Think Again

Outcomes Are Irrelevant

I’ll bet that title got your attention. Outcomes are irrelevant!? Heresy you say. Of course I’m not serious … or am I? Certainly, outcomes are important … aren’t they the primary thing that we plan for, strategize about, measure and rely upon? Have you have seen any strategic or tactical plan without outcomes defined, even if loosely? Have you ever seen sales managers encourage their sales team to do their best and not worry about the results or outcomes? Of course, it’s absurd to suggest that outcomes are irrelevant, but indeed that’s precisely what I’m doing. If you are open to a new way of looking at everything you do, then I encourage you to keep reading and to explore the underlying rationality of this “absurd” proposition.

Yes, outcomes and results are important AND they do matter. I am not suggesting otherwise. What I AM suggesting is that we need to finally understand and realize that ultimately we don’t control the outcomes and results. Since we don’t control them, then they are irrelevant and, instead of focusing all of our misguided energy on outcomes, we should focus our precious time and energy on the few things that we DO control: our thoughts, our mindsets and our actions.

We love to believe that we control outcomes, but the best we can do it seek to drive them, create them, or do our best with what we can control and hope that the desired outcomes will follow. We do not like to admit any lack of control, especially when it comes to important things like outcomes and results in our businesses. We want to believe that we control outcomes because it feeds our comfort zones. Those comfort zones desperately want to control our outcomes and futures. We say things like “failure is not an option” yet we know that failure is always a possibility whether big or small. We say that we can “make things happen,” but we don’t have the ultimate control of making things happen. We only have the ability to be at our individual and collective best in executing towards our desired outcomes. We assert that we are a leader that creates or drives results, but great leaders actually create or drive teams who execute well enough and fast enough to create the hoped for results. In the end, we control everything leading up to the outcomes except the actual outcomes.

Why does this matter?  Why should we accept that the outcomes are out of our control? Because in doing so, in acknowledging that outcomes are beyond our control, we can now focus our critical control over the short list of things (thoughts, mindsets and actions) that we do control. Many clients who we work with spend most of their time setting goals (out of our control), declaring objectives (out of our control) and defining desired results (out of our control), but precious little time focused on the thinking, on the activities, or on the execution that are essential in order to create the most fertile ground from which our outcomes can spring forth. In doing so, we actually give up control over what matters most (the short list of things we can control) and we essentially rely upon hope as a strategy. Talk about unwittingly giving up control!

The most fundamental shortcoming that we have found with organizations are poor accountability and inconsistent execution (things that we do control), yet the core areas don’t get enough attention until we shine a bright light on them. This is because the organizations’ focus is on the outcomes and goals.  When we focus on outcomes, what do we tell our sales people when the outcomes are coming up short of expectations:  “do more, sell more.” But what exactly should they do be doing differently or better? No one knows because the focus and planning was around outcomes, not the execution activities that would take you to the brink of the desired outcomes. We don’t know what to do because outcomes are not an action.   You can’t adjust outcomes nor can you adapt outcomes!

Regaining ultimate control over your business and your life involves three simple steps: 

1.   Acknowledgement that outcomes are out of your control;

2.   Focused time and energies on the three things we do control (thoughts, mindsets and actions);

3.   Creating a culture of accountability and relentless execution within your organization.

You may not control the outcomes, but you will take back control over the very few things that can lead you to the brink of your desired outcomes. Outcomes are irrelevant? Indeed they are!

If I Only Knew

Several years ago at a Master Mind retreat, a good friend of mine, Joe, made this impactful comment: “If I’d known what I know how about my potential, I would have raised the bar.”  Throughout his life and career, Joe has been highly successful, a person who set high goals for himself (or so he thought) and then achieved them.  Yet in the rear view mirror of hindsight he realized that he could have been more, achieved more, and created more impact.  We’re not talking about having to overachieve or having the mindset that whatever we do is never good enough.  Rather, it’s the realization that we have so much untapped potential and we have simply limited ourselves.  And the reason is simple, we set our objectives based upon who we are today and we forget that we can (and will) grow and develop (if we’re committed to it) into a person that is capable of so much more than we are today.

