“When we fail, it is often because we haven’t considered the emotional part.”
- Dirk Hoke, then-CEO of Volocopter (b. 1969), as quoted in HBR article “The Art of Asking Smarter Questions” (May – June 2024)
Planning, strategic or otherwise involves picturing outcomes. What does success look like? What does failure look like? Tomorrow, a deeper dive on better questions in the planning and execution process, but as a precursor, this take on post-mortem consideration of “why did we fail” sets the stage.
As often as not, we get the non-emotional pieces pretty good. The tactics. The metrics. The data and analytics in these days.
Considering the emotional impact – on our teams, our customers, our partners, and our vendors — before, during, and after the campaign – when we get that right, it provides a buffer for wobbles, misfires, or delays in the non-emotional aspects of what we do.
We’ll put a ribbon on this in the next two Diffs. Until then, make a difference today!
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