Your VISION is useless if it doesn t produce change

Transcription

1 A Skills2Lead Special Report Your VISION is useless if it doesn t produce change How to realize the full potential of your Vision in four steps José Luis Romero

2 Copyright 2009 by José Luis Romero. All rights reserved. web: phone: Canada & USA: 800 / México: 800 / Please feel free to reproduce, copy, distribute, , post, or link to this Skills2Lead Special Report, provided that you include the name of the author (that s me), the name of the sources (the bibliography), and the web address to download it thanks! 2

3 Table of Contents Introduction Basic Concepts Step One: Create your Vision Step Two: Communicate your Vision Step Three: Align your organization with your Vision - 11 Step Four: Fully realize your Vision Bibliography

4 Introduction I wrote this Special Report with the intention to offer to you busy manager of today s fast-paced world a to-the-point and synthesized version of the specific must do s you ought to accomplish, in order to fully realize the Vision of your organization. There is no new information in this Special Report that you cannot find in other books every written idea has already been written elsewhere (see bibliography). The overall structure of this Special Report and its last chapter (Step Four) were inspired by one of Bud Bilanich books [1]. No matter what of Bilanich s books you read, you will always find that he is a master at grabbing complex concepts and turning them into an incredibly accessible reading to the general public. This Special Report s contribution resides in its succinctness without explanations, examples, or theories to back it up it is written almost as a checklist. In fact, I encourage you to also use it as an assessment tool, to gauge how far you have traveled in your journey, and to assess exactly what it is that you still need to do to fully realize your Vision. It is my wish that this Special Report truly helps you use your Vision as an effective leadership tool in this never ending expedition called change. 4

5 WHAT IS YOUR VISION? Basic concepts It is what you want to become, to achieve, to build It is a dream that inspires your people It doesn t predict your future rather, it is a tool to help you create it It is not a plan either nor is it your organization s Mission Your Vision is a seductive image of an ideal future WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR? It aligns your entire organization o It helps you create a common context for decision-making and efficient activity coordination It promotes change o Your Vision functions as a compass and pulls your organization in the desired direction WHAT DOES YOUR VISION NEED IN ORDER TO REACH ITS FULL POTENTIAL? First, your senior management behavior must be 100 per cent aligned with your Vision o Otherwise, your Vision will backfire and instead you will create uncertainty, skepticism, and mistrust Second, your Vision needs to be widely understood, accepted, and acted upon o For your Vision to be successful, it must be built upon the shared aspirations of your organization s stakeholders your employees, clients, suppliers, stockholders, etc. o When your people clearly see how their individual contributions impact the end result and the bottom line, they feel more motivated to think and behave in ways to help you reach their organization s Vision 5

6 RECIPE? Step One Create your vision There is no one-size fits all type of formula for creating a Vision statement o What works in one organization might not work somewhere else o You must decide what s best for your own particular circumstances However, the following guidelines will help you craft your Vision COMMITMENT TO THE PROCESS Creating a Vision is a process sometimes a long and tedious one o It s definitely not a clear-cut one-time event For this reason, the process requires commitment from top management o Sometimes this process might seem like a real waste of time you will want to go do real work instead o But it must be done without a clear strategic direction, your organization will wander aimlessly WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IS IT? It s the CEO s job to get it done, to communicate it, and to fully realize it o The Vision is not one more task that must be done on top of the already CEO s full agenda o The Vision is a leadership tool that helps the CEO align the entire organization and move it in the desired direction 6

7 TEAMWORK Whether the CEO leads this process or delegates this responsibility to somebody else (with the CEO s direct supervision), John Kotter [2] strongly advises to assign a support team to the person directly in charge of crafting the Vision he suggests to include in this team, people from throughout the organization with these characteristics: o People with enough position power you want key players on board o People with different expertise in terms of discipline, work experience, ethnic backgrounds, etc. you want to draw from different perspectives o People with credibility you want these people to be taken seriously by the rest of your organization o People with proven leadership ability once your Vision is finally shaped, you want your Vision to pull the organization forward, you want execution, you want change Once you get these people together, you want them to work as an effective team o This team must be able to manage conflict productively in order to extract the various and rich viewpoints from team members, and to successfully reach agreed upon conclusions and commitments o This team must be able to create accountability so that the crafted Vision has objective anchors in change agents for future execution 7

8 MANAGERS & LEADERS Your team responsible for crafting the Vision must include both: managers and leaders o Your Vision must be realistic it must take into consideration your capabilities, your limitations, your competitive environment, etc., it requires analytical thinking managers are good at this, they focus on predictability and stability in order to produce short term results o Your Vision also requires dreaming and intuition (intuition is the capacity to make a decision with little information) a Vision is not about extending the past, but rather about creating the future leaders are good at this, they focus on change in order to produce long term results [3] TOP DOWN & BOTTOM UP CYCLE You want your Vision to be both strategic and aligned with your stakeholders aspirations o You don t want your Vision not to be anchored in reality, nor do you want your people to perceive it as irrelevant, abstract, or lofty o For these reasons, you want to start this process at the top of your organization, then work your way down to collect data, and continue this process back to the top, always looking to forge patterns of agreement. Once you come up with your first draft, you might want to repeat this cycle depending on your organization s needs 8

