptive and open to others. Other people quickly perceive these changes in behaviour and respond accordingly. All of this is fatal for strategic thinking.

There are a number of things you can do to help yourself to perform better under pressure.

1. Prepare

Sir Clive Woodward, the Olympic Coach coined the acronym T-CUP, for Thinking Clearly Under Pressure. Sir Clive prepares by imagining everything that could happen, and then planning ahead what the response will be. While he says that athletes can be prepared with responses for each of these scenarios in a class-room environment, it is much better for them to learn through the actual experience of training and practice. This underscores the importance of experience for a strategy consultant. Book knowledge, whilst valuable, is not enough.

Next time you're preparing a pitch or presentation, take the time to imagine the kinds of responses you're hoping you won't get from your audience - then practice how you might respond to them in order to get your presentation back on track.

2. Learn to stay in the moment

However, no amount of scenario preparation will help, if, at the crucial moment you can't call it into practice. How many times have you heard someone say "I always think of the right response after it's too late"? In his book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", Steven Covey talks about the gap between stimulus and response. In stressful situation that gap can seem incredibly short. Our animal brain takes over producing the defensive, aggressive or passive responses described above. But it is possible to learn to recognise that gap and to regain control of your response. Techniques for doing this vary from the simple "counting to ten" technique to much more sophisticated meditation practices.

3. Learn to de-stress

No matter how good you get at dealing with pressure and stress, you will still experience it on a regular basis. And so it is important to have some way of de-stressing. I find running really helps me. It does not require a lot of though, beyond avoid traffic and lampposts, and even a relatively short 30-minute run usually provides more than enough space to clear my head. And, of course, the physical exercise helps the body to get rid of those stress hormones. When going for a run is not an option, even a quick walk around the block at lunch-time can help. But it doesn't need to be something as intensive as running. A wide range of activities could serve just as well. I'd suggest you look for anything you enjoy enough for it to absorb your whole mind, something that involves at least a little physical activity, and preferably something that gets you into a different and relaxing environment.

Make sure you've built time into your schedule for getting better at thinking clearly under pressure.

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photo credit: NEIN! 183/365 via photopin (license)

The devil is in the detail

The devil is in the detail
Many years ago, at a performance review, my then boss noted that he was sometimes frustrated by my attention to detail. I asked him if it was always a problem for him, or just in some case, and he replied that it was just in some cases. I then asked him if he could give me an example of where he'd been frustrated by my attention to detail, which he duly did. I pointed out to him that in that particularly instance, my attention to detail had resulted in avoiding what might otherwise have been a costly problem, and he conceded that this had indeed been the case. I then asked him if he could think of another example of where my attention to detail had frustrated him but where it had not resulted in a good outcome. At that point, he changed the conversation.

I've never really worked out why my attention to detail had frustrated him even though he knew full well that it had delivered results. Perhaps, he was just grumpy about something else altogether.

Whatever the reason, it remains often true that the devil is in the detail.

Strategy is often painted as a subject which concerns big picture, visionary thinking, not detail. However, without sufficient attention to detail, strategies usually flounder. The trick with successful strategies is two-fold:
  1. knowing when to focus on the big picture and vision, and when to focus on the details - striking the right balance between the two,

    and, perhaps more importantly
  2. knowing which details to pay attention to and which to ignore.
Almost by definition, in any strategic problem, there are way too many details to pay attention to all of them. If you try to pay attention to ever single detail you are almost guaranteed to be paralysed into inaction (often known as paralysis by analysis). Knowing which details to pay attention to and which to gloss over is an art as much as it is a science. I doubt anyone gets it right every time - I know I certainly don't - but you can get better at it. Experience is invariably a valuable guide, especially if applied systematically and reflectively. Strategy analysis tools and models also help to cut through the mass of detail to get to the heart of what is truly important.

Of course, models and tools in combination with experience produce the best outcomes. My Manufacturing and Operations lecturer on my MBA programme likened the available analysis tools and models to a mechanics toolbox: an experienced mechanics more quickly concludes when a faulty parts needs tapping rather than tightening and that a hammer will do that better than a spanner; an inexperienced mechanic will take that much longer to work out what the underlying problem is and what tool to use to solve it.

And yet, many people, like then boss seem intent on avoiding the details. Perhaps they lack the right kind of experience, or perhaps they don't know about or how to use the right tools. However, I suspect that it is the people who never obsess of the details that allow organisations to drift from one state of mediocrity to another.