In his Stanford commencement speech many years ago, Steve Jobs memorably spoke about the fact that we can’t “connect the dots” in our lives going forward, but only as we look back and examine our life’s path.  This is what Joe experienced that day as he looked back and “saw” that the goals that he had set for himself were formed from what he thought was possible (including for him) and were based upon who he was then, not his future and potential self.  Imagine the potential that we could all unleash if we were to raise the bar based upon who we know we can evolve to be.  If we only knew!

Many years ago, I heard John DiJulius say that he never wanted to hear a team member say that they had done their best.  Wait a minute!  I couldn’t have said that.  He couldn’t mean that.  I was raised on the principal that if we do our best, it’s all we can do.  My father shared that message with me, and I’ve passed it on to my two boys.  John Wooden talked about how winning was never the objective at UCLA; the objective was to be and give your best and then the results would follow.  Certainly, I had not heard John DiJulius correctly.  But then he said it again and explained.  He said that the problem with people giving their best is that it’s based upon what they’ve experienced or achieved before and what they believe is possible.  Most of us won’t set goals or objectives that we believe are impossible.  Yet Nelson Mandela famously said: “It only seems impossible, until it’s done!

Indeed, so much that’s been accomplished in this world was deemed impossible until it was done.  Every invention ever imagined was deemed impossible before its creation or discovery.  John Kennedy committed to landing a man on the moon during the 1960’s when the space program was in its infancy -- which everyone thought was impossible until July 1969.  Martin Luther King created a revolution that began a transformation of a nation and the world because he had a dream, a dream that many believed was impossible.  In 1980, the United States hockey team shocked the world with what’s now known as the Miracle on Ice when they beat the best hockey team in the world (the Soviet Union).  We achieve the impossible virtually every day, yet most of us set our objectives based upon what we’ve done before plus a little bit more.

Imagine if we instead set our life and business goals with an expectation of achieving the impossible. Or at a minimum set objectives that were so big that they were scary.  I often say that if we’re not scared, then we set the bar too low.  If we haven’t set the bar high enough that we risk failing in some way (and often we do fail), then the bar was set too low.  Where’s the challenge if the bar is too low? Where’s the fun and excitement of a bar too low?

As you plot your course for the rest of your life (much of which is and will remain a great unknown), challenge yourself, your team, your organization and even your family to raise the bar.  Imagine a world without limitations (especially those inside us) and set your sights on transformation and impact, not merely goals and objectives. Instead of asking “can we,” ask “what if.”  When you reach the end of your journey (wherever it takes you), do you really want to look back and say “if I only knew.”  Instead, set sail into the future with an expectation of the limitless you knowing that the “future” you is and will be capable of so much more than you are today. Tally Ho!

The Magic Touch

Often when talking to my business development clients, I hear stories starting like this: “You’re not going to believe this, but …” “Boy, did I get lucky …” or “Let me tell you about the coincidence that happened the other day.” Whenever I hear comments like these, my ears perk up because I am confident that these stories are believable and not about luck or coincidence. While the outcome may not have been planned, the new business success stories are almost always the result of what I call The Magic Touch!  I am talking about the magic we create when we consistently, predictably, and rhythmically practice the art of connecting with our clients.

Rhythm is the result of new habit formation through consistent interaction and communication to overcome the comfort zone of doing business as usual.  We all have obstacles and impediments to our most effective relationship building, but often the bigger obstacle is our comfort zone … what we’ve always done.  In order to overcome these obstacles and be successful, we must create new habits.

A typical business owner’s complaint is that sales professionals are very attentive and communicative when they want your business, yet afterwards these often fade once the business is obtained. We work hard at communicating and demonstrating how much we care to a prospective client. Yet after, we often retreat into our comfort zone of “business as usual” and believe that all our clients expect is quality services.  Nothing could be further from the truth. Clients do expect high quality services, but they also want to know that they are valued and more than just a revenue source.  We often believe that connecting with our clients is a touchy-feely thing, but   “connection” is the outcome of clear, purposeful actions that show the client that we care.

These three key elements are critical to creating a world-class client experience: 

1. Know Your Clients
2. Listen and Capture
3. Deliver the Unexpected

Businesses that consistently execute on these elements create a client-centered culture, develop referring fans, and effectively differentiate themselves within a competitive marketplace. They step into the rhythm of business development.

