While recently reading an article from Baekdal.com (a favorite blog of mine – check it out), I discovered a gem. Thomas, the author, was writing about an issue facing publications, editors and journalists. Near the end, he penned:
As Simon Sinek says, “do you believe in what you believe?” Do you believe in what the company you work for believes? Simon talks about the Golden Circle. It starts with ‘Why’, the purpose of the publication. ‘How’, the strategy of the publication. And the ‘What’, the actual work of the journalists (in that order).
Using that template, let’s talk about your vision and how it is or isn’t engineered into your company’s culture.
The Purpose
I worked for a company that after years of operation never had a mission statement. We never had a stated or unstated purpose other than to “make money for the owner.” Since we didn’t understand our place in the market, our competitive advantage, our reason for existing, etc, we put the cart before the horse…often.
Management would embark on long projects to develop a strategy. What usually resulted was a shotgun approach to business. We saw lots of opportunities and decided to pursue all of them to see what would work.
We were a company looking for a purpose. And it was costly.
Contrastively, my wife and I started a swim instruction business back in 2009. After one year, we were growing fast enough to hire multiple coaches and have several locations. We sat down one afternoon and began discussing what we really wanted to accomplish. Once we set our purpose, many other decisions consequently fell into place.
Knowing who to hire was easier.
Our brand message was clearer.
How to grow the company was more obvious.
Year over year, we saw triple digit growth. The difference was that we had an identity. And that identity put boundaries around us as well as a path in front of us.
When defining your purpose, you should answer one basic question, “Why do we exist?” And the answer better be much bigger than to make money.
The Strategy
Your strategy is a high level plan of how to carry out your purpose.
Example:
Let’s say you run Acme Widgets and that your purpose is to revolutionize the widget industry in some manner. As a management team, you create a plan outlining the factories you need to open, the partners you need to work with, the messaging for your product and the distribution model.
You and your team now know what needs to be done.
In Trust Agents, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith talk about Gate Keepers and being a Gate Jumper. In traditional business, you have many Gate Keepers – organizations, jobs or individuals that you have to go through in order to get business done.
If you are a Gate Jumper, then you remove the unnecessary Gate Keepers from your path, which often results in better efficiencies.
Example:
When Nature Baked, who offers delicious and natural granola, began operation, Mike Smith didn’t go find a distributor to secure commitments from grocery stores to carry his granola. Instead, he walked into a store, asked for the manager, fed him or her some granola and said, “Pretty good isn’t it! So how do we get this on your shelves?”
Mike cut out the middle man. He’s a Gate Jumper. He’s disruptive to the norm. And that is needed.
The Actual Work
Think tactical. What do you need to do today to implement your strategy.
Corporate America has been plagued for years by factory thinking (and for some businesses it does make sense). In short, you break every task or project down to its most basic parts and then teach unskilled laborers to do just one task.
This requires no thought. No innovation. And lots of middle management watchdogs.
To create a powerful organization in today’s economic and social environment, you must empower your people on the ground to make and implement decisions.
This requires trust.
Sometimes, that trust will be betrayed. But focus on getting the “right people on the bus” and the occasional wrong person will be worth the reward of having a team of courageous, intelligent and creative do-ers.
[box type=”alert” icon=”none”]”As humans, we generally live up to the expectations placed upon us.” – Click to Tweet[/box]
Expect little of us and you will receive little. Expect something fantastic and be prepared for what you will receive in return.
Photo credit: HumanResourceFULL.net