Vision Driven: Lessons Learned from the Small Business C-Suite. Mallary JD Tytel
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a reflective as well as informative activity for consideration. Sometimes in the most complex environments things are often less complicated than they seem. That is where common sense and clear thinking are more important than lots of models and theories.
The book is divided into three parts.
Part One is The Vision.
Anyone who steps into a leadership role or stands at the helm of an organization, particularly when there has been a long and rich history before you appeared on the scene, understands that you are essentially taking on three distinct entities. The first is the organization of today: doing business as usual, maintaining customers, contracts, obligations, commitments and quality.
The second is the organization of tomorrow: that which will emerge based on your vision, goals, efforts and ideas. That organization will successfully meet the challenges and opportunities of the shifting business landscape. It is what you aspire to. Finally, the third is the organization that is in transition, moving from the here and now into the future. This encompasses change, growth, development and integrity of mission and commitment to your constituents and stakeholders. Oh, yes, and resistance, too.
Your Vision is the basis of all that you do. It creates a foundation, sets the stage and informs others about who you are and the purpose and meaning that you bring to and share with your organization. Jonathan Swift said, “Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.” This is at one and the same time a mystery and it is crystal clear. It is what you carry around with you wherever you are, whatever you do, what you see fixed on the horizon.
Part Two is Lessons Learned.
The day-to-day management and operations of the organization provide a dynamic canvas whereby the common trials and triumphs of the workplace and its members can be viewed and assessed. From the daily course of doing business, we can take the expected, unexpected, intended and unintended consequences of our actions and create a body of knowledge known as “lessons learned.”
Perhaps more familiar in government and military environments, the notion of lessons learned speaks to that knowledge that comes from the implementation and evaluation of a program, project or process. This knowledge is gained empirically rather than by expertise. It identifies and highlights the incremental, innovative and measurable improvements for the organization. Taking advantage of lessons learned supports the replication of successful outcomes while eliminating unsuccessful outcomes.
In selecting the accounts for Part Two, I concentrated on significance, relevance, the relationships involved and the connection of the circumstances to the whole system. Lessons learned are not only a critical piece of an organizational culture that is committed to change. The true value and eventual payoff come in transforming lessons learned into lessons applied.
Part Three is The Big Picture.
When I was a girl in school we would hear much about our “permanent records.” Nerdy kids like me acted with great care and concern because we knew that any mishap or misstep would be placed in our permanent records – forever a blot upon our fair names and fine characters. It was only with time, experience and a bit of wisdom that I recognized that the random misadventures of children did not speak to the sum total of who and what we are. The whole of each of us and all that we do are greater than the sum of our parts. We can choose to fixate on each wrinkle that presents itself or open our mind’s eye to the abundant and broad cloth of experience and wonder that make up the entirety of our world.
So, too, it is in our work. We each stand within our own landscapes. It is through an awareness, examination and analysis of the panorama of behaviors, trends and patterns around us that we can clearly view our organizations, their activities and processes. It is a shift within our heads.
The big picture may represent a particular circumstance or issue or the entire enterprise; it may also include the individual, the organization or the entire community. More importantly, it allows us to see ourselves from a systemic stance, in relation to others and our environment. Context matters and this is where we move from our feet planted firmly on the ground to a vantage point of 25,000 feet in the air.
By the way, I think all of our permanent records are now available on the Internet.
Finally, if we really think about it, we recognize that everywhere we turn we are amidst complex systems. These systems, such as corporations, communities, families, Girl Scout troops and alumni associations, have characteristics that influence the whole and whose parts are connected and interdependent. Since our systems are open, they are subject to outside influences such as time, space, market crises, political world events and Mother Nature. As such, the system and those who are part of it – us! – must in our own individual and collective ways respond to our environments.
To say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts is only the beginning of understanding. For example, a new work group comes together on a special project. There are introductions, shaking hands and getting-to-know-you conversations. These are soon replaced with agendas, schedules and brainstorms. Order evolves, as does a plan, assignments and project timeline. Through organization of processes and procedures – however that happens – tasks are accomplished, deadlines are met, deliverables are completed and a new product is launched. Successful outcomes all around and yet beyond the individual and the whole is the greater whole: interdependencies are identified and influenced; alliances are developed; bonds are created; relationships are recognized and appreciated; new patterns are formed. From all of this motion and commotion, something fresh and sound, vibrant and important, has emerged.
When we stand in this new and different space, with a broader point of view, we can begin to grasp all that is in front of us. Our means are interpretation, implication and then application. That is when we can understand the influence of the environment and those around us; set and guide the behavior of others; and know what is important. By identifying the patterns that make up our world, we can influence and inform the paths to innovation, collaboration and participation.
And we can lead.
PART I - The Vision
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
1
Understanding Your Organization
“Understand the culture to understand the organization.”
Edgar Schein
We all live and work in a complex world made up of complex systems. Everyday we and those around us choose to act in certain ways, and our behavior creates recognizable patterns. These patterns – emerging from the actions, connections and relationships that have meaning across space and time – create culture.
In defining culture, we say that it is the personality of a community, organization or group. It is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and artifacts of its members and their behaviors. At times culture may be difficult to express, but everyone knows it when they see it and sense it. You can tell the culture of an organization by looking at how the furniture is arranged, what folks brag about, how people are dressed and the rituals that are maintained.
Culture is learned and it provides a reinforcing template shaping what we do and how we think. With this in mind, we have a responsibility to examine and question these templates, keeping an eye out for three potential traps. These are: “isms,” Social Construction and Cultural Programming. All can color our assumptions and alter our perceptions.
We look around and see isms wherever we go. They are doctrine, ideology or theories that categorize individuals