Know Your Clients

Too often we focus our time, attention, questions and listening on our clients’ needs solely as they relate to our solutions. Rather than really listening, we are qualifying and looking for opportunities to sell, but we miss the critical opportunities to learn and understand our clients’ context. No matter what the business, there is always a deeper story underlying every business issue and this is the story that we need to uncover, connect with and allow for. This is the story that will have more impact on whether our solution is valuable, how valuable, and whether or not it is even relevant. True solution providers solve larger issues, not just the specific problem that our solution narrowly fits.  No wonder we are often confused and frustrated when our “buyers” don’t make our solution a priority (they don’t return phone calls, they’re not timely or responsive, they seem to not care about delays, etc.) … it’s because our solution is NOT a priority.  The business and the business owner always have other issues, challenges and opportunities on their mind. Only when we ask deeper and broader questions and really listen, can we understand our clients and their holistic needs and only then can we provide a solution that really matters.

Great sales professionals seek to understand their clients’ context: Where does this challenge or obstacle fit on their list of priorities? How does your solution solve a problem or help them take advantage of an opportunity? Where does your solution fit in terms of adding value beyond the narrow challenge or opportunity it addresses? What else is going on in their business and even in their life that makes your solution more or less relevant or timely? Without this critical context, we cannot best serve our clients.  As a trusted advisor seeking to deliver the best overall result and outcome, the key to uncovering this vital context is to ask the right questions and then to listen.

Listen and Capture

Because our clients are typically not experts in our field or relevant to our solutions, it falls on us to ask deeper questions in order to gain understanding.  We must learn to listen for the “golden nuggets” hinted by our clients so we may deliver their unstated needs.  As we proactively listen, we gain knowledge about our client which allows us to personalize the client experience.

Every time you communicate with a client, there is an opportunity to listen and learn.  What’s going on, what do they value, and what important events are coming up in their lives?  These are vital, but we often miss them because they may not be relevant to the issues or solutions that we are focused on selling or delivering.  Valuing your clients means capturing their real life information.

Tune in to the information your clients share with you daily. Train your team to listen and capture this information. This is the “gold” in building relationships that matter.  This causes them to want to be your client, who value your firm, and who will share their positive experience with others.

Deliver the Unexpected

Unless you’re the rare exception, you live and work in a world where there’s no shortage of competition. There’s always someone else who claims to do what you do and they all claim to be “the best.” There are also always many others who will do what you do at a lower rate. Most of us seek to differentiate on quality, but it is almost always impossible to prove that we are better than someone else. However, very few people listen for and know their clients’ unexpected wants and needs. This is your path to the holy grail of 1% of true solutions providers and trusted advisors – a category with little competition.

When was the last time you called your client just to check in when you had no agenda or specific questions?  When was the last time you called to thank a client for their business?  Imagine how you could set yourself apart by simply caring (giving flowers for an anniversary, sending a birthday card, or writing a thank you note).  These go a long way and communicate volumes.

By knowing what is going on in your clients’ lives, you connect on a personal level which enhances their trust.  This art of listening and delivering the unexpected creates a niche to excel.  This heightens trust and, more importantly, moves them from mere clients to powerful relationships.  This is all the result of the Magic Touch!

It's Not Cliche If You're Doing It

Several years ago a friend told me about a “game” to play at conferences, during workshops, and in meetings. The game was called Bulls**t Bingo and it involved listening for overused terms, phrases and words that overpopulate business conversations, including “think outside the box”, “real-time”, “on the same page”, “integration”, “on board”, “workflow”, “user friendly”, etc.  At the time, I loved the idea and agreed with the precept that these types of words and phrases were, indeed, overused and misunderstood. Now, there’s a new set of business speak jargon that is being derided by many as overused and just too much fluff: “collaboration”, “alignment”, “transformational”, “integration” (an oldie but goodie), “integrated solution”, “team engagement”, “acceleration”, etc.  My perspective today, however, is different than a few years ago.  Certainly, these words and concepts are overused and often considered cliché, but perhaps they’re seen that way not because they aren’t real but because they are rarely lived and walked out.  They ARE all real and achievable … and they are not cliché IF you’re doing it.

When someone suggests that these concepts are not real or that they are over-talked about, the likely scenario is that they don’t believe in them or minimally, may not have achieved them. As I work with clients and in my own business, I have struggled to find other words to describe the very real outcomes that are co-created when people genuinely and authentically collaborate. When teams align with a living, breathing organizational purpose, they experience palpable team engagement … engagement that creates amazing outcomes.  When people and organizations are able to set aside old ways of thinking and doing business, as well as, when they are able to create new paradigms, they create transformational impact for their people, their clients, and their organization.  When organizations and teams communicate, trust, engage, and are accountable, they dramatically accelerate execution and outcomes.  The concepts and the outcomes are real, whereas the shortcomings are in our own failure to fully commit and authentically embrace a new way of thinking and doing business.

