Corporate Strategy and Strategic Planning

The Key to Consistent Success in Any Endeavor:
"The Law of Requisite Variety"

    I learned the importance of variety on my path to professional success in the early days as general manager of my first minor league baseball team. I was having challenges getting the most out of my staff. In a discussion about the issues I was facing with my boss, the owner of the team and a successful businessman in his own right told me, “you know, Skip, if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

    The point being that I was trying to lead and inspire all members of my staff the same way, my way, and even that one way was ineffective with most people. I learned in that conversation that I was leading others as if I were a hammer and they were nails. It wasn’t very effective.

    I needed more variety in how I led my team so I went back to school and learned about the “Law of Requisite Variety.” which states “the system/person/organization with the most flexibility, resources and options at its disposal will control the outcome.”  It works in most every situation.  

    This law is very powerful and it is comprehensive in nature regarding the types of situations to which it applies.  For those who are control freaks one of the ways to gain more control over situations is to understand and apply this law.

    Mastering the “Law of Requisite Variety” provides unlimited self-confidence and will allow you to respond powerfully to the variety of situations you will undoubtedly be exposed to along your path to success.

    Imagine a sales professional that understands all the objections a prospect could possibly bring forth during a sales conversation and has crafted a reply for each of them. This person’s chances of helping their prospect to make a buying decision will be significantly raised.

    Here are some other examples of how the law applies:

1) Sales
For most people reading this, the Law of Requisite Variety will have the greatest impact in the area of sales. To be successful sales professionals must master the art of overcoming the objection.  Many are under the false impression that there are many different objections they face and as such it is the prospect who wins because they have the law on their side.  

Sales professionals can improve the odds by realizing there are truly only a few objections they face.

In a recent consulting project with a firm of about a dozen sales reps we listed what they felt were their most common objections. The twelve sales reps raised their 20 most frequent objections.  We chunked them into related categories and found there were only six different objections they consistently faced.  We are now in the process of creating solutions to overcome each of the six objections.  

If you’ve been in sales long enough, about three months should qualify, there should never be an objection you haven’t heard and as such you must be able to have a response to breakthrough each.  If you don’t you are not paying attention and you are not doing your job.  When you do you will have the Law of Requisite Variety on your side.

2) Business Coaching and Consulting:
As a business coach and consultant in trying to help businesses break through to the next level I come across a wide variety of issues.  Like the hammer and nail metaphor, if all I can offer my clients a sales training program I’m going to try and fit everything I can into that genre and make it work to the best I can.  Whereas if I have the knowledge, skills and techniques to train and coach on leadership, customer service, decision making, communication, etc. I have more tools and flexibility to offer up to a variety of situations for maximum benefit and results.

3) Interpersonal Relationships:
I grew up in a household where the primary strategy for communicating and settling disagreements was through arguments and yelling. This is how I learned to deal with interpersonal relationships. It ruined my first marriage because the only way I knew how to handle disagreements in an intimate relationship was through yelling and degrading the other person.  

After years of therapy and other self-development work, I now have more and better ways of interacting with other human beings that support and strengthen relationships instead of tearing them apart.

4) Human Emotions:
The human experience is one of constant flow between emotions.  As we experience life we learn how to respond and react to our environment. Many people learn only a limited number of ways to react and respond to these situations.  Some react to a particular situation with anger, frustration, and hatred when things go counter to expectations, whereas others respond to the identical experience with curiosity, compassion and gratitude.  All of these emotions are within each of us, yet not everyone cultivates those emotions in the same manner and thus do not have those emotions available to apply when necessary.  The more emotions you can cultivate and nurture and apply to various experiences the easier they are to call upon when facing challenge.

5) Conflicts Between Countries in the World:
In the 1960s the United States became involved in another 20th Century conflict with another country it thought it knew how to win in Viet Nam. It used its conventional wisdom, conventional weaponry and conventional military strategy against the country of North Viet Nam with devastating results that all Americans have been living with ever since.

The North Vietnamese brought to the war with a nationalistic mindset and commitment the American military and politicians couldn’t understand or deal with.  The American approach was to bomb the country into submission and study body counts in battles to determine progress and victory.

The North Vietnamese countered by combining unconventional guerilla warfare brought forth with millions of countryman time and again regardless of the body count driving the American military after what seemed like a never-ending and costly campaign. By the time the United States withdrew from Southeast Asia over 57,000 American combat troops were killed but millions of North Vietnamese military and civilians lost their lives.

The Americans won the body count battle but lost the first war in the Country’s history because North Viet Nam has more options at his disposal.

6) Athletics:
In professional and amateur sports it has been proven time and again the team or individual with the most resources will come out on top.  Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, the top two professional golfers in the world hold that position because of the variety of shots they can make under multiple conditions and situations.  The pros that can only hit long drives and have a limited short game or putting skills always fall short.

Just a few years ago in the early 90s the tennis world was facing a competitive challenge due to innovations in the manufacture of tennis racquets bringing bigger players (on both the men’s and women’s side) with bigger serves. Matches were being dominated by hard servers, which made matches non-competitive and non-interesting to watch.  Until, that is, the best players in the world began to adjust and catch up to the hard servers and began returning the serves and getting the ball back in play more.  Hard servers without a full-court and well-rounded game (variety) are now struggling to win tournaments.

To win a championship in any team endeavor takes an enormous effort over a long season.  During the course of the season individual players have a tendency to become injured and cannot fulfill the role for which they held a position on the team and need to be replaced.  The teams that have the deepest roster of talented players to serve a injury replacements, or to be used in specialist situations, will give their team the better chance at coming out on top at the end of their season.

7) Negotiations:
In any negotiation, whether you are buying a car, a house or a business, if you only have one option at your disposal you will not get the best deal.  

I recently bought a new house. I was able to buy the house for more than ten percent off the asking price (a savings of $33,000) because my wife and I had more options.  We were not in need of buying the house we already owned one we were happy with and had just put $50,000 into renovating it. But it was something we wanted.
Because we liked the house and we liked the idea of living in the new neighborhood which was quieter and more of the lifestyle we were looking for.  

The home owner, however, was coming into the winter time (historically a difficult time to sell a house) and had had the home on the market for almost two years with two agreed upon sales having recently fallen through.  They needed to sell more than we needed to buy.  We had more options and more flexibility behind us.

As you can see The Law of Requisite Variety holds true in most situations. What does this mean for you?

It means you need to acquire as many tools in your tool belt as you can.  Never stop learning.  Always take each day as a chance to get better in one small way.  Take stock of where you are at and where you need to get better results then identify the knowledge, skills, mindset, and motivation to achieve those results.

After the self-evaluation, if you don’t have what you need go out and get it then begin applying it immediately. And, if you are in sales, create provocative responses to each possible objection you hear regularly. It won’t be perfect but you will be better than you expect to be and you will learn from each experience.

When I was getting my education in coaching and consulting so that I could go out on my own I was told, “the only way to learn to coach is to coach, the only way to learn to become a better speaker is to speak, the only way to learn to write a newsletter is to write a newsletter.”

You have to be able to embrace failure and use it as a learning experience. By doing so you will learn from your mistakes (commit to never making the same mistake twice), add to your tool belt and grow the variety and the options you have at your disposal to be as successful as you need to be.

Remember that success is a journey and not a destination.  Don’t expect to ever arrive. Just realize that each success is just one stop on the never-ending train ride to a lifetime of fulfillment. By understanding and applying the “Law of Requisite Variety” you will continue to add to your tool belt offering the world even more variety along the way, which will continue to raise your level of fulfillment and happiness in your life.

I am excited to be on this journey with you.