Why doesn't it work with us? Contextual analysis in business
CREATIVITY IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS
Kaplan Jaroslav
Kaplan Research Company
Founder of the Business IQ project
CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS
Kaplan Jaroslav
Kaplan Research Company
Founder of the Business IQ project
The impact of context on any field of activity is staggering. You can't miss a punch from a master in boxing if you're lucky enough to meet one: it's bound to knock you down.
One of my favorite examples is a study of employee tuition reimbursement programs. On the face of it, compensation should create a desire for employees to learn, grow in competence, and ultimately lead to lower turnover. However, in reality everything is not so unambiguous. The main influence on employee turnover in the company was the existence of another program - a career management program. If there was such a program, it helped to reduce employee turnover, if not - compensating employees for training, on the contrary, helped to increase employee turnover.
It turns out that the same factor, depending on the presence or absence of another component, leads to completely opposite outcomes. This is a clear example of the fact that for different organizations the same statement can be both true and false.
The answer to the question, "Do tuition reimbursement programs help employees manage turnover?" should be, "It depends..." because there is a context dependent approach.
In this example, the career management program is the contextual factor that will determine the outcome of the employee tuition reimbursement program. There could be many such contextual factors. Just as there can be many programs similar to "compensation to employees for training", but their outcome will always depend on this context factor, so we can call them "context dependent".
If the manager does not know the contextual factors, he cannot predict the outcome of his actions. He will simply trial and error to see what works and what doesn't. In doing so, he or she will find it strange that in other organizations (including those where he or she has worked before), it worked and it doesn't work here.
In many cases, the context of the interaction can help determine much of the content. For example, knowing that a police patrol pulled over the driver who overtook you five minutes ago, you can easily anticipate the content of their conversation.
Why do peace talks fail on the battlefield? The context of the battlefield does not imply peaceful negotiation, it implies the destruction of the enemy. In Rome, the mortality rate of battlefield participants during military operations was over 90%. That is why civilian mediators (rather than military generals) emerged, organized meetings with opposing parties far from the epicenter of military events in order to reconcile them.
When analyzing the activities of successful people or companies, we often run the risk of seeing something quite different from what actually caused their success. Take, for example, five well-known facts about Michael Jordan's life:
Someone who doesn't like to go into too much detail might say, "If I work out for hours every day, play for the Chicago Bulls, shave my head, wear Nike sneakers and long shorts, I'll play like Michael Jordan!"
However, what if the real reason for success is behind the scenes? How do we discern it, much less measure it?
In Michael's case, we also have a lot of unknowns. In particular: what role did coach Phil Jackson play in his success? How did the basketball player plan his day? How did he choose his game evaluation criteria? How did his inner circle contribute to his success? What character traits helped him along the way?
Again, someone might say, "Let's act like Michael Jordan and we'll be successful players!" Let's assume that all of the above factors did contribute significantly to the success of the American basketball player. But the mere fact that these things are obvious does not make them the main reason for Michael's achievements. Surely there is much more to his life, training and games that remains hidden from the public eye. All of this together (both what we see and what remains behind the scenes) is the context that made Michael Jordan Michael Jordan.
Within that context was some set of key resources available to him that Michael was able to turn into opportunities and thus achieve success.
Obviously, these contextual factors are not always easy to see, but they are the major sources of uncertainty in business.
If this contextual factor is outside the organization, it can "override" the management of an entire organization, and if it is inside, it can drastically reduce the efficiency of the entire operation by spending most of the organization's energy on "heating the street".
This creates huge troubles for entrepreneurs and is the main reason for the high level of "mortality" in entrepreneurship.
A method called сontextual analysis was created to deal with these challenges. Just as contextual analysis in linguistics reveals hidden intentions, contextual analysis in entrepreneurship reveals hidden factors that nevertheless have a significant impact on the business. The word "contextual" means that the object of study is the conditions and circumstances in which the activity takes place. Different contexts will have different evaluation criteria and therefore different solutions for the "same" problem. The word "analysis", in turn, means a comprehensive examination, a consideration of some condition, phenomenon or fact.
One of my favorite examples is a study of employee tuition reimbursement programs. On the face of it, compensation should create a desire for employees to learn, grow in competence, and ultimately lead to lower turnover. However, in reality everything is not so unambiguous. The main influence on employee turnover in the company was the existence of another program - a career management program. If there was such a program, it helped to reduce employee turnover, if not - compensating employees for training, on the contrary, helped to increase employee turnover.
It turns out that the same factor, depending on the presence or absence of another component, leads to completely opposite outcomes. This is a clear example of the fact that for different organizations the same statement can be both true and false.
The answer to the question, "Do tuition reimbursement programs help employees manage turnover?" should be, "It depends..." because there is a context dependent approach.