The time has come for courage--courage to fundamentally change how we do business. Courage to walk a talk that has been overused, but under implemented; courage to lead our teams and organizations in ways that have been written about and talked about for years, but sparingly integrated into business decisions, leadership, planning, and execution; courage to look in the mirror and tell ourselves the truth about what we’re doing (or not doing), how we’re leading (or not leading), and how well we’re executing (or not executing). Too many leaders have talked the talk, but not walked the walk.  Team members have been raising the alarm for years: citing lack of appreciation, lack of integrity (actions not aligning with messaging), and lack of engagement; while organizations continued to operate in an old model where team members are viewed as necessary evils (or even annoyances).

Cliché is defined as a trite phrase or expression or something that has become overly familiar or commonplace.  What has become overly familiar or commonplace is a business model based upon transactions, manipulations, misalignment, and poor accountability. The outcome has been inconsistent execution, low employee morale, and underperforming (or failing) organizations. It is time to embrace what we’ve previously called cliché as the most direct path to engaged, aligned, and executing teams and organizations.  It is time to not only walk our own talk and create organizations and teams that consistently and predictably execute on agreed objectives, but also teams which are aligned with core values and purpose.  The next time you hear someone call a word or phrase cliché, ask them a simple question:  Are you doing it?  For when we do it, there is no cliché.

Decide, Declare, Do!

          As I reviewed my articles and blog posts for the past year, one theme was apparent ... DO! So often in business we get caught up in planning (or strategic planning), but we don't invest enough time in the DO elements of our plans. And of course, there can be no DO without a decision (hopefully a concious decision). Ah yes, but I left out the "declare" concept, which is the essence of clarity and accountability. Only when we declare can we assure full clarity of purpose and plan, and declarations allow us a measuring stick (whether quantitative or qualitative) for accountability. Are we seeing the problem here?

          Nearly every organization that I've met or worked with this year was struggling in some fashion with accountability, which in turns drive execution. And without execution, we go nowhere ... fast! I'm not suggesting that we're not doing anything (although in many cases we're doing far more thinking, debating and planning than doing), but I am suggesting that we all suffer from a lack of action in support of our ideas and plans. Recently, I was asked what the number one thing I could do different in 2012 to improve my business and I immediately answered "make more decisions." Perhaps you also suffer from the not so rare condition of too many good ideas and not enough implemented ideas? I told you above ... we have to be prepared to tell ourselves the truth.

          Yes, the truth. Where would our decisions be without a good healthy dose of self-assessment (and perhaps outsider assessment) of what we (and our company) did well and not so well in 2011. What did we learn that we can carry forward into 2012? What setbacks did we encounter (and overcome) that we can use to better navigate 2012? Where did we personally come up short in 2011 which we need to improve (or dramatically improve) in 2012? Great questions indeed, but only raw and honest answers will allow us and our business to improve in 2012 and beyond.

          Personally, I'm a big fan of strategic planning BUT ... only if it's supported with clear decisions, clarifying declarations and accountable action plans. As I suggested in our September article, the most important question is What are you going to DO? Followed in turn by Did you DO it? 

• Assess (the past year and your role in it)
• Re-Commit (to something ... the old path, a new path, any path ... but really commit to being All In!)
• Decide (make clear and unequivocal decisions)
• Declare (share your decisions with someone or some group so that you can be accountable)
• DO!!!!

Make 2012 the year you'll always remember for what you DID, rather than ending another year thinking about all the "great" ideas that were never implemented, the plans that were left unfulfilled, and the opportunities that were lost to being so "busy." I look forward to seeing and hearing of your great successes in 2012. As the year comes to a close, I invite you to Decide, Declare and Do ... and create spectacular outcomes!

Worlds Colliding

            In the beginning there was Seinfeld, a teacher of great lessons of business and of life. In one episode George Costanza was troubled because Elaine had gone to lunch with George’s fiancé, thus risking a collision of his worlds. In George’s narrow mind, there was Friend George (that his friends loved) and Engaged George (who was not much fun and who spent his time with his fiancé).  As George explained to Jerry, if the worlds collided then “Kaboom” ... chaos and the loss of Friend George. In deference to the wisdom of Seinfeld, George was wrong and, rather than separating our worlds, today’s business world compels that our worlds must be integrated (they need to collide).

