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Enron Mail |
I have been thinking about establishing a vision for our organization, centered around our services that are provided in two strategic
areas: Financial Planning & Administration Procurement & Supply Management Please read through this very thoughtfully and provide your insights into the four (4) levels of questions I have listed below. We will spend some time on this at our staff meeting in August working together to develop a VISION for our organization. After you review these questions yourself, please discuss these questions with your employees and your customers and see if that changes your view of your VISION or helps confirm it. Come prepared to this meeting to present to the group what you feel should be our VISION for our department. Going through the process of defining a mission or vision encourages people to clarify both their organizational and individual values. The process has them clarify what is important to them and how what they want can be achieved through achieving the organization's vision. It allows them the opportunity to get in touch with "what's in it for me," as well as what's in it for the company, which brings an individuals' purpose into alignment with the organization's mission. Without a vision - an image of the way we want it to be - many of us tend to focus most of our attention on what's not working. By directing our energy toward correcting what is wrong with the present and focusing only on problems to be solved, we often lose sight of our ultimate objective in the process. In contrast, having a vision inspires us to look at the possibilities of going beyond what is wrong and what, in the past, have been our limitations. It pulls us to look at what is working and where we can go. Focusing on limitations bogs us down. A purpose or an expanded vision empowers us and pulls us towards the possibilities. When we focus on overcoming problems, the purpose becomes to overcome the problems and more appropriate or already-chosen objectives might be hidden from us. ************************************************************************** This was really brought to light when by an individual in Seattle the week before Christmas in 1990. Doug tells the story this way: "The weather was cold and the ground was icy and slippery." Ed and I walked out from a shopping mall one evening to get to our car, and I almost lost my footing on the first step I took outside. "As we walked towards the car, I was being very careful not to fall. Suddenly, I heard Ed's voice calling from far behind me. Ed was standing next to the car. I had walked a whole parking aisle and a half past where the car was parked." "Ed and I both left the store at the same time, with a clear objective - to get to the car. Ed managed to maintain that focus. Within that focus (on a primary objective), he also included a secondary objective of getting to the car safely. Without even being aware of it happening, I had become so focused on walking safely that I had lost touch with the primary objective and walked right past the car." "While doing a very good job of what I was doing, it did not serve in accomplishing the primary objective. If Ed had not gotten my attention, I could have become so good at walking safely that I might still be walking." ************************************************************************** Where might your team (or organization) be falling into the trap of focusing so much attention on overcoming problems that they lose track to their primary objectives? How clearly focused are your teams on their primary objectives? What can you learn from this story that will help your teams stay focused on their objective? ************************************************************************ It seems obvious that people should be clear on what they are doing, just as it seemed obvious that Doug should have been going to his car when he left the shopping mall. Just because we are clear on an objective when we start out to accomplish it doesn't mean that level of clarity stays with us. Often around our office one of us will be working on a project and get stuck. It still amazes us how quickly we can help each other get back on track with a simple question like, "What are you trying to accomplish with what you are doing?" or simply, "What is your objective?" These effective questions (EQ's) quickly refocus our attention from wherever it is back to our objective. **************************************************************************** What might be the value of occasionally asking your team questions like, "How does what you are doing fit into our objective?" or "Describe what we are trying to accomplish." In what areas might your team be doing a good job of "walking safely," yet not getting any closer to its primary objective? **************************************************************************** By focusing on overcoming problems, we tend to be mired in more and more problems. By continually refocusing on an elevating mission, however, we move towards our objective and simply handle problems as needed. By focusing on the forward side of the NeFER (Net Forward Energy Ratio), the creativity, energy, and enthusiasm of our people is both released and focused. **************************************************************************** Years ago we heard a story about three men laying brick at a work site. All three had the same tools, mortar of identical consistency and materials that were alike. Yet, the men somehow appeared different to an observer. Curious, the observer asked the first worker, What are you doing?" "Laying brick," the laborer grumbled. "It's a paycheck even if it is hard work." "What are you doing?" the observer asked the next man. "Well," the second worker replied, "I'm one of the construction people, and we are putting together the east wall of a structure." "What are you doing?" the observer queried the third worker. "I'm helping to build a cathedral," he wiped his brow and spoke excitedly. "And someday right where we are standing the spirits will rise high above us, and people will be meeting to worship and be educated." **************************************************************************** The differences the observer noticed in the men were the variations in attitude. The first worker held a job. The second man had acquiesced to common goals. The third goal had bought in and become aligned with a powerful purpose and vision. By getting in touch with the personal value of an organization's vision, our people see how their individual goals fit in to the organization's goals. In doing so, the individual and organizational goals become aligned. In other words, both individual and organization begin moving in the same direction toward a shared vision. People are empowered when they are clear about how their personal goals are supported by the organizational objectives; when they are in touch with "what's in it for them" for doing what needs to be done. As leaders, we cannot assume people will automatically see "what's in it for them." In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey says, "you can buy a person's hand, but