In this example, the career management program is the contextual factor that will determine the outcome of the employee tuition reimbursement program. There could be many such contextual factors. Just as there can be many programs similar to "compensation to employees for training", but their outcome will always depend on this context factor, so we can call them "context dependent".
If the manager does not know the contextual factors, he cannot predict the outcome of his actions. He will simply trial and error to see what works and what doesn't. In doing so, he or she will find it strange that in other organizations (including those where he or she has worked before), it worked and it doesn't work here.
In many cases, the context of the interaction can help determine much of the content. For example, knowing that a police patrol pulled over the driver who overtook you five minutes ago, you can easily anticipate the content of their conversation.
Why do peace talks fail on the battlefield? The context of the battlefield does not imply peaceful negotiation, it implies the destruction of the enemy. In Rome, the mortality rate of battlefield participants during military operations was over 90%. That is why civilian mediators (rather than military generals) emerged, organized meetings with opposing parties far from the epicenter of military events in order to reconcile them.
When analyzing the activities of successful people or companies, we often run the risk of seeing something quite different from what actually caused their success. Take, for example, five well-known facts about Michael Jordan's life:
- practiced for many hours every day;
- played for the Chicago Bulls;
- wore Nike sneakers;
- had a lot of guts;
- wore longer shorts than the other players.
Someone who doesn't like to go into too much detail might say, "If I work out for hours every day, play for the Chicago Bulls, shave my head, wear Nike sneakers and long shorts, I'll play like Michael Jordan!"
However, what if the real reason for success is behind the scenes? How do we discern it, much less measure it?
In Michael's case, we also have a lot of unknowns. In particular: what role did coach Phil Jackson play in his success? How did the basketball player plan his day? How did he choose his game evaluation criteria? How did his inner circle contribute to his success? What character traits helped him along the way?
Again, someone might say, "Let's act like Michael Jordan and we'll be successful players!" Let's assume that all of the above factors did contribute significantly to the success of the American basketball player. But the mere fact that these things are obvious does not make them the main reason for Michael's achievements. Surely there is much more to his life, training and games that remains hidden from the public eye. All of this together (both what we see and what remains behind the scenes) is the context that made Michael Jordan Michael Jordan.
Within that context was some set of key resources available to him that Michael was able to turn into opportunities and thus achieve success.
Obviously, these contextual factors are not always easy to see, but they are the major sources of uncertainty in business.
If this contextual factor is outside the organization, it can "override" the management of an entire organization, and if it is inside, it can drastically reduce the efficiency of the entire operation by spending most of the organization's energy on "heating the street".
This creates huge troubles for entrepreneurs and is the main reason for the high level of "mortality" in entrepreneurship.
A method called сontextual analysis was created to deal with these challenges. Just as contextual analysis in linguistics reveals hidden intentions, contextual analysis in entrepreneurship reveals hidden factors that nevertheless have a significant impact on the business. The word "contextual" means that the object of study is the conditions and circumstances in which the activity takes place. Different contexts will have different evaluation criteria and therefore different solutions for the "same" problem. The word "analysis", in turn, means a comprehensive examination, a consideration of some condition, phenomenon or fact.
Jaroslav Kaplan
Author of the book "Business Incognita. How to push the boundaries of entrepreneurial thinking". Expert in the field of sustainable development of organizations and discovering new sources of growth. Developer of the methodology of contextual market research. Member of the International Association of Strategic and Competitive Intellect Professionals SCIP (USA).
Blog: https://www.kaplanresearch.pro/eng
In this light (yet profound) business fable a very magical and sincerely nice goldfish, Goshio, navigates her aquarium and the seas of the Paraquarian world beyond. The heroine's journey is an allegory of the entrepreneurial world (and of life) – based on the author's own research journey to circumnavigate the fascinating World of Entrepreneurship. www.goshio.com
Contact:
E-mail: work@kaplan4research.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jaroslavs-kaplans-11255b
Author of the book "Business Incognita. How to push the boundaries of entrepreneurial thinking". Expert in the field of sustainable development of organizations and discovering new sources of growth. Developer of the methodology of contextual market research. Member of the International Association of Strategic and Competitive Intellect Professionals SCIP (USA).
Blog: https://www.kaplanresearch.pro/eng
In this light (yet profound) business fable a very magical and sincerely nice goldfish, Goshio, navigates her aquarium and the seas of the Paraquarian world beyond. The heroine's journey is an allegory of the entrepreneurial world (and of life) – based on the author's own research journey to circumnavigate the fascinating World of Entrepreneurship. www.goshio.com
Contact:
E-mail: work@kaplan4research.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jaroslavs-kaplans-11255b
