Filed in Articles

An example of ineffective strategy is a dry, one-inch-thick report that people only refer to when they need some market numbers, or a PowerPoint slide deck full of esoteric whiz-bang charts put together by a team of consultants.

Powerful strategy is the living, breathing force behind the actions of an organization.  It is the bridge that connects people from where they are to where they want to be.  It’s bold — definitely not business as usual — because it continually changes how the organization sees itself and transforms it into what you want it to become.

How can we bring this kind of life and boldness into our strategic planning efforts? I propose that creativity is the key to this, and that there are a variety of tools and techniques that are well suited to engaging people and tapping into their creative juices.

Mind Map Brainstorming. The word brainstorming has become an ubiquitous term for creative thinking. The core principle of brainstorming is to suspend judgment during the generation phase of thinking. Analysis, prioritization, and judgment take place after ideas are generated. This frees the mind to make connections and abstractions, shift perspectives, and explore alternatives without the constraints and structure that judgment brings. Unfortunately, typical group brainstorming sessions fail to be productive for a variety of reasons — judgment creeps in, ideas are not tracked, connections are not supported, etc. How can brainstorming be made more effective? I find that facilitated sessions with mind mapping software provide tremendous advantages over typical brainstorming sessions. Ideas can be captured and tracked with total freedom of association. Through powerful yet simple visualization, new ideas and connections are encouraged. At the end of a session, the group has a map of all the ideas generated in the session, which encourages further connections and ideas to develop after the meeting.

Improvisation. If you’ve ever seen an episode of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”, you know what I mean by improvisation. It’s the practice of acting and reacting, to create in the moment and in response to one’s environment. Techniques of improv are widely trained in the entertainment arts (music, theater, and dance), but it is not well known that it can be a powerful tool in business planning. Its secret lies in suspending judgment and accessing the creativity of the present moment. There is no time to censor or evaluate, only to respond and build. It’s interesting to note that the mental and emotional states needed to practice the art of improvisation are very similar to those of Zen, and many of the same concepts are used in both practices. When people who have a thorough understanding of their disciplines practice improvisation, the result can be the invention of new thought patterns, new structures, or new ways to act. I use improv to help groups develop a more creative vision by asking them to improvise what their organization could be like at some point in the future, and capture their thinking in a tool called a Cover Story Vision. The result can often include nuggets of creative possibility that are fresh and bold.

Read the rest of this entry »

How many times have you seen one of those vague, slightly inspiring, but wishy-washy vision statements?  They’re often found buried in a thick report or framed on a wall, overlaying a sublime photo.  Nobody knows quite what they mean, who wrote them, what actions they imply, or why they should care.

Vision is a critically important part of any process of goal attainment or achievement. Without vision, there is little clarity, alignment, or motivation to move toward the desired outcomes. Yet most people and groups do not have a strong sense of what they want to achieve. Forming a good vision doesn’t happen overnight…it evolves with the investment of time and energy needed to make a vision powerful.

What Exactly is a Vision?

A vision is a clear, compelling image or sense of a desired future state. It is created with the intention of being transformed into a future reality. It represents a goal or achievement that motivates people to take action to get them to that future state. If it’s a good vision, it will grab people in the gut, touch them deeply, and move them to action toward the goal represented by the vision. It becomes the living, breathing force behind the actions of an organization. If it’s not a good vision, it will fall flat, fail to motivate and align people, and may even result in cynicism and lower morale in an organization.

What Makes a Vision Powerful?

With all this at stake, an important question for leaders to explore is: “How do we know whether we have a good vision?” Is it like art, where we just know it when we see it? Or is there some way we can look at our situation objectively and understand what’s working well and what’s not?

I find it interesting to look at how diamonds are evaluated. Ultimately what is important is their overall brilliance and beauty, yet it is extremely useful to identify the most important aspects that result in this brilliance and beauty. Diamonds are generally evaluated on four aspects, known as the 4 C’s: Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat Weight. Each quality has its own scale, and all diamonds are evaluated on these scales to objectively evaluate their brilliance and beauty, and therefore their value.

I propose that we can look at the power or quality of visions in a similar way. Ultimately, what is important is the motivation, alignment, and results they create for people, yet we can identify a set of aspects that create these outcomes. I have found in my work that the most useful distinctions can be distilled into 7 C’s: Clear, Concrete, Compelling, Creative, Consensus, Communicated, and Committed. Each of these aspects can be evaluated on a scale of 0 to 100% quality. 100% is defined at the point at which additional improvement efforts would not be worth their cost.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have often found myself in conversations with clients about the meaning and purpose of some of the most fundamental business terms — words like Mission, Vision, Strategy, and Values. It surprises me how often people on the same team have differing ideas about what these words mean, and how often I hear fuzzy thinking about these terms. The result can be significant mis-communication and mis-understandings about the direction of the organization. It is very hard to focus on what you cannot define.

I find that many leaders use mission and vision interchangeably, or think that the difference between them doesn’t matter much. Another related problem is mission and vision statements that are vague, lofty, or have little connection with the real work of the organization.

Let me suggest some definitions that have worked well and solve these problems. They are based on decades of strategy work with clients, as well as authors such as Collins & Porras (Built to Last), Steven Covey (Principle Centered Leadership), Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline), and Kaplan & Norton (Strategy Maps). Even a dictionary can be amazingly helpful.

Mission: Enduring purpose. The fundamental reason for the organization’s existence beyond just making money. It is a direction, a general heading, a perpetual guiding star on the horizon. It does not change over time. It is generally abstract and can never be achieved, only pursued. For example, for NASA: “advancing man’s capability to explore the heavens”.

Read the rest of this entry »