Courage as a driver of Mutual Value

Conviction that mutual value is a more powerful commercial model, empowers us and lends us courage to deal with situations differently When I talk about courage in this context it has a special meaning. I can perhaps illustrate it in the following bullets
· Not just accepting a short-term win with somebody, without checking that it has a long term benefit or that there is a better alternative
· Testing somebody’s thinking about a suggestion, even when that suggestion is based on common practice or that’s the way they have always done it. For example testing validity of procurement processes, decision processes, access restrictions etc etc.
· Courage to explore underlying beliefs rather than just behaviours and actions. A genuine level of deep inquiry to understand beliefs, and how they are arrived at and then the courage to offer alternatives.
· The Courage to put aside personal wins to explore whether there is a greater win or synergy.
· Courage to hold to integrity – to walk away from a solution or deal which could result in revenue because you believe it won’t deliver a win for you and the Client
· Courage to explore beliefs about value
· Courage to explore the potential of mutual value with the Client, to be open with intent and then to have the integrity to live out the intent to create mutual value.
· Courage to break with old habits and beliefs of business development which may have served us well in the past but are becoming outdated.
· The courage to keep dialogue and exploration open, in an attempt to explore mutual value, rather than to fall into conflict or compromise.
At the heart of this courage, is the courage to explore rationale, beliefs, intent, and to do so in a way that offers third alternatives, not compromise. Its based on a deep intent to explore potential synergy, mutual value and accept that building trust through dialogue is more important than ‘selling’ a proposition and closing a deal.
Another way of thinking about Courage in this context is it’s the courage to achieve a win for you, and importantly in business, your team and your organisation. This is important in mutual value – its not simply outward facing, it is equally important to achieve mutual value with your team. Is this win truly a wine for them as well as you personally? Sometimes its easy to excuse your behaviour, sacrifice your team, make commitments that are beyond their capability, or whatever, if you lack the courage to go for a win which is inclusive of their needs. Equally, its easy to give up the organisations best win to achieve personal goals – ending up with lower pricing, discounting, giving up scope, in the belief that a win for the individual is what counts.
This lack of courage, and especially the lack of courage to consider the team and the organisation has a number of medium and long term affects. With the team, it creates tensions, lack of engagement, and potentially poor client experience. With the organisation it creates margin pressure, and a culture where a belief in the priority of a personal win becomes paramount, teaching the organisation that discounting and give aways are the way forward.