Brian Gubernick reflects on witnessing accidents and the gap between rushing to help and actually responding well. He uses Sun Tzu's insight that strategy without tactics is slow, tactics without strategy is noise, to argue entrepreneurs are strong tacticians but lack crisis plans. He urges listeners to build if-then strategies and a tactical toolkit.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick and welcome to the No Days Off podcast where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today is part 2 of a, of a 3-part series on responding, responding in times of need. Now, if you haven't listened to part 1 yet from yesterday, I encourage you to do so because at the beginning of that episode, I tell a story and I'll give you a quick summary just to catch you up if you haven't listened to it yet. A handful of days ago, I witnessed an accident where a pedestrian was actually struck by a car and the car managed to run him over. And fortunately the car wasn't going fast. The guy was okay. He was just, you you know, banged up a little bit. Everything worked out. But I told that story because my reaction to it was to immediately run at the emergency and do whatever I could to try to help or solve for the situation at hand. Today, though, while, while yesterday I was talking about like what makes people run towards the fire, run towards the emergency, today I want to talk about effective an ineffective response. I want to go a little deeper though, because I told my story and I shared yesterday that, hey, I don't, I don't think I'm special. I even mentioned, I don't even know if I did the right thing. And I'll tell you why I was thinking that as I was reflecting on the scenario. And while I was, I guess, proud of the fact that I immediately got into action, both in the, the Carlsbad story I told you, as well as the car accident I witnessed a few months ago. I guess I'm proud of that behavior. But when I took a step back, when I continued to think about this, I also had this, you know, I kind of had this strange feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty and even disappointment. And realize how lucky I was to arrive at both of these emergency scenes where people were actually okay and fine while banged up. Fine. In other words, their life was not being threatened because if their life was at, uh, being threatened and I was first on the scene and I'm being fully transparent with an audience and honest with all of our audience here today, I'm actually not trained or competent in my ability to do anything about it. You know, if there was really, if their life was really on the line, it's a very harrowing thought. Like, that's a, that's a tough one to, to swallow. And what I, what I realized, I mentioned yesterday in part one, that people run towards a fire, run towards an emergency, because they want to control the situation. I certainly check that box, but also because they have confidence and competence, along with a slew of other, a handful of other characteristics like empathy and what, and generosity. I like to think I'm generous. I like to think I'm empathetic. But when I talk around confidence and competence, the reality is When I look in the mirror, that's a lot of false confidence and false competence. And I know that may sound like I'm being hard on myself, but it's just the truth. I've had to take a step back and say, yeah, you run at the emergency, good for you. But also recognize, Brian, that if the situation was a, was worse, the consequences were a bit more dire. You are not competent and therefore you should not be as confident. So on the bright side, I'm glad I've realized this because now I've got to go fix that. If I'm going to have this behavioral characteristic or this desire to be, uh, to, to, to, to run towards a fire, well, I need to be better prepared. Yesterday I read a quote or just the other day, actually, I read a quote from Sun Tzu. Sun Tzu is the, is the author of The Art of War, military strategist, brilliant, brilliant strategist. And he says, strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Let me say that again. Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Sun Tzu was highlighting the crucial relationship between strategy and tactics in achieving success in any endeavor. Now, how does that apply to my situation? When I read that quote, when I think through it, I had no strategy, right? My, my strategy was nonexistent. I simply ran at something because emotion or something within me prompted me to do it. I had no plan. I would even contend that I had very little tactics available to me. So there was no strategy around what I was going to do. And I was limited in terms of my tactics. And fortunately for me, I was an effective responder because the scenario fit the limited tactics that I had, and it didn't require a significant amount of strategy. But if the situation was a bit more aggressive, I would really, really be in a bind. So strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. The statement suggests that having a well-defined overarching strategy is essential for achieving victory because a strategy does what? It provides overall direction. It provides goals. It provides plans for achieving the desired outcome. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. This part of the statement emphasizes that tactical actions carried out without a clear and coherent strategy are likely to lead to defeat. They're just noise. Tactical decisions made in isolation without being guided by an overarching plan, a strategic plan, just creates more chaos. It can result in a disjointed approach that lacks any sort of direction. And again, if I'm looking in the mirror and I'm being honest, like, I'm an ineffective responder in that situation. I was just fortunate and lucky. Now, how does this apply to you? Most everyone listening here runs a business or is a business person, is an entrepreneur. And most everyone listening here is going to be faced with their own sorts of business crisis or business fires or business emergencies. Are you prepared to run at that fire as the leader? Do you have a strategy, a prebuilt strategy that has tactics that align with that strategy that you could immediately put into action? Or are you like me in the situation I described where you may have some tactics, but it's without strategy. And therefore it's just a lot of noise before defeat. I have the opportunity to work with an awful lot of business leaders, coaching, mentoring, just comparing notes. And I'll tell you, if I'm being candid, I think so many of us are great tacticians, but are not great strategists. And given the state of the economy, given the state of the various businesses and the industries in which our listeners participate, I think we could do a heck of a lot better job strategizing for potential crisis that may never, may never show up, may never roll through. But if we took the time to create strategies, if-then statements, if this happens, then I do that, and then built the tactics around those strategies today, and maybe never had to use them, but at least had them in your arsenal in the event you had to take action. Is there a chance that the likelihood of achieving success would be significantly greater? I think so. So the focusing question for you today: would you think that in a life or death situation you're an effective responder or an ineffective responder? And if you're ineffective, what action steps should you take today to change that? That's what I'm thinking about personally. And in business, in the event there's crisis, things that I would call known potential crisis right now, they're not unknown. There are things that we can predict or project, you know, guess right now at, and they may never come together, but we at least can plan for. In business, would you say you're an effective responder or an ineffective responder? And if you're ineffective in business, given the lack of strategy, yet an arsenal of tactics that you may have, what can you do to change that ineffectiveness today? Lots to think about. I have a feeling a lot of the people that are listening to me today, you are the responders, but should you be, or do you have false confidence? Like I know I had this past weekend. Good news is though, I get to go do something about it. That's all we have for you today. The No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
