Status Updates From Vivid Vision: A Remarkable ...

Thank you Caden for letting me borrow this book.

and the last bit is on applying this to your personal life. Not wrong, just not what I'm here for.

VV in the hiring process: scare away inappropriate hires that aren't a good fit.

And if you lose people, that's really okay. Hire new, don't spend 2 years trying to convert the old.

Without VV, your customers have to rely on their own imaginations as to what your company will look like in 3 years, which doesn't help you.

(External roll-out -- partner business can scale themselves in response, or at least get excited or even just a better understanding of you, respond accordingly -- better than without.)

Even if the Vision doesn't come true in 3 years, might not have failed. How aligned is the team? Engaged? Clearer on duties? More engagement still boosts growth.

"Can You Imagine?" wall supplements vision. Inspirational image of what the company's future could look like from the little people (not his words). Cross off as completed. (Do want real goals -- our company on the side of a Starbucks cup, our company studied by Harvard Biz.)

Buy in... if we can make THAT happen, we can get the BHAG.

But the Vivid Vision is the singular vision of the org's top official.

Setback: reverse engineering to work on the foundation isn't sexy.

Another: you come back from your retreat and it's back to everyday business. Discouraged. Why you should pull out the doc regularly and read it. And again, manageable pieces leading up to the big goal.

What are you doing?
Making bricks.
Making bricks for this wall.
Making bricks to build a wall in a glorious cathedral for worshiping god.

Vision isn't your business plan, just your destination.

The vision is set in stone. "The only time it should ever change is there is literally a massive and unexpected industry transformation or if your company is going through a 90-degree pivot."

Like a ship crossing the ocean, you might have to zig-zag to dodge some icebergs, but you keep moving the same direction.

Vision will attract AND repel. Should draw people in, some people repelled (though hopefully not too many).

If everyone LIKES it, no one will love it. If this is the case, you have failed.

Break it out every quarter. It's a marathon!

In Word, highlight green any sentences that have come true since last quarter. Highlight yellow any sentences currently working on.

Break down each sentence: what chronology, what actions necessary to make happen. Shapes your quarter.

Everyone on same page and in alignment, keep focus.

"One malcontent employee can start a mutiny, rallying others against the company. If this happens, everything suddenly starts going sideways."

Everyone (internal) gets copy. Popcorn read aloud. Monitor faces, reactions, looking for who isn't looking invested or excited. (Might have to boot them -- wow.) Get them to circle the most resonant parts to each of them. NOT a forum for debate or discussion. Later, discuss HOW, execution details.

Internal roll-out at least a quarter before external. (external roll-outs, too eh?)

Make no small plans... want jaws dropping, butterflies fluttering, "you're nuts" reactions.

Remind people that Year 3 goal requires going through Years 1 and 2 first. Grounds the plan, they won't think you're nuts as much.

"All too often companies ask, 'How big can we grow?' instead of 'How big do we want to get?' which would naturally lead to the next question, 'How do we get there?'"

Rather than aiming to double, they just look at the forecasted data and use that as a benchmark.

BHAG: Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (Jim Collins, Good to Great)

Putting a man on the moon. A computer on every desktop. A performance, luxury electric car.

Vivid Vision articulates the BHAG. Might have to imagine tools, tech not available yet, or envision what society will look like in three years.

Don't worry about HOW, just that it WILL happen. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Another metaphor:

Family is road-tripping to LA. Mom and Dad fall asleep. The teens can take the wheel and while they may not know the route, they know they need to keep driving west. They can make that decision without waking parents to ask, "Is it okay to keep driving west?"

"The point of this story is, when you know where you're going, you can make decisions and apply them."

"One goal as...leader is to develop leaders within the org. The more work you can responsibly delegate, the more you can focus on bigger issues. One hallmark of a good company is the ability to promote from within, which leads to a culture of trust, dedication, and willingness."

(That coin does run out, though....)

"When an employee understands that their actions over the next three years will have an impact, by making even just one of the aims written into the Vivid Vision come to fruition, that person is motivated to make that happen."

But wait, there's more---

Employees want the company to be a success.

"If, as the leader..., you're not providing your team with the same insight into your vision for the company (so they can help you get the company there!), you're holding them back.

YOU are the problem, not them."

On misalignment: house-building metaphor.

"I want 6k sq ft with a nice porch and lovely landscaping."

With just those instructions, the crew might be building some MCM, some Victorian, some working in Tudor, and some in Cape Code.

"I want...[5-page description of wainscoting, the porch layout, the colors, the kinds of trees, etc]."

Now you're on the path to achieving that.

"...your vision for your business" "... might be crystal clear to you ... but everyone else is blind and deaf when it comes to the stuff in your head. And a sentence or paragraph is not going to make them see the light or hear the music."

(After referring to the exercise of building a vision statement, cobbled together from adjectives the team pitches. Been there!)