The serious companies with whom we consult worldwide have all spent time, and usually a lot of money, crafting a “vision-mission-values” statement. There seems to be some confusion about why. Sometimes, it seems, they’ve made one because that’s what everyone else does. Something’s just not “clicking” – or maybe I’m just on another planet with this issue?
Clearly it’s difficult for a large organization to stay focused when people don’t have a shared picture of where they’re going. What are we in business to accomplish? To avoid confusion, let’s call this the “What.” Most mission statements I’ve seen have some clarity around the What: To be the best bank in someplace. To deliver world-class hospitality. To deliver technology solutions supporting key government programs.
Then it seems valuable to at least have an idea of strategy – how we’re going to do that (but in my experience good strategy changes rapidly with changing circumstance). This is the “How.” How sounds like: By maximizing lending through blah blah. By touching the heart. By integrating robust services for rapid deployment. These are interesting, sometimes important, but rarely powerful.
The tragically missing ingredient is the WHY.
I am most often invited to do leadership programs for senior executives or for high potentials (upper level but usually younger managers being groomed for senior leadership positions). Occasionally I get to work with both groups in the same organization, and it’s fascinating to see how these groups each relate to the mission-vision-values statement. Often the senior leaders are excited, they’ve been involved in the creation and it has meaning, significance, to them (though sometimes it’s “just something HR did”). I’ve never seen a group of high potentials likewise touched by these documents.
Some executives, particularly finance types, seem very excited about phrases like “being the best in,” and perhaps that is a big enough WHY for them. Perhaps encoded in that phrase is something deeper than financial gain? But it doesn’t seem to translate to a compelling purpose for middle managers, and it certainly leaves me flat.
One of most powerful human drives is to belong to something worthwhile; so perhaps leadership is about enrolling people in a truly significant purpose. To tap this power, we need two ingredients: significance and belonging.
What constitutes significance? A start is “value above and beyond utility.” Something can have non-utilitarian value because it’s beautiful or impressive or makes us laugh. A great statue, an impressive building, a winning team or a compelling story all have value above and utility. That’s part of the human experience from time immemorial and not a bad touchstone for motivation. Maybe “being the best,” if it really happened, would have significance. I suspect that companies that change their domains, like Apple has done with mobile computing, carry significance because of that groundbreaking experience. But there’s still something deeper: meaning.
If significance is about value, then meaning is about purpose. “Purpose above and beyond utility.” In other words, a real answer to WHY.
I suspect that I’m a bit of an extremist in this regard. For me, “to make money” doesn’t qualify because that’s not above and beyond utility. “To be the best” doesn’t qualify because that’s not a purpose (it’s a recognition of something). “Giving 1% of profits to charity” doesn’t work for me because that’s a byproduct of the organization’s success, not the focus in and of itself. When I seek meaning, I am looking for a profound commitment where the work of the organization is threaded in the very fabric of life.
In itself, this kind of purpose, a “real WHY,” is tough to find. But even more difficult is keeping it real in a growing, dynamic organization. I’ve heard there are some that have done this, but in the hundreds of companies where I’ve worked, and in the many thousands my colleagues and I have touched, I’m hard pressed to think of more than two – and both of those are nonprofits where the WHY is clear, but their HOW isn’t!
In the Six Seconds Model, the “capstone” is a competency we call “Pursue Noble Goals,” which enables you to connect with purpose in your daily life — to put your purpose into action.
Daniel Pink’s video about his new book, DRIVE, provides a fun and clear way of talking about this essential topic:
Three different people told me the same story last week:
I’m too busy keeping my head above water to make progress on my real goals.
On one hand, that’s a practical and realistic way of coping. Look, we’ve all experienced that some days we can barely tread water fast enough… and some days we sink… and on those days it’s “impossible” to put time and energy into the future. How can you invest when you can’t put bread on the table?
All three had practical, legitimate reasons for “treading water,” they were not making weak excuses. There just has not been time.
So that’s the “practical reality.” What about the “emotional reality”? What I noticed in all three conversations was a loss of energy and momentum. There’s an emotional cost to postponing your future, and when you’re calculating the choices of your day and week, this needs to be factored in. I suspect that when you factor in the emotional cost (in the extreme, dying a little more each day), the equation might change?
You’ve likely seen this framework that Stephen Covey offers in First Things First:
Covey points out that we need to avoid QIII and QIV, and shift more time to QII if we want to build the future. Good! Let’s do it!!! How? Well… that’s a problem. It’s a fabulous model, though most of us already know that we need to stop fighting unimportant fires and getting sucked into distractions… but we still do that. We’re choosing to put time in QI, QIII, and QIV, and shortchanging QII. Why?
Because we’re not driven by “what we know.” We’re driven by what we feel.
There’s some set of feelings boiling around this pattern of behavior pushing and pulling