Role of Vision in Strategic Planning

Vision is vital to successful leadership.  Vision as about change, most people dont like change which is where leadership earns its pay, getting people to embrace change. Vision sets higher expectations for group performance thereby requiring new personal performance bests by individual team members.

Having worked on strategic planning for some time now here is my take on the subject:
Vision spells out the best imaginable outcomes(s) for a situation.The situation may be a problem to overcome or an opportunity to grasp. The situation can be as broad as long term company direction or as narrow and short term as cash flow. Vision specificity clarifies interpretation, interpretation clarifies intention and intention expedites implementation i.e. the clearer you are about what you want the more likely you are to get it. In 60 Minute Strategic Planning workshops I emphasize this by insisting that every aspect of Vision be accompanied by metrics thereby forcing people to be numeric about their intentions.

Vision by definition is "currently impossible" otherwise it would be a fait accompli instead of a good idea. Which leads you via Step 7 in the 60 Minute Strategic Plan to name all the Obstacles that make Vision "currently impossible". This transitions the planner from the best imaginable outcomes for an issue to attacking the Obstacles that stand in the way of making Vision a reality i.e. setting strategy then employing tactics.

Here are pearls of wisdon on the subjec of Vision:

        "whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it, boldness has genius, power and magic in it" (Goethe) ... "make known the end from the beginning" (Isaiah 46:10) ... "if you reach for the stars you seldom come up with a handful of mud" (anon) ... "the act of initiative uncovers all manner of things that would have otherwise been concealed" (anon) ... "the greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it , but that it is too low and we reach it" (Michelangelo) ... "you are 10X more likely to accomplish a thing if it is written" (anon).

In the 60 Minute Strategic Plan we start at the end i.e. Vision and end at the beginning, Actions as in who does what by when.

In their excellent book "Coprorate Cultures" authors Deal and Kennedy claim that if your are serious about the subject assume it will take 3 to 5 years, 3 to 5 Million and you run a 50/50 chance of killing what you are fixing.

Here are some pearls of wisdom that might help with the subject: if a thing is worth doing its worth doing badly i.e. act and do not fear failure; you dont get real good or real bad real fast; anybody that tells you that it's easy for a group to change is a liar a consultant or both; you cannot change what you cannot measure on the other hand if you change what you measure and change what you compensate that gets people's attention; as the leader for change post on your bathroom mirror "I am looking at the problem" then a week later add "I am looking at the project"; we must become the change we seek (Ghandi); what is it that is impossible to do today in your business, but if it could be done would fundamentally change what you do (Joel Barker), because some day some one will surely do it; you cant think your way into right acting you have to act your way into right thinking i.e. insist and persist on specific behavior, do it first understand it later; assume active resistance to change if absent beware of passive resistance to change; it is said that 80% of all mergers and acquisitions add no value, I suspect the villian of the piece is the failure to take into consideration differing/conflicting cultures.

 Ben Franklin: I wouldnt give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity but I would give my life for the simplicity the far side of complexity.
John's translation: Any idiot can simplify by ignoring the complications but it takes real wisdom to simplify by including the complications.

The instant a founder hires the first person the culture changes. Rarely do employees share the motivation, the risk or the equity of owner operated enterprises. The worst experience an employee can have is to lose h/her job. The worst experience an owner can have is personal bankruptcy.

It is said the ultimate job of the leader is to manage the culture. But heres where the math gets challenging. Lets say the owner is gifted with an IQ of 150 and works 70 hours a week, A workforce of 10 normal people with an average IQ of 100X10=1,000 IQ working 40hrs./wk. X10=400. Internal relationships are 10 to the power of 10 ie each person has 9 individual relationships with other employees plus the owner.

So there you have it 150 vs 1,000, 70 vs 400 and 100 relationships to deal with. Owners are outnumbered and mathematically challenged.

What has been your experience working with identifying the culture or changing the culture?

Mirror Management means you get back what you give out. When you complain about those you lead the first thing you should do to address the issue is look in the mirror. If managers do not trust their people they foster fear and insecurity. If managers come down hard on failure then employees balk at innovating or taking risks. If managers espouse teamwork but encourage internal competition they create winners and losers and thus hostility and alienation.
Authors Buckingham and Coffman in their superb book : First Break All the Rules" find that managers trump companies ... people join companies but quit managers. Managers in their opinion are the heart and soul of the organization.
The question is; are you fully aware of how your management style affects the attitudes and behaviors of those you lead ... probably not? A good way to know is to actually measure the attitudes and behaviors you believe are operative in your organization ... you might be surprised. It is said the ultimate job of the leader is to manage the culture. On change Ghandi said "we must become the change we seek".
Identify an attitude and behavior that needs changing and do a 60 Minute Strategic plan of action to resolve the issue.

Pucker factors are applied when the ends justify the means, when getting results are more important than precedent. Cortez burned the ships leaving his men no alternative to beating the Aztecs.

Jim Collins author of Good to Great and Built to Last calls the concept Catalytic Mechanisms and describes how Granite Rock, a sand and gravel company, catalyzed their commitment to superior customer service by the mechanism of empowering customers, noting on every invoice 'if any part of this shipment fails to meet your expectations then subtract it from the invoice, no need to return the product". Nucor Corporation, a steel company, catalyzed its committment to productivity via teamwork by basing the majority of an individuals compensation on team production along with rules of behavior which when violated by an individual would cause the entire team to suffer thereby causing the team to self regulate.

Now its your turn. With regard to 4 key organizational outcomes; Productivity, Profitability, Employee Retention and Customer Satisfaction list an important result and the invent the catalytic mechanism that would guarantee its outcome. Lets talk further, I would love to hear how you use pucker factors or catalytic mechanisms.

Legend says that 80% of results derive from 20% of causes. That is to say 80% of revenues or profits are caused or created by 20% of your products/services/customers. And 80% of your productivity can be tracked to just 20% of your invested capital, assets, time & knowledge. Is that your experience?
If so are you treating your customers and/or employees accordingly or do you treat them more or less equally expecting/hoping the underperformers will one day rise to their potential? If thats the case then you have more faith and patience than I do especially when you need your resources to work harder and perform better in the upcoming economic climate. My advice to you is feed the winners and starve the losers.
With the 60 Minute Strategic Plan you can quickly and efficiently develop plans to feed your winners.
What is your experience?

In a loose translation of one of Einstein's famous quotes "the problems faced in a recession cannot be solved by the same thinking you did when conditions where normal." General George Patton once said, "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week."

Don't let economic conditions steal your initiative or render you impotent. It's all about focusing your capital, assets, time and knowledge. Focus on what you do best. Don't dither or procrastinate searching for the perfect plan, there is not one. Create a plan that allows for quick adjustment when conditions change. There is no better way to marshal and direct your resources than having a plan. A plan turns vision into reality, intentions into results and purpose into performance.

 

Planning focus is magic. It lasers energy to break through barriers. What do you think?

 

Hard times are hard and they are inevitable but they can also be useful. Hard times indicate that what worked in the past is, in some respects, no longer working. So you no longer face opposition to change supported by the argument “if it aint broke don’t fix it”. Good times inevitably lead to excesses, bad habits and frequently quantity trumps quality. Hard times give you the excuse to fix things that have gotten out of whack.

During rapid growth, a company can get quickly out of control. << MORE >>