            George Costanza (and apparently much of the world) believe in separating our lives (personal and business), but that's based on an “old story” that too many of us are still perpetuating. This old story is based upon the fear of being open and authentic because it makes us vulnerable. While this is true (being open and authentic) does make us vulnerable, it doesn’t mean that we’ll be taken advantage of or hurt. Our fear of a potential negative outcome is causing us to build walls between our worlds, which results in limited relationships (if they exist at all), poorly integrated teams, and high levels of stress as we “work” to not let our business relationships see who we really are.

            This same "story" has people saying "I work to live, I don't live to work," believing it's an OR world. I believe it's an AND / BOTH world where we can choose to live work that feeds our passions and purpose and to interact with business people with vulnerability and openness so that I we have deep connections throughout our lives (not just in our personal lives). Relationships (real relationships) in the work place have been proven to enhance execution, communication, accountability, trust, engagement and satisfaction, yet we keep our distance at work, fail to build strong relationships and wonder why we're not where we want to be (individually, organizationally or culturally).

            When people say that they have their separate worlds (whether live or digitally ... people say they use LinkedIn for business and Facebook for personal), I ask them "which is the real you?" One of them (by definition) must be a mask ... either overtly or by withholding your essential self. And perhaps both are some version of a mask.

            While the world has spent a great deal of energy pursuing balance, it’s really a red herring. When you consider the hours in a day (and that we sleep a chunk of them), most of us will spend more time working than doing anything else, so time balance can't exist. By being ourselves in both worlds we can find balance and joy even at work. In addition, the act of putting on and maintaining the “mask” (the work persona) and maintaining our walls between our worlds is exhausting. We’re actually wasting our precious time, focus and energy in separating our worlds (hard work), when we have the opportunity to be ourselves in both worlds (easy work).

            We all know the very old saying "It's too good to be true." What if the opposite is true (as I believe) ... "It's too good AND it's true." Regretfully we live in world where the old stories based upon fear and limitations are holding us back from connecting and living lives of connected and authentic relationships. By being our essential self in both worlds we allow these connections to happen and share the experience of living in relational community both at work and at home.

            It's time for the walls to come down. Not only are our lives and businesses at stake, but even our society and communities. It's time to allow the intended connections to happen without the artificial walls or obstacles that come from the old stories. George was wrong … rather than work to separate our worlds it’s time for  our worlds to collide, connect and engage, which will allow us to create the relationships that will create magic for our businesses and our lives.

While We Were Sleeping

            For years businesses have been searching for what we considered to be the holy grail in business … satisfied clients, and mountains of information, hundreds of books, and thousands of hours of videos have been dedicated to providing the ideas, tactics and strategies for achieving this objective.  While all of these ideas are worthwhile, the problem is that while we were sleeping the target moved. Satisfied clients (or even clients that like us and our work) are no longer good enough; and perhaps were never good enough. In today’s business environment the only “good” client, is a client that loves us and our products or services. Today’s business truth is that if we only have satisfied clients or clients that merely like us, then we’re losing the game. 

            “In the beginning” (of business thought) the concept of creating satisfied clients made sense because the bar was artificially low due to limited competition, which allowed for easier differentiation. As a result, businesses could just do the bare minimum (and achieve satisfied clients) and rely upon their other differentiators to create and sustain their revenue models. But as competition improved and increased, the prior differentiators became less and less real or valuable. We all started looking alike, which meant that merely satisfying a client was not enough to differentiate our business or to provide a strong foundation for sustainability (let alone growth).

            What’s “wrong” with merely satisfied clients? First, satisfied clients “fire” us (often without warning) and leave us wondering “what did we do wrong?” In truth, we often didn’t do anything “wrong,” but we did fail to understand their needs and deliver the type of value and experience that makes us memorable and indispensable. The problem is that because these clients are only satisfied, they are likely to move to one of your competitors who happen along with a better price or which talks about a great client experience. In fact, it’s often the case that merely satisfied clients leave us, while clients that are unhappy or even dissatisfied choose to stay and make our lives miserable, distracting us from our good clients.