9 CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE VISION Your end product must be a clear and easy to convey picture of an ideal future According to John Kotter [4], an effective Vision must be: o Imaginable it is an image of what the future will look like that people can carry around in their heads o Desirable it is aligned with your organization s stakeholders interests, desires, and needs o Feasible it consists of challenging but attainable goals o Focused it is clear enough to offer direction in decision making o Flexible it is broad enough to permit optional responses in different circumstances o Communicable it is clear and simple, people understand it with no problem at all o Visionary according to Collins and Porras [5], an effective envisioned future requires a certain level of unreasonable confidence and commitment; inventing such a Vision forces executives to be visionary rather than just strategic; these authors go on to say that the Vision should not be a sure bet it should have only a 50% to 70% probability of success but the organization must believe that it can reach it anyway 9

10 Step two Communicate your vision IS IT TOO EASY TO DO? Despite the fact that communicating a Vision is perhaps one of the easiest jobs for the CEO and the top executive team, it is one of the most underachieved CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION PROCESS Repetition o If you haven t gotten sick of listening to yourself again and again, it means that you haven t repeated your Vision enough for your organization to really get it, repetition must be an ongoing process Simplicity o Practice clarity and consistency to stay away from ambiguity and confusion Multiple mediums o Personal, , conferences, meetings, presentations, internal announcements, bulletin boards, etc., people react to information in different ways take advantage of every single one of them Cascading messages o The most effective way to communicate anything is from the direct supervisor in an ongoing basis Be genuine o It doesn t matter how often you have repeated yourself, how many different ways you have used to say the same thing, or how many different communication mediums you have used; if you want your communication to be effective, you must be genuine every single time otherwise your efforts will backfire and you might create uncertainty, skepticisms, and mistrust Listen o You and your people learn much more from two-way communications 10

11 CONGRUENCY Step three align your organization Creating your Vision and communicating it to your entire business won t do any good if your organization is not aligned with it Don t allow blockages to thwart your Vision typical places where you might find misalignments are in. o Your structure do you need to re-design parts of your organization? Middle managers tend to resist structural change listen to them and answer all their questions o Your policies are there any company policies that are not congruent with your Vision? Review practices that were effective in the past, but may be obsolete today o Your workforce skill level are your employees able to execute your new Vision? Provide the necessary development through training, coaching, job rotations, etc. o Your procedures do all of your processes support your Vision? Identify and correct or if necessary wipe out procedures that are misaligned o Your managers are there any bosses who are not on board yet, and are blocking your Vision? Spot them and confront them with an honest dialogue, if they keep resisting the change, replace them o Your systems are all your personnel systems reinforcing your Vision? Hiring, performance management, compensation, selection and promotion, etc., must all be aligned with your Vision rewards & recognition are among the best drivers in culture change ONGOING WORK In the same way that communicating the Vision is an ongoing job, alignment is also an ongoing activity 11

12 FIVE CONDITIONS Step four fully realize your vision To realize your Vision, your organization must meet five conditions (suggested by Bud Bilanich [6]); I have adopted and adapted Bilanich conditions, because they encompass in a very simple and clear way, all you need to do to fully realize your Vision o Does everyone in your organization understand and accept your Vision? Is your Vision completely built upon the shared aspirations of your organization s stakeholders? o Does everyone in your organization know what he or she must do to behave in a way that is 100 per cent aligned with your Vision? Does the performance of all your top management fully support your Vision? o Is everyone in your organization recognized and rewarded for behaving in a way that is coherent with your Vision? Does your organization consistently measure, reward, and recognize performance that is completely aligned with your Vision? o Does everyone in your organization experience negative consequences for behaving in a manner inconsistent with your Vision? Does your organization have a culture that deals with poor performers in an open, candid, and straightforward way? o Is everyone in your organization fully supported without any obstacles whatsoever to perform in a way that is consistent with your Vision? Have you removed all possible obstacles that may prevent your organization from reaching its Vision? (See step three). 12

13 Bibliography [1] Bilanich Bud, Using Values to Turn Vision into Reality (toexcel, Lincoln, NE: 2000) o The elegant simplicity of this book inspired me to write this Special Report. Bud Bilanich is an author who has the rare ability to distill complex concepts into simple and practical ideas that any manager can easily understand and apply immediately [2] Kotter John, Leading Change (Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA: 1996) o This author does an excellent job at explaining the individual characteristics necessary in a team responsible for crafting a Vision [3] Idem. o This source is the best distinctions that I ve seen between management and leadership [4] Idem. o I have yet to see a better explanation of a Vision s attributes [5] Collins James & Porras Jerry, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Harper Business, New York, NY: 1994) o Despite the fact that their definition of Visionary (only 50% to 70% probability of success) might differ from John Kotter s definition of Vision (challenging but feasible), I like their approach because it forces executives to think beyond traditional boundaries [6] Bilanich Bud, idem. o This author created these five conditions with these five conditions, he manages to produce the necessary specifity so that you know exactly what it is you need to do, and the necessary breadth so that you can have an impact on your entire organization 13