Anyone who has used the London tube system much, will know that there are two routes from Green Park to King’s Cross – the Victoria Line and the Piccadilly Line. The Victoria Line is the “Right” way to get from Green Park to KX – it’s quicker with fewer stops, why wouldn’t you take this route?
An important principle at Redgate is that we’re outcome-focused. Everyone says this of course (who would ever say “I don’t care about the impact of work, not my problem!”), but it’s important to understand the implications of this approach. Specifically that “It doesn’t matter how you get to your destination, as long as you get there”. It doesn’t matter if you take the “Right” way, the “Wrong” way, or any which-way (as long as it’s ethical of course!) – your job is to achieve your goal.
Seven years ago now, I was out near Green Park, London with a friend (back when that was a possibility..), and both of us had to get the train back north from King’s Cross, leaving in 25 minutes time. We got on to the platform at Green Park Station and of course headed towards the Victoria Line. But as soon as we got there, I noticed all of the trains had been cancelled – so rare for the Victoria Line! At this point I started whining about the trains, how we’d never make it in time, how we were doomed. But my friend turned to me and said “Follow me”.
We ran as fast as we could to the Piccadilly Line platform. Luckily the train was due in under 2 minutes, so we jumped on and waited for the seemingly endless stops to King’s Cross. As soon as we got there, we sprinted through the station, along the platform and leapt onto the train with about 45 seconds to go. We made our train, and got home at exactly the time planned, even if we were a little breathless for the start of the journey.
We achieved our objective the wrong way. It was far more effort and we made the worst (but necessary) choice. But it doesn’t matter – we made it!
It’s crucial when you’re trying to achieve a goal that you don’t get anchored to a particular solution or approach. For example, if your goal is to “Increase leads in the EMEA region”, you’ll likely start with a marketing plan of how you’ll achieve that. An array of strategies, with particular spends, campaigns, reports and, crucially, dependencies on all sorts of other things happening – both internal and external – which will be out of your control. But any one of those things can go wrong, and your job is to maintain the relentless march to the outcome. Reports not available to you? Make them yourself. Email nurturing track can’t be implemented? find another piece of technology that can do it for you. Budget constraints? Find innovative ways of making the same impact with great content instead. Internal resource not available? Find a contractor, find a temp, phone a friend!
It’s very likely that when you reach your destination, you’ll be exhausted with the pivots, the workarounds, the manual processes, the hacks. But at least you will have got there. For me, that’s what “Outcome focused” truly means – ingenuity and agility on how to get there using whatever means you have at your disposal, even if at times you know you’re doing things the wrong way.