Vision Building – What It Is And Isn’t

From our work we’ve gleaned the following do and don’ts around Vision Building:

1. Don’t have a Vision and a Mission. We’ve never seen an organisation successfully communicate both of these and show how they can function interdependently. Also when you ask people to quote one they often quote the other. A good vision will do all you need it too.
2. No numbers or dates. Something that states £100m by 2015 is a goal not a vision.
3. Visions are aspirational and as much about the journey as the destination. They are for the long term, something that needs changing or can be achieved in 5 years is probably not long term enough.
4. Creating a future that a vision captures is where the real benefit is. There is nothing more motivating for someone than to have a future articulated to them that they would like to become part of.
5. Don’t confuse visions with marketing strap lines, clever word play or alliterative statements. Sure, you’ll want to distil it down to a short phrase, but start with the long version, otherwise it’s just a word-smithing exercise.
6. Where does a good vision come from? It comes from a passionate point of view of what someone or some team wants to create. Vision building is not a technical, tick the box exercise, it should come from the heart, a clear expression of a future state which is different from the current state.
7. If it’s done as in point 6 it becomes a statement of intent. It should be directional, broad enough not to be restrictive, specific enough to allow options to be discriminated for and against.
8. Finally, the most important point, vision building is a deep act of leadership, you're offering people an opportunity to take part in taking others (customers and employees) on an exciting journey together.

See Values and Goals for the other two components of an effective Purpose Framework.

Predaptive help organisations build and implement effective Purpose Frameworks; for more information please contact us.

Values – How They Underpin Everything An Organisation Does

In building an effective Purpose Framework how you approach Values is critical to get right. Below we summarise the main points:

1. Culture is expressed values. Values are the basic building block of what it feels like to work in a particular organisation. If you want to change the culture, change the values.
2. A values driven organisation needs fewer rules, its values act as a touchstone for guiding peoples' actions and behaviours.
3. Values are not ‘common sense’, or ‘unnecessary because we all have values’. An organisation without clear values will not be able to offer any kind of ethical, contextual or behavioural framework. Whilst your personal values may be obvious to you they are not obvious to me. See MPs expenses for more context.
4. Distilling them down into five or six maximum is a good idea. Ten or more values is too many for people to carry round in their heads.
5. The whole focus should be on the behavioural expression of those values. You are not making a personal comment on an individual’s values, but on their visible behaviour - either positively or negative, as it relates to your values. The key here is to develop behavioural indicators.
6. You are not asking people to leave their personality at reception and become an organisational clone, indeed one of your values might speak to originality or creativity. An organisation does not have dominion over what people think or feel, but it can motivate people to behave in certain ways and proscribe behaviours it deems unhelpful or antipathetic to building its vision.
7. Values must always be viewed as a set. Never allow selective quoting, and never play ‘top trumps’ where one value is viewed as being superior to another.
8. A values-driven organisation feels inclusive, people are more positive about giving their discretionary effort, customers notice the difference.

See Vision and Goals for the other two components of an effective Purpose framework.

Predaptive help organisations build and implement effective Purpose Frameworks; for more information please contact us.

Securing Your Future - Setting Strategic Goals That Deliver

Given your organisation has its Vision, it now needs a set of Strategic goals that will drive its activities, priorities and decisions towards making that vision a reality. It’s in the Goals you find out how serious the organisation is about creating a future that is more than just a larger set of financial numbers than it's currently achieving.

1. Strategic Goals don’t normally number more than 10.
2. They will be clearly articulated, easily passing the ‘water cooler’ test of being understood by everybody.
3. Although simply stated, they will have significant detail underneath with a clear plan of how they will be achieved, with milestones and accountabilities clearly labelled. Strategy is essentially the mechanism for delivering the Strategic Goals.
4. Strategic Goals need to be masters (not servants) of, and integrated with, the current year’s business plans.
5. They should be more than just about financial growth. Profit is an output of doing something, so making more profit is a function of doing different things. The most effective sets may cover such things as:
   - What it is you are selling?
   - How you intend to engage differently with customers?
   - Expansion, where, how, when?
   - Solo or by making new partnership or alliances?
   - Organic or acquisition?
   - How you intend to use and develop your people capital?
   - Technology, a disruptive focus or just a condition of play?
   - Intellectual property development?
   - Innovation?
   - New markets and/or new segments?
   - Challenging existing orthodoxies?
   - New/emerging value chains?
   - New costing models?
   - New routes to market?
   - Optimising or transforming – or both?
   
6. Leadership is critical to the process of developing effective and mobilising Strategic Goals. Without a point of view about the future, linked to the vision of what your organisation isto become, your Strategic Goals will not drive anything.
7. The best time frame is 4-7 years.

See Vision and Values for the other two components of an effective Purpose framework.

Predaptive help organisations build and implement effective Purpose Frameworks; for more information please contact us.

Would Anyone Miss Your Brand?

With mergers, rescues and collapses having been a major part of business life over the past year it’s worth reflecting on some of those brands which have disappeared or will disappear soon. This week Lloyds Banking Group has announced that Cheltenham and Gloucester branches will be leaving the high street. Along with them go Abbey, Alliance + Leicester and Bradford & Bingley as their brands become absorbed into Santander. None of the banks brands have been around too long in their current form, they were already merged or contracted names of local building societies, and whilst no-one predicted the banking crisis, takeovers were mooted for all of them long before the credit crunch.

Walking along my high street I notice that Woolworths isn’t there any more, or Zavvi. Whilst I may have had no emotional connection to Zavvi it was a useful place to pick up a CD on a whim, and I’m sure each time I need a piñata or childs dressing up outfit I’ll rue the passing of Woolies, but that’s not a weekly occurrence. It’s not inconceivable that Vauxhall will disappear, along with any number of GM brands which merge into an Oldsmobile blur, and I’m sure not in a hurry to learn how to say Setanta properly if they won’t be around next season.

These disappearing brands have been teetering for years and whilst it’s sad to see some go, it’s not a surprise. With each of them the question seems to be “What were they about? What did they stand for?” Customers and employees find it difficult to express what their unique purpose is/was. Whilst they may have had mission statements, they all seemed to share a lack of clear, differentiated purpose. Without a clear, well articulated Purpose Framework businesses struggle to motivate and mobilise both employees and customers. IS your Purpose Framework strong enough to carry you through tough times? To find out more contact us.