The gap to know

In the vast majority of companies, small and large, there is a particular inertia, the inertia of knowing a lot and doing little

Something happens in companies that, although it is not very perceptible to the naked eye, is highly detrimental to the performance and development, not only of companies, but of their customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders and even their managers. The problem is this: management focuses on conversation and not action. Serious truth?

This problem is almost imperceptible, for everyone it is natural that consulting firms are hired to advise managers, for months, about the guidelines and policies that can be implemented, it is not strange that executives have up to three or four daily meetings with their advisers to discuss the figures in the income statement from last quarter, but in neither case is action itself used as a source to solve problems.

Pfeffer and Sutton ⁽¹⁾ have called this behavior " the gap between knowing and doing ". And it is that in these cases the problem is not one of ignorance or indifference, nor of a lack of information on which to rely to make decisions, it is that those who make decisions allow talk to replace action, it is about They get carried away by this inertia and the most serious thing is that in most cases managers know what to do if sales drop, if deliveries take longer than what is commonly established or in short, any problem that arises.

But why does this happen to us? ⁽²⁾ there are two basic reasons inherent to human beings, one of them is that speaking, as opposed to acting, does not imply any risk and human beings have a particular aversion to risk; The second reason is found in a basic human propensity: the desire to let conversation replace action.

The basic inertia. When faced with a problem, we discuss it, make decisions, design action plans, but ultimately we do not quickly take the necessary actions to solve it.

In addition to the causes inherent to human nature, there are others that we learn during the course of our lives and that lead us to let ourselves be carried away by the inertia of knowing a lot and doing little, the most determining is the education we receive. Management education is fundamentally based on the individual's ability to speak skillfully, as students we learn that speaking and writing interesting things turns out to be very effective, not only because we are scored for our participation in class but because we position ourselves in the minds of teachers As intelligent and outstanding people, but we are never asked to act on the ideas that we discuss, defend or criticize in class, we are thus taught from the beginning to let ourselves be moved by the inertia of knowing a lot and doing little.

Imagine a physician being trained in the same way, establishing the symptoms of a serious illness and discussing them extensively with a group of consultants, hiring outside firms to formulate solutions, holding meetings, etc., etc., and not acting on it. the problem directly, perhaps the patient would die. Therefore, doctors learn with a procedure: "hear it, see it, do it", while in administration they teach us with the method "hear it, talk about it and talk a little more about it" ⁽³⁾.

The fact is that if we have already fallen into this trap, « the smart-talk trap », we have to make efforts to face it, how? As organizations that have not been affected by the gap have done know-how, which share five characteristics that allow them to evade it, their leaders know and carry out the work, they are interested in the simple (language and concepts), they wonder how? And why not? They close the cycles and trust the experience.

1. Leaders who know and get the job done

Yes sir, that can cause more action to be presented than seeing the manager himself developing tasks, so Bill Gates returned to what he knows, programming, and left Ballmer in that world of confusing concepts. I'm sure that with the presence of Gates in the operational area, Microsoft's software will improve and what does Microsoft do?

2. Interest in simplicity

In companies, many times, one falls into dead end discussions about this or that, intricate sales plans are projected, the Balanced Scored card, Value Based Management, resizing, etc., etc., etc. Which, while I'm not saying it's bad, complicates things. In companies that have not fallen into the trap, they are interested in simple language, in direct plans that can be understood in five minutes. How else are staff and all stakeholders involved in new processes?

3. They want to know the how and not the why

When developing action plans or strategies, the "why" are generally questioned, but the "hows" are rarely questioned, that is, theories are raised that this or that product will have problems because its packaging is somewhat disconcerting. or it won't sell at the estimated rates because the price will be too high, etc.; But solutions are not proposed, we do not propose the "how", how to reduce the price, how to improve the packaging. Action companies see the hows and not the whys.

4. Close the cycles

In action-oriented companies there are mechanisms that allow closing cycles, that is, mechanisms to ensure that discussions do not end with paper decisions but that those decisions are actually implemented. They can be of the schedule-sanction type in which a certain date is assigned to do something and if it is not complied with, the people in charge are sanctioned, but if it is complied with, they are rewarded; They can be reports circulating throughout the company about what did who, which creates some pressure for actions to be carried out, etc.

5. They believe in experience

Some action firms jump into it because they turn the process of doing into an opportunity to undertake, they also believe that "failing early and failing often" is much better than "failing late and failing big", they trust that " trial and error »outweighs planning.