Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year! Happy New Organization!

As 2008 ends and we look forward to a new year, many of us will be making personal resolutions for 2009. No doubt they will be challenging, life transforming resolutions. They will likely affect all, or most areas of our lives - physical (our health, wellness, weight, fitness), financial (our wealth, income generation, new purchases and investments), emotional (our relationships), mental (going back to school, embarking on a new area of study, deepening our knowledge) and spiritual (commitment to spiritual discipline, deepening our connection with a higher power, serving our community). They will be motivating and inspiring, causing us to stretch, even leap out into the unknown, the hitherto unimagined for our lives. We will feel good about our resolutions, knowing that if we achieve them, we will have manifested significant personal transformation.

Many of our organizations will have just completed, or be about to complete, their annual planning exercises. I wonder – have we approached our organizations' goal-setting the same way we approach the setting of our own personal resolutions? Have we set challenging, motivating and transformational goals? Have we set goals in areas other than financial? Have we set goals for the wellness of our organization, the wellness and health of our people, the wholesomeness of the workplace? For the types of relationships we desire at work? For the way our organization commits to serving its community? For the way we as an organization learn, and how we support our team members in their own learning?

As we set our personal resolutions, it is also opportunity to set some resolutions for your organization. Look at your organization in the same way you do your life. Do not be confined or defined by the past. “History is no predictor of the future”. Decide what type of organization you desire, and then set the necessary resolutions, or goals. As you would with your life - decide what type of life you desire, and set your resolutions accordingly. Don’t worry today over whether you can or can’t achieve your personal and organizational desires. Today, it is enough to set them and believe in them.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Vision - the reality

A key underpinning of the Growth Facilitators approach to transformation is vision. To us, everything begins with a vision. Yet, we sometimes observe a disconnect with our clients and potential clients whenever we passionately advocate the development and articulation of the organization’s vision. Visioning is often viewed as one of those "soft issues", a new-fangled idea that has no impact on the hard, bottom-line. People are impatient to get to the real issues of action and numbers. Yet, throughout history, we note the importance of vision:

"Without vision the people perish" – The Holy Bible
"Give us vision lest we perish" – The Jamaican National Anthem
"Begin with the end in mind" – Steven Covey

If we look at the great leaders of history, the great success stories of political, economic and social transformation, we will see that the creation of a compelling vision of the future was paramount. But great leaders did not just articulate the vision and keep it to themselves, they spoke about it at every possible occasion, they aligned their actions with it and they lived (and some died for) it. It is this passion and commitment that multiplied their followership in numbers, passion, commitment and action, until it seemed like the vision took on a life of its’ own.

Why is vision important? A compelling vision of the future provides people with hope of a different way of being. It takes the followers out of their present into the possibility of a different future. It provides a guiding light and focus in which to make decisions. It provides focus for making choices, establishing priorities and allocating resources. The vision is inherently creative – it says to followers that we have the power to create a different reality! It gives people a reason to get up and get going.

What happens if a compelling vision is absent? Then people simply do what they want, or worse, do what they have always done, resulting in the organization staying the same, or deteriorating. There is no focus in such a situation, no harnessing of the powerful energy of the team. The organization becomes a wayward blob, floating this way and that, drawn or pushed along by events and circumstance, into deterioration and ultimate demise. This is the state of many of our organizations. It is the state of many individuals. It is perhaps the state of our nation.

The first job of the leader, CEO, Chairman, President or whatever the title, is to articulate and keep the vision foremost and forefront. The vision must become his/her mantra. If the leader says anything, it ought to be in the context and with reference to the vision. It is the leader’s responsibility to bring and keep the vision alive. Even and especially in challenging times as we are now facing, the vision must be kept active and dynamic. This is what will raise team members’ eyes from their current reality to see that there is more to life, more to the organization, more to themselves than just what now appears to exist.

As a leader, if you do nothing else today – articulate the vision of your organization, division or department and share it with all – over and over. Most importantly, believe in it yourself, and make sure that every decision you make, every action you take is in alignment with it. There is no reality except the reality you create. The vision is the reality.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Love at Work

Growth Facilitators practices as one of its core values, love. Some people have a problem with the word 'love', and moreso, love as a core value.

Love originated in the heart of the one true God who put us in the world to love and steward his creation as an extension of His beauty. He put us together with other diverse humans in order that we might learn to love one another as a reflection of the relationship He shares with us.

At Growth Facilitators, love is what binds us. It is integral to who we are, what we do, and how we communicate. It drives our behaviour at work, at home and even while in traffic.

This love that we share was magnified two weeks ago while at school (I am pursuing an MBA). On this day (Friday), after having class the Friday before that, I noticed that approximately 40% of the class was absent from our Operations Management class. Through concern, I enquired why some of my schoolmates are absent and the most prevalent response was, "He/she came to class last Friday and couldn't get this Friday off from work". I was initially amazed at this response, and then realized that my amazement was driven by the fact that the love we share at work, transcends work itself, and touches each one of us on a deeper level. Because of this unconditional and uninhibited love (and respect, which is another core value) we have for each other, it is almost puzzling to us that someone would miss their class because they missed a day of work the previous week. We nevertheless remain non-judgmental and accept that the work must be done.

At GF, we view love as a state of being - a genuine and authentic state which is the most inspired of all gifts. Coming to work excites us, and we love and value each other to the core.