Thomas J. Peters

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 <h4 class="ideainbrief-title">The Idea in Brief</h4>
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 You know you’ve had a good day when nothing goes according to plan.
 What, you ask? Why would urgent phone calls, noisy problems, and fragmented attention to a bewildering array of issues be good for senior executives? And why should you resist the urge to defend your neat calendar against these messy onslaughts of reality?
 Because, according to Tom Peters, your job is not to solve problems. You can’t. Your attention is too fragmented, issues come to you too late, and you’re shielded from bad news. Your real responsibilities are to shape your company’s values and educate by example.
 The frustrations—or sad facts—that plague executives let you do just that. They help you take key stakeholders’ pulses, plant ideas, send guiding signals, and build consensus in favor of vital new directions, values, and priorities.
 The Idea in Practice
 You encounter four particularly sad facts daily. Yet each has a silver lining that offers you opportunities to shape values and set direction:
 1. Not enough choices: You usually receive just one option for review—e.g., one investment proposal rather than several fully developed choices. You face yes/no decisions.
 Silver lining: Single options usually reflect your previously expressed preferences. Over time, enough one-option choices accumulate into a coherent portfolio that let you shape your company’s direction.
 Use a single option to detect whether the company’s heading in the direction you desire; e.g., is a proposed new product slate aimed at the right customers? Then signal division managers: “You have (or haven’t) gotten the message.”
 2. Limited time: You don’t see critical issues until late, because proposals omit problems that arose earlier. You end up tackling 11th-hour problems in fragmented bits of time.
 Silver lining: Use each time fragment to wrestle with pieces of larger issues—and continually signal your preferences.
 3. Too many filters: Managers hide bad news from you.
 Silver lining: Commenting on good news lets you reinforce the organization’s larger values and priorities. Example:&nbsp; 
 One CEO uncovered exemplary actions by salesmen and asked how they pulled them off—then broadcast the ideas in a memo circulated throughout the company. 
 4. Too much inertia: Major choices take months or years to emerge.
 Silver lining: A lengthy choice process lets you build consensus behind a crucial strategic shift that your firm will implement, often years later. Muddling about on the way to major change provides “marinating time” and prevents premature negative reactions. Example:&nbsp; 
 An industrial-products maker faced substitute product invasions from new markets. It shifted from an engineering to a market orientation—over five years. First, it launched trial balloons: assessing long-term competitive outlook, hiring outside senior marketers, and assigning one marketer a budget to develop products for a threatened market niche.
 At year three, bolder actions came: promoting one marketer to senior VP, announcing the new corporate theme at the shareholders’ meeting (“Our emerging role is to be preeminent in marketing”), and launching successful products that struck back at the competition. After five years, the firm had radically—but quietly—shifted focus.
 </div>
</article-ideainbrief>You are executive vice president of a sizable corporation, challenged by competitors at home and abroad. During the past year, you have tried to get the organization moving on a much-needed overhaul of the product line. Today one of the task forces will spend all day reviewing its key findings with you.

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Leadership: Sad Facts and Silver Linings

A leader’s typical day is marked by too many meetings, constant interruptions, and limited options. Instead of trying to change this messy reality, leaders can leverage it into a powerful tool for shaping their organizations.

Leadership: Sad Facts and Silver Linings

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