KEYGroup Newsletter EZINE Archives [back to EZINE archive main page] May 2, 2006 What would you do if 20 percent of your employees had their eyes on a better job … with another company? Or maybe with a competitor? Our new eBook, Creating a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Organization: Your Competitive Advantage can help you create the kind of workplace where people are excited about their jobs and enthusiastic about the future of their organization. For more information visit www.keygroupconsulting.com/veoebook.html What Happens When We Assume? We always tend to assume people know more than they actually do, don’t we? That’s a common human failing, I guess, but it can sometimes be dangerous, especially if it’s a failing of leadership. Unfortunately, far too many leaders take it for granted that all of their employees understand the organization’s mission. After all, if our company makes widgets isn’t it only natural for everyone to assume that our mission is just to make as much money as possible by making widgets? Maybe. In reality, the view from the boardroom can be drastically different than the view from the assembly line. So can our perceptions of the company’s mission. Yet we assume that everyone sees things the same way, and we all know what happens when we assume! Operating in the Dark How often is there a disconnect between the organization’s mission and employee perceptions? Unfortunately, more often than you think. Our recent employee survey, which was conducted by MMC Marketing Research and Consulting, asked 1,727 professional men and women about how clearly they understood their goals and how those fit into the organization’s mission. The results were troubling. When we asked employees about upper management in their organizations, the majority of employees (53%) either agreed or was neutral that their management is disconnected from daily business activity. This is a major concern. If upper management doesn’t understand the day-today realities of their employees how can they convey a clear view of the organization’s mission? A vision statement that is out of step with employee needs and problems is most likely useless. One of our early clients, for example, promoted a company vision that stressed customer service. However, when we looked into it we found that whenever their employees tried to resolve customer problems they were denied access to vital information and lacked authority to make decisions. Talk about mission impossible! To learn more about our employee survey, visit www.keygroupconsulting.com/articles/10positivebehaviors.htm. Why a Mission is Not a Vision On another dimension of our survey we asked employees about whether they were given clearly defined goals. Fully 47% indicated that they did not have clear job goals. This is another indicator that employees lack a sense of the big picture for their company. After all, if they don’t see where the company is going, and how their job fit into the big picture, how can employees have clearly defined goals? Worse, how can they achieve job satisfaction and be enthusiastic about their work? And even where organizations do have vision or mission statements there can still be confusion. One problem is that managers and employees often misunderstand the difference between vision and mission statements. The dictionary definition of mission is “a specific task with which a person or a group is charged.” The term has it’s roots in WWII when bomber pilots were given mission briefings. Within that environment the pilot’s mission statement would be “bomb the ball-bearing plant.” Simple, direct and clear. Vision statements are somewhat more complex. There is no definition for a vision statement in the dictionary, but the definition I prefer is that a vision statement is a picture of the future that we wish to create. Seeing Into the Future Unless everyone in the organization sees the “big picture,” how can we ensure the future success of our organization? For Joe Smith, the lead assembler on the plant’s widget production, the “big picture” may be simply making sure he has adequate raw materials, that the tools and machinery are running smoothly and that rejects and rework are kept to a minimum. However, up in the boardroom, CEO Betty Jones and her senior management team are focused on bigger issues, like the shrinking widget market, the rise of cheap imported widgets and the increasing complexity of government regulations. To Joe, the future is clear . . . if we just keep making widgets the way we always have the company will be OK. To Betty, the future is equally clear . . . if we don’t change everything about the way we make widgets, and soon, the company is doomed! Clearly these are two “widgeteers” with very different views of the company’s mission and future! So, our view of an organization’s mission may depend heavily on our individual viewpoints and experiences. That’s why it can be so hard to get everyone “on the same page” when it comes to seeing corporate vision. Unless, of course, there is a crisis looming. Mission Impossible Back in 1997, when Louis V. Gerstner was appointed chairman of IBM he was asked what his vision for IBM would be. He was widely and loudly criticized when he answered “The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision.” How could a company like IBM not have a vision? Didn’t Gerstner know the first thing about leadership, they asked? But Gerstner knew something that the reporters didn’t . . . that IBM only had 100 days worth of cash left. After that, technological giant IBM -- the bluest blue chip on the stock market -- was finished. Gerstner and his people had only one vision for the future and a single mission: survival! That was a painful time for IBM, a company that had never before laid off employees for economic conditions. But they survived and today IBM is thriving. Today they have a new vision, needless to say. Mission Mis-Statements How would you like to work for an organization whose mission statement is to: “Collaboratively provide access to long-term, high-impact infrastructures.” If these statements sound like nonsense sentences . . . they are. But don’t they also sound like the mission statements that some organizations post on plaques around the office? Scott Adams, author of the wonderfully satiric comic “Dilbert” is actually responsible for the two mission “mis-statements” above. His website features a fun game called the “Random Mission Statement Generator,” which allows visitors to create numerous phony mission statements with the press of a button. The Mission Statement Generator simply combines buzzword-like adverbs, verbs, adjectives and nouns into impressive-sounding, but meaningless, mission statements. The generator may come in handy if your boss tells you to write up a mission statement and have it on his desk in the morning. Check it out at http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/games/index.html. In the real world, though, you can’t fool employees with phony mission statements. The true value of a mission statement isn’t found in the specific words that are used but in the intent behind the words. After the collapse of the energy giant Enron in 2003, copies of the company’s mission statement became hot sellers on eBay. Why? Because the scandal-plagued organization’s mission statement trumpeted four key values: respect, integrity, communication and excellence. This would be laughable if there weren’t so much pain and so many people hurt by Enron’s failure! VEOs Communicate the Big Picture Those organizations that are best positioned to thrive in today’s competitive business climate are what I call Vibrant Entrepreneurial Organizations. Two of the strongest characteristics that I find common to VEOs relate to sharing the big picture with employees. A Vibrant Entrepreneurial Organization:
Unless your people have a firm grasp of the big picture how can they develop the entrepreneurial mindset necessary to take risks that advance organizational goals? Further, by elevating communication to an art form you secure the necessary “buy in” and sense of ownership that employees need to go the extra mile to get the job done right! These are just two of five characteristics of an organization that is resilient, innovative, decisive and nimble. Again . . . the type of organization that flourishes during times of great stress and uncertainty. To learn more about how to transform your organization into a VEO, visit www.keygroupconsulting.com/growingyourveo.htm All contents copyright 2005 by KEYGroup® Contents may not be reproduced without permission.
To learn more about how you can create a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Organization contact KEYGroup® at 724-942-7900 or visitour websites www.keygroupconsulting.com and www.joannesujansky.com.
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