Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences:
Persistence can create the appearance of progress when repeated effort becomes more important than understanding whether we’re achieving the intended results. Remaining committed to an objective requires more than perseverance; it also requires the willingness to assess what we’re learning, question our approach and make changes when necessary.
Persistence is one of those qualities we are often encouraged to develop and admire. We associate it with determination, resilience and the willingness to keep going when circumstances become difficult. In business, giving up too soon is frequently presented as one of the reasons people fail to achieve their goals.
The Ultimate Sales Machine, suggests that it takes an average of eight contacts to secure a meeting with a prospective client. The message was straightforward: most people give up before they’ve made enough attempts.
There’s merit in encouraging people not to abandon their efforts at the first sign of difficulty. But the number of attempts tells us very little about whether those efforts are moving us closer to the intended outcome.
Someone could make eight calls, send eight emails or follow up eight times and still be no closer to securing a meeting than they were after the first attempt. The question is whether anything meaningful has changed between those interactions.
When Activity Creates the Appearance of Progress
One of the difficulties with persistence is that it can give us a sense of accomplishment even when we’re not achieving the results we intended.
We’ve made the calls, attended the meetings, followed up with prospects and completed everything on our activity list. There is visible evidence of effort, and that can be satisfying.
But activity and progress are not necessarily the same thing.
A salesperson, par exemple, may repeatedly contact a prospect without receiving a response. Each follow-up is recorded, and the activity contributes to a performance target. Yet nothing has been learned about the prospect’s circumstances, priorities or reasons for not engaging.
The salesperson is certainly being persistent. Whether that persistence is productive is another matter.
Something similar happens within our businesses.
Teams continue implementing initiatives that are not delivering the expected results. Managers introduce additional meetings to address problems that remain unresolved. Leaders invest more resources in strategies that have produced little evidence of progress.
Because people are working hard and commitments are being fulfilled, questioning the approach can seem unreasonable. After all, everyone is doing what they’re supposed to do…but are they accomplishing what they set out to achieve?
Persistence Without Reassessment
We may still be pursuing the right objective, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the approach we’re using to achieve it is working.
A business may genuinely need to increase sales, improve employee performance or strengthen customer retention. These objectives don’t become less important because the initial interventions have been unsuccessful. What needs examination is whether the approach being used is appropriate to the circumstances.
Returning to the sales example, an unanswered message doesn’t automatically mean a prospect isn’t interested. The timing may be wrong. The person may have competing priorities, may not recognize the relevance of the service or may simply have overlooked the communication.
These possibilities justify thoughtful follow-up…but they also suggest that subsequent interactions should be informed by something more than the belief that another attempt will eventually produce a different result.
- What have we learned?
- Is there a different way to approach the conversation?
- Have circumstances changed?
- Are we still pursuing an opportunity that makes sense?
There may be occasions when the right decision is to continue doing exactly what we’ve been doing. But that decision should come from an assessment of the situation, rather than an unquestioned commitment to persistence.
When Effort Becomes the Measure of Success
Organizations can unintentionally reinforce this problem through the way they measure performance.
The number of calls made, meetings held, projects initiated or activities completed can become convenient indicators of productivity. These measures have their place. They help establish whether work is being done and commitments are being met.
The problem begins when the focus shifts to how much activity is being completed rather than whether it is producing the intended results.
- A team may meet every implementation deadline while the original business problem remains unresolved.
- A department may consistently achieve its activity targets without making a meaningful contribution to the organization’s strategic priorities.
In such circumstances, people may continue working harder because the measures suggest that greater effort is what is required.
Continuing with this approach without reassessing its effectiveness can come at a significant cost; where time, money and attention are directed toward sustaining activity, while opportunities to reconsider the approach receive less consideration.
Knowing When to Continue and When to Change
My intention here is not to argue against persistence. Meaningful progress frequently requires sustained effort, patience and the willingness to continue when results are not immediately visible. Some objectives take time, and constantly changing direction can be just as damaging as refusing to change. The challenge is knowing the difference.
Persistence needs to be accompanied by an ongoing assessment of what is happening, what is being learned and whether the approach remains appropriate.
Sometimes we need more time. Sometimes we need better information. Sometimes we need to change how we’re approaching the situation, and occasionally we need to reconsider whether the objective itself remains relevant.
The fact that we’ve already invested considerable time and effort in something doesn’t automatically justify continuing with it.
Persistence is valuable when it moves us closer to our objectives, not simply because we refuse to give up.
Strategic Reflection Prompt
Are you measuring progress by the effort you’re putting in, or by what that effort is actually accomplishing? And when results aren’t forthcoming, how willing are you to question your approach rather than simply do more of the same?
I’m Giselle Hudson, The Pre-Fixer™.
For nearly three decades, I’ve worked with business owners and leaders across the Caribbean who carry important decisions largely on their own, often when problems keep returning, solutions fall short, or implementation stalls.
When I ask business owners what problem they can’t seem to solve, the answer is usually “people.” So I ask them to tell me more, because people and businesses are rarely as simple as they first appear.
I help them understand what’s really causing the problem before they spend more trying to fix it. And where needed, I help design the solution and guide their teams to put it into practice.
Get Clarity before the Fix.
What are you trying to make sense of right now?