you can't buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm is, his loyalty is. You can buy his back, but you can't buy his brain. That's where his creativity is, his ingenuity, his resourcefulness." If the first two bricklayers had been provided EQs, they may have discovered their own personal value in being part of the project and had a higher level of commitment to it. We cannot predict the personal benefit that any individual will perceive, and what the perceived benefit is, is not important. What is important is that they are in touch with it. USING EQs (Effective Questions) TO DEVELOP PURPOSE AND VISION EQs fit into the concepts of purpose, vision and alignment perfectly. In fact, a structured sequence of EQs has proven to be useful in developing purpose and vision. When this approach is used with a team, natural alignment occurs because the purpose or vision is truly shared. The key is a multileveled approach to questions that gain the individual participation, develops the mission, and gains buy-in from the team members. Here is an example of how this process might proceed: First Level: "What are we doing that is already working well?" "What are we best at?" "What is our organization best known for?" "What are our greatest strengths?" "What is unique about us?" Second Level: "What is causing us to do well in each of these areas?" "What are our people doing best in each of these areas?" "What contributes most to our success?" "What systems and processes particularly help?" "What about these are particularly effective?" The Level One and Level Two questions are focused on what is already working. They put us in touch with the positive aspects of our current situation and, therefore, are highly energizing and empowering. They prepare us for addressing the more creative and feeling aspects of our ultimate vision by opening our minds and hearts. Third Level: "How would you describe the ultimate objective for our organization?" "If you overhear a conversation about our organization one year/two years/three years down the road, what do you want people to be saying about us?" "What would it be like around here if you were really excited about coming to work every day?" "If you could create the ultimate work environment, how would you describe it?" "What would we be doing that would have you excited about being part of it?" The description of the mission or the expanded vision itself comes from the Level Three questions. These questions can be phrased many ways, and each configuration may help a different member of the team gain greater clarity about what they want. Frame them in several different ways to pull out many perspectives. The vision becomes shared through the participation process and through individual discovery of our own piece to the overall vision. In an advertising function, The Prudential Insurance Company has used this theme for years:" Own A Piece Of The Rock." Belonging is important, but ownership of the overall vision is even more important to long-term success. Fourth Level: "If we could achieve this objective - the vision of the way we want it to be - what would be the organizational benefits?" "If we could achieve this, what would it do for our team? For you personally? The purpose of Level Four's questions is to gain buy-in. Buy-in is solidified as people get clear on the personal benefits of contributing to the cause. Once people understand how they will benefit from achieving their shared mission or vision, the available energy is enhanced enormously. The traditional approach would have a manager saying, "This is the new mission, and here is why we are going to move in this direction." At best, this approach generates compliance or acquiescence, but the energy of compliance or acquiescence does not come close to the energy and enthusiasm of ownership. At worst, telling our people our vision generates defensiveness and resistance. It is difficult to match the remarkable dynamics that occur when a critical mass of people in an organization become committed to and aligned with a shared, inspired vision or mission. These dynamics include an exciting level of empowerment of the people, amazing availability of discretionary energy, extensive creativity, and a profound team synergy. We can take the previous line of questioning one step farther to include the following EQs: "What do we need to do more of, better or differently to achieve this objective?" "What could I, as your leader, do more of, better or differently to help you achieve this objective?" "What two or three things can we count on you to do to support this vision?" It is in this step that people take responsibility and ownership for what needs to be done - not because we told them what to do but because they have discovered it for themselves. This step develops the critical action plan. Without specific and appropriate action, the exercise is a lost cause. Notice how these questions align with the Framework for CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT (and Structured Effective Questions). An additional synergy is created when we use the empowering framework and pull the answers from the people through EQs. Shared purpose and vision, and the resultant alignment, must come from the inner heart of an organization - its people. Through the use of EQs, the vision is discussed openly and is put into words, thus forcing internal accountability and commitment for later actions. Alignment through shared purpose or vision continually provides the forward side of a very powerful NeFER. In the book Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge, Warren Bennis and Bert Nanus write, "A vision cannot be established in an organization by edict, or by the exercise of power or coercion...In the end, the leader may be the one who articulates the vision and gives it legitimacy, who expresses the vision in captivating rhetoric that fires the imagination and emotions of followers, who - through the vision - empower others to make decisions that gets things done. But if the organization is to be successful, the image must grow out of the needs to the entire organization and must be 'claimed or owned' by all the important actors." Outstanding organizational performance and deep personal fulfillment work together and reinforce each other. These exciting results can only come through being clear on a purpose, sharing vision and being in alignment. When in alignment, every system and technique becomes a vehicle for infusing the spirit of renewal into the organization rather than simply a mechanism that works only as long as leaders keep pushing or pulling them. More than anything else, alignment through shared purpose and shared vision enables and empowers people and organizations to grow from the inside out. This kind of growth goes far beyond reducing resistance to change; it promotes renewal and builds a tenacious, vibrant spirit within individuals, teams, and organizations. Morris A. Brassfield Enron Transportation Services Senior Director Operations Support Services Three Allen Center 3285 333 Clay Street Houston, Texas 77002 713-646-7006 Business Phone 713-503-1409 Cell Phone
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