RSS Feed
By M. Isi Eromosele
Companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a
core purpose that remain fixed while their business strategies and practices
endlessly adapt to a changing world. This ability to manage continuity and
change, requiring a consciously practiced discipline is closely linked to the
ability to develop a vision.
A well-conceived vision consists of two major components: core
ideology and envisioned future. Core ideology defines what an organization
stands for and why they exist. This is unchanging and complements the
envisioned future. The envisioned future is what the organization aspire to
become, to achieve, to create something that will require significant change
and progress to attain.
Core Ideology
Core ideology defines the enduring character of an
organization, a consistent identity that transcends product or market life
cycles, technological breakthroughs, management fads, and individual leaders. In
fact, the most lasting and significant contribution of those who build
visionary companies is the core ideology.
Core ideology provides the glue that holds an organization
together as it grows, decentralizes, diversifies, expands globally, and
develops workplace diversity.
Any effective vision must embody the core ideology of the
organization, which in turn consists of two distinct parts: core values,
a system of guiding principles and tenets; and core purpose, the
organization’s most fundamental reason for existence.
Core values are the essential and enduring tenets of an
organization. A small set of timeless guiding principles, core values require no external
justification; they have intrinsic value and importance to those inside the
organization.
To identify the core values of your own organization, push
with relentless honesty to define what values are truly central. If you
articulate more than five or six, chances are that you are confusing core values
(which do not change) with operating practices, business strategies, or
cultural norms (which should be open to change).
Even global organizations composed of people from widely
diverse cultures can identify a set of shared core values. The secret is to
work from the individual to the organization.
Core Purpose
Core purpose, the second part of core ideology, is the
organization’s reason for being. An effective purpose reflects people’s idealistic
motivations for doing the company’s work. It doesn't just describe the
organization’s output or target customers; it captures the soul of the
organization.
Purpose (which should last at least 50 years) should not be
confused with specific goals or business strategies (which should change many
times in 50 years). Whereas you might achieve a goal or complete a strategy, you
cannot fulfill a purpose; it is like a guiding star on the horizon, forever
pursued but never reached.
Yet although purpose itself does not change, it does inspire
change. The very fact that purpose can never be fully realized means that an
organization can never stop stimulating change and progress.
Envisioned Future
The second primary component of the vision framework is
envisioned future. It consists of two parts: a 10-to-30-year audacious goal
plus vivid descriptions of what it will be like to achieve the goal.
Visionary companies should use bold missions as a powerful
way to stimulate progress. All companies have goals. But there is a difference
between merely having a goal and becoming committed to a huge, daunting
challenge.
An Ultimate Goal is clear and compelling, serves as a
unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a catalyst for team spirit. It has
a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal;
people like to aim for finish lines. An Ultimate Goal engages people; it
reaches out and grabs them. It is tangible, energizing, highly focused. People
get it right away; it takes little or no explanation.
A vision requires a special type of Ultimate Goal, a vision-level
goal that applies to the entire organization and requires many years of effort
to complete. Setting the Ultimate Goal that far into the future requires
thinking beyond the current capabilities of the organization and the current
environment. Indeed, inventing such a goal forces an executive team to be
visionary, rather than just strategic or tactical.
An Ultimate Goal should not be a sure bet; it will have
perhaps only a 50 percent to 70 percent probability of success, but the
organization must believe that it can reach the goal anyway. An Ultimate Goal
should require extraordinary effort and perhaps a little luck.
An envisioned future needs what we call vivid description, that
is, a vibrant, engaging and specific description of what it will be like to achieve
the Ultimate Goal. Think of it as translating the vision from words into
pictures, of creating an image that people can carry around in their heads. It
is a question of painting a picture with your words.
Don’t confuse core ideology and envisioned future. Core
purpose, not some specific goal, is the reason why the organization exists. An
Ultimate Goal is a clearly articulated goal. Core purpose can never be completed, whereas the
Ultimate Goal is reachable after a set number of years.
Identifying core ideology is a discovery process, but setting
the envisioned future is a creative process. To create an effective envisioned future
requires a certain level of unreasonable confidence and commitment. Keep in
mind that an Ultimate Goal is not just a goal; it is a big, audacious goal.
The basic dynamic of visionary companies is to preserve the core
and stimulate progress. It is vision that provides the context.
Creating alignment may be your most important work. But the
first step will always be to recast your vision or mission into an effective
context for building a visionary company. If you do this right, you wouldn’t
have to do it again for many years.
M. Isi Eromosele is
the President | Chief Executive Officer | Executive Creative Director of Oseme
Group - Oseme Creative | Oseme Consulting | Oseme Finance
Copyright Control ©
2012 Oseme Group
0 comments:
Post a Comment