The best year ever
We recently conducted a poll on this blog, the results of which are below:
What's your outlook for your business for 2009?
Best year ever - 53%
Similar to 2008 - 15%
Somewhat worse than 2008 - 23%
Catastrophic - 7%
As the eternal optimists, we at Growth Facilitators are happy to see that over 50% of those who responded agreed with the GF team that 2009 will be the best year ever for their organization. I wondered about this level of optimism - is it blind faith and hope, denial of reality, ostrich head in the sand type of thinking that simply deludes us into believing this? Or is there something more at work here that is giving us this hopeful energy?
I received an insight last night in an e-mail from a treasured client (and all our clients are treasured and loved by Growth Facilitators). In her e-mail my client was updating me on the steps they have taken over the past two months to deal with the economic crisis. They have reorganized, released some people, cut unnecessary expenses. In short, they have taken the steps to streamline their business that they know they should have taken, but were able to delay and procrastinate about, the "good times" being a great mask for taking action. When business is thriving and revenues are growing, it's so easy to say "tomorrow". What the current crisis is forcing us to say is "NOW"!
What I observe from my client’s e-mail is that taking the action was a lot easier than they thought it would be, and has proceeded relatively smoothly, with results far sooner than they expected. Also with some unexpected results - my client noted that "The conversation at meetings has really become more productive" and "Interestingly we've never had such a smooth running Christmas before". No wonder she started her e-mail with "It will be a wonderful New Year".
And that’s the real truth of the matter - whatever we declare 2009 to be, it will be. If we declare that 2009 will be the best year ever for our organizations, we will take decisions and actions that are in line with this. If we believe that 2009 will be catastrophic for our organizationa, we will take decisions are actions that are in line with this.
In Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2, Shakespeare wrote:
Hamlet: What have you, my good friends, deserv'd at the hands of Fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?
Guildenstern: Prison, my lord?
Hamlet: Denmark's a prison.
Rosencrantz: Then is the world one.
Hamlet: A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o' th' worst.
Rosencrantz: We think not so, my lord.
Hamlet: Why then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
We can decide right now what 2009 will be - and what it will be has nothing to do with the external environment, and everything to with the "thinking that makes it so".
Showing posts with label organizational transformation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organizational transformation. Show all posts
Saturday, January 10, 2009
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.
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.
"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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