            Second, satisfied clients are silent – they don’t talk about us with anyone. While we could fashion a story that makes this sound not too bad (after all, it could be worse – they could be proactively complaining about us), a silent client is a hurtful client. This is especially true when they’re silent (or neutral) when our business or our industry comes up in a conversation. Imagine that a group of business owners are talking at a business event and you or your business comes up in the conversation. The good news is that one of our existing clients is a part of this conversation. The bad news is that this client is only satisfied and responds with a neutral and non-committal statement (e.g., “They’re okay,” “They’re pretty good,” “They do a nice job,” etc.) While not negative, these neutral (at best) comments are the kiss of death for our business because not only was the opportunity lost to have a raving fan endorsing you in the conversation, but the neutral response is heard by most people as a quiet complaint.

            Being “okay” is not good enough and certainly will not differentiate you or your business. Instead, we must commit ourselves and our teams (in words and actions) to delivering a client experience and exceeding expectations so that our clients actually love us and are “Wowed” by us (which is usually more about the experience than our actual products and services). Clients that love us will pay for our value (often significantly more than the price they could get with our competitors). Clients that love us will talk about us (when asked and especially when not asked) and endorse us to other potential clients. What we call Raving Fans! Clients that love us will also usually stick with us even when we make a mistake or drop the ball because their prior experience (that created the “love”) built up a reserve of good will with the client. Most important, clients that love us will help us grow our business beyond surviving to thriving.

            The bar has been raised on the client experience and whether spoken or not, our clients and potential clients are making it clear that they expect to be more than just satisfied. While the bar has been raised by clients, we must continue to raise our own internal bars so that we continue to focus our efforts, energy and tactics on wowing clients and building the “love.”  Like so many aspects of business life in our culture, the game and the rules have changed and we must change as well. Otherwise, we’ll all wake up to find that our clients and our business have disappeared … while we were sleeping.

Do You Care?

I rarely meet anyone who says, honestly, that they don't care about their organization. If you really don't care, then why are you there? I know the "stories" – we need the money, the security, the benefits, etc. But if we truly don't care about the organization, it's pretty difficult to get up and add any value to the organization, the team, or the customers. So let's begin with the assumption that most team members care (to some level) about the organization, its customers, and its outcomes. Yet the big question is whether we care enough.

What does it mean to care enough? It means that we care enough that we're willing to take risks, such as candor, directness, and accountability. When we see the organization out of alignment, do we use our voice to share our perspective and concerns? When we see the organization making decisions or pursuing paths that are not customer centric, do we raise objections and work to bring the team back in line with our values? When we experience a leader or manager functioning in a way that is hurting or blocking the team's performance and execution, do we challenge them? Or do we let things go because we don't want to rock the boat or, perhaps, risk our status, position or comfort zone?

Team members often tell me that they care BUT ... which is followed by the list of reasons why they can't tell the truth or take a difficult position. I've said before that everything in front of the word "but" is a lie, so do we really care when we are silent when candor and directness is required?

The most important trait for any team member is that they care, but it's the leader's role and responsibility to create an environment where your team feels safe to tell the truth and to take the difficult positions. If your team is holding back or staying silent because of the fear of repercussions, we often ask the team to step outside their comfort zone and take the risk. Perhaps, instead we should be looking in the mirror and making sure that we're creating an environment where our team members see telling the truth and candor as standard operating procedures that are not risky.

It's always said that leadership and culture flow from the top, and the same is true when it comes to candor, communication and encouraging questions and challenges. Greatness comes when we collaboratively design strategies and tactics that align with our core values, and a critical element to this process is full and open communication of all perspectives (including questioning leadership).

This month take a look in the mirror and answer these two questions:

1. As team members, do we care enough to tell the truth?
2. As leaders, have we created an environment where our team members feel safe to tell the truth?

This shared responsibility is an essential ingredient in teams that execute and organizations that excel!

Vision, Mission, Smission

It’s that time of year … end of the third quarter and time to start thinking about 2011 (what worked and what didn’t) and to plan for 2012 (what will we do different and better). This is also the onset of traditional strategic planning “season,” when we dust off the old plans (usually propping up some other books or equipment in our office) or decide that “we need a strategic plan.” Before you jump to conclusions from my opening thoughts, I am a believer in having a strategic (and tactical) plan for your business. Admittedly, I'm a bit skeptical in terms of how most organizations undertake the strategic planning process, which too often results in a high level plan without actionable tactics, clarity of ownership, or accountability.  Oops … I’ve already said too much. This article is about mission and vision! 

