Don’t be a Twit(ter): How to Build Strategic Resilience

If Twitter channelled Mr. Bean

On July 5, Meta launched Threads, a copycat competitor to Twitter. On July 10 Threads cracked 100 million registered users, smashing the sign-up speed of ChatGTP. Apparently, it’s more fun to chat with other people than a sometimes delusional robot.

Elon Musk and Twitter have a problem. Threads is a viable alternative and customers are shifting. Was it a surprise to Musk? Unlikely. It’s been in development for a long time. But it doesn’t seem that Twitter was ready and able to respond to this threat as Musk cleaned house, changed the way Twitter operates, and took a casual stance towards cyber-bullying.

Every organization faces the threat of massive disruption from a Threads experience. My friend and colleague Steven Bleistein, author of Charismatic Disruption, works with executives to promote it. Your organization can be the cause of it, or be the Twit(ter) who has to deal with it. Either way, your organization will require resilience: The ability to bounce forward (rather than bounce back) from a challenge.

Leaders have a responsibility to adapt their strategy continuously so that they don’t get blindsided by a competitor. They are also responsible for ensuring the organization is continuously ready to adapt. Here are a few simple keys to developing strategic resilience:

1. Point to a different future. If your strategic priorities don’t shift and improve the way you do business, you don’t have a strategy. You have some projects. Do you remember BHAGs? Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Give employees the vision of a future that accomplishes something amazing and grants a sense of purpose.
2. Continuously talk about changes happening in and around the organization in positive terms. Foster a positive mindset about change and the opportunities they bring.
3. Make failure an expectation. We don’t aim for failure, but we acknowledge it happens and put structures in place (training, coaching, support) so employees know they can bounce forward from a mistake during change. Proclaim failures as temporary setbacks on the road to something better.
4. Get to know Doug, Hira, and Elspeth. Assuming you have the right people on the team, build their confidence by expressing how much you care about them as individuals. This cannot be accomplished with a memo or video from the CEO. Every manager has a responsibility to demonstrate care. When employees face a daunting challenge it makes a HUGE difference to know that the leader has their back and will go to the wall for them…because they care.
5. Inoculate with outsiders. You can’t innovate and disrupt without knowing what’s happening ‘out there.’ Resilient companies introduce alternative points of view through articles and speakers chosen to disrupt thinking. Think of them like vaccines introduced to force the body to respond and build itself up to manage new threats.
6. Stop running annual strategy sessions. Public opinion shifts over the course of days and hours, fuelled by social media. Today’s InstantPot is tomorrow’s clearance item. Leaving strategic reviews and environmental scans to an annual exercise is a terrible risk. Every leader needs one eye on what’s happening around them for potential threats and opportunities. Make it a part of your regular discussions, culminating in strategic reviews and updates when needed.
7. Move from lean to learn. A large 2022 study by McKinsey illustrated that organizations that invest in people as well as performance come out on top. Streamlining is common these days and teams run too thin, risking the burnout of top performers when asked to do something new. Lean is mean. Strategic change requires the capacity to learn, think, and adapt. If you want to get fit, you need time to work out. How can you create the time and space to build new capabilities?

Too many companies make the mistake of thinking that change can be dealt with one project at a time. When it’s over, the workforce can take a break. Sorry, but…

#changeisthenewnormal

Could your business respond to a Threads event? Could it create one? Every workforce requires resilience to thrive in the face of relentless change. If we believe we can step back from change for a while, we get run over by it. Threads happen.