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Meet the MasterMinds: David Maister on Strategy and the Fat Smoker

David Maister is an authority on the management of professional service firms. His first book on the professions, Managing the Professional Service Firm, was published in 1993 and became a standard for all professional practice managers. His books also include True Professionalism, The Trusted Advisor, Practice What You Preach, and First Among Equals.

In his new book, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, Maister says that knowing what to do to succeed and even how to do it may be clear. But actually doing it stymies many individuals and firm leaders.

We asked Maister’s advice on how to close the gap between knowing and doing.

McLaughlin: The title of your book, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, is intriguing. How does the title reflect the message of the book?

Maister: The key theme is that in business, as in life, we often know what to do to improve, why we should do it, and even how to do it—but none of that necessarily predicts that we will do it.

Individuals and companies rarely succeed by having ideas that nobody else has ever thought of. Instead, what predicts success is variously described as resolve, determination, drive, discipline, passion, or commitment. This perspective has a lot of implications.

First, at the level of strategy, it says that what companies need to figure out is not (just) what’s good for them, but what they are prepared to pursue with undeviating energy, excitement, and enthusiasm (all of which are rare, which is why strategy is so hard).

Too many professionals view clients (and employees) as “them”—the enemy.

Next, this perspective has implications for what we understand management to be about. It suggests that management’s greatest contribution is not providing astute (or analytically correct) ideas. Rather, management’s main talent needs to be the ability to create sustained energy, excitement, and enthusiasm in the workforce, so that the organization actually lives the ‘diet and exercise’ programs necessary to obtain the benefits of the chosen strategy. Few organizations select for, train, or reward managers for these skills.

McLaughlin: Given that people and organizations often fail to work on the behaviors they know will make them successful, what can consultants do to initiate change and follow through with it?

Maister: I’m not sure that consultants can initiate change. People in organizations will change if they feel their leaders are credible and convincing that change is required, and that the leaders have thought through a sensible path to new achievements.

The job of consultants is to help leaders figure out how to bring about change in their organizations, starting with the leaders themselves. Too often, consultants are hired to get “them” (the employees) to change. They should focus more on what leaders must do to change themselves if they are to get others to follow.

For example, it’s clear that, if you make something a matter of principle (we believe in doing X), it is more likely to be implemented than if you make it a matter of expediency (if we do X we’ll make more money). The “principle” version makes it easier to stick with the program in spite of short-term temptations.

It’s worth remembering that “do it to make the shareholders rich” is rarely an exciting battle cry—things are more likely to be implemented when management can be credible that there’s a meaningful purpose that each employee can either buy into (or be asked to leave).

This is not a matter of idealism, but one of simple reporting. Managers who can make people believe that their work is of profound importance will elicit the energy, excitement, and diligence that actually produce profits. Again, it’s not knowing that you should exercise to get fit that makes the difference. Leaders must have the ability to create an organization that believes it.

McLaughlin: You’ve said that marketing and selling are effective when professionals can convince buyers that they are interested in their needs and willing to help. Many professionals believe they are already doing that. Do you see a “disconnect” between what professionals think they are doing and what they are actually doing?

Maister: My experience is that there are two challenges—motives and skills. I see a contrast between those people who are truly trying to build relationships in their business lives (with customers, employers, colleagues) and those who operate on a shorter-term, transactional “one-night stand” mentality (let’s win this one!). There’s a time and a place for both, but it’s hard to convince anyone you are truly interested in a relationship (a “romance”) when you’re clearly not.

Too many professionals view clients (and employees) as “them”—the enemy. They are the “other side” about whom we need to be careful, in case they take advantage of us. And, if you think this way, it shows. There aren’t many of us who can make other people think we care about them when we really don’t. We’re not that good as actors.

Too often, consultants are hired to get “them” (the employees) to change. They should focus more on what leaders must do to change themselves if they are to get others to follow.

One of my observations is that people who are interested in others and are skilled at building relationships, get more business, keep more business, get more referrals, loyalty, and less price sensitivity. But it isn’t only an issue of skill. First comes having the right motives, and then comes the (gradual) process of building relationship skills.

McLaughlin: What’s your view of how most professional services firms balance short-term goals with longer-term objectives? Have firms got the balance right? If not, what’s the best way to correct the emphasis?

Maister: It’s hard to generalize about “most” professional firms, but it’s very tough for everybody—individual or firm—to stick with doing what we know is good for us.

Short-term temptations are all around, and you’ve got to have a rare mixture of characteristics to pull off a long-term strategy: firm principles that you truly believe in, a real passionate (almost neurotic) desire to achieve the goals you have set, the ability to rally people to your cause and have them believe that you are actually going to do what you say you are going to do. (We’ve all been through strategy processes that arrived at great conclusions but management didn’t have the guts to stick to).

So, my conclusion is that most of us (this is not finger-pointing at other people, it’s our mutual problem) have a poor track record of sticking to our own best ideas on long-term strategies.

McLaughlin: You’ve mentioned that most training is useless. Given that so many consultants offer training services, what’s wrong with training and what can consultants do to improve it?

Maister: The best way to say it quickly is to use a line from the book: training is a great last step in a change program, and a pathetically useless first step. Too often, we try to train people in “new” skills and send them back to the same operating context, subject to the same measures and rewards, the same management styles, and the same cultures. It’s not surprising that people don’t apply the new skills and knowledge if nothing else has changed.

If your (optional) training is offered in a remote village accessible only by donkey, and people have to pay their own way to get there, but they still go—voluntarily—because they know that the new skills will be critical for their careers, then you have timed your training well and will get a good return on your training dollar. Anything earlier than that, and you’re probably wasting a lot of money!

McLaughlin: How do you view the state of management accountability in the professional services industry these days? Any advice for improving accountability and the performance of a firm?

Maister: One of my crusades is to point out that, if we believe that the talents of managers are crucial to a firm’s success, then we need to have methods to assess how well managers are performing the key activities that truly make a difference. In a majority of firms, no such method exists.

Managers are good at holding everyone else accountable, but it’s the rare firm that has articulated clear performance skills and standards for its managers, and has built in systems to hold them accountable for performing the role effectively. The book has some suggestions as to how this can be done. The reaction of most professional firm managers has been one of horror—“You mean you’re going to ask people how well they think I’m doing in my role?” Well, yes—why should you be excluded from accountability?

McLaughlin: If you were to give a practice leader one piece of advice about managing a firm, what would it be?

Maister: I don’t know if it qualifies as one piece of advice, but I’d use the title of my last chapter and that of my blog: success is a combination of passion, people, and principles. You’ve got to be passionately committed to getting somewhere, understand how people (clients, colleagues, and subordinates) work, and—the evidence is fairly clear—be a man or woman of readily observable principles, so that people can decide if they do or do not want to rally to your cause.

McLaughlin: Thanks for your time.

Want to read more by David Maister? Visit his author page.

You can also find out more about David Maister at www.davidmaister.com.