Vision is an often discussed, but rarely defined concept, and is one of those things that everyone seems to believe is important, but vision creation and its execution often come up short. Likewise, people seem to think that they (and their business) should have a mission statement, yet no one seems to agree on what they are or should be.  Others talk about creating a purpose statement (Why does your organization exist?), yet the same lack of clarity exists here as well.  Mission?  Vision?  Purpose?  What are we to do?

Ah Ha! There’s that magic word … DO … which seems almost always to be left out of whatever statements we’re creating (mission, vision, purpose, or otherwise).  I’ve heard it argued that “doing” is tactical, but I beg to differ.  Without the “do” there is no strategy, vision or mission, so perhaps the answer lies in developing our strategic vision or mission in terms of the do, rather than the conceptual and obtuse descriptions that make up most vision or mission statements. 

I was recently a part of a discussion of mission statements and after listening to seven or eight of them, I realized that they were all mostly pomp and circumstance.  They didn’t really say anything except grandiose descriptions of what we wanted to create or accomplish (but in such vague terms that they were meaningless).  Most important, they were not actionable and definitely not subject to accountability.  Perhaps that’s the point … if they’re vague we can’t be held accountable for not achieving them (or we can create a “story” that we have achieved them because they’re so ambiguous). 

That’s when it hit me … a simple (but action-oriented and accountable) approach to mission and vision statements, where the entire process comes down to (at most) three questions:

1. What are you going to DO?
2. Did you DO it?
3. If not, why not?

Simple, but effective – a clear and concise statement of your strategic and visionary outcomes, not just ideas or concepts.

But, this sounds tactical you say? Not if the DO is big enough! Consider this real world example:

Ford Motor Company: “We are a global family with a proud heritage passionately committed to providing personal mobility for people around the world.”

What do you think? Action oriented? Clear in terms of outcomes? Is it subject to accountability?  I guess if all they have to do is manufacture cars – by manufacturing cars with passion the mission has been achieved.  What if instead it said, “We will manufacture the highest quality motor vehicles in their price range in the world?” See the difference?

Most of us (individually and organizationally) want to create something special that has some kind of impact in the world, big or small.  Thus, missions, visions and purposes are vital, but we’re spending too much time thinking and talking big, and not enough time creating and acting big.  Nike said Just Do It, and I’m suggesting that we decide big, declare big, and do big!  Vision, mission, smission … the words don’t matter, but the actions do! As Sean Connery said in The Untouchables, “What are you prepared to do?”  Indeed, the MOST important question for all of us!

Be Careful What You Believe

You all know this old saying: "It's too good to be true." Do you believe it?  Do you believe that anything that appears to be "too good" is not true? I wonder ... what if, in fact, the opposite is true: That it's so good AND it's true? Why does it matter? Because IF the latter is true (that it's so good AND it's true), then acting according to the former belief (that it's too good to be true) will actually take you away from what you want to achieve. 

Let's look at another example of a belief.  Many people believe that doing what fulfills them and is in alignment with their passions creates risks for their family and their ability to fulfill their responsibilities. In other words, many believe that pursing your dream puts your family and responsibilities at risk. Many people then (and naturally) act according to that belief system by not taking actions to pursue their dreams and passions because of the perceived high risk. But what if the opposite is true?

Assume that pursuing your dreams and passions actually makes it easier for you to fulfill your responsibilities. If this is true, then doing the "responsible thing" (perhaps staying in a job that you don't enjoy or which doesn't fulfill you but which seems to be "secure"), actually is a greater risk for you and your ability to fulfill your responsibilities.  Isn't that interesting!

The main point is to be careful and clear about what you believe and then to make sure that your actions (your chosen path) are in alignment with what you actually believe. The key is that what you believe does matter and whether you're acting in accordance with those beliefs is even more important!

Both personally and professionally, it's vital that you achieve clarity on what you believe and that you then create alignment by doing (taking action) that which lines up with what you believe. Being out of personal and professional alignment is causing us all a great deal of unnecessary stress and keeping many of us from achieving our dreams and objectives.

Be careful what you believe, but most important, make sure that what you do is consistent with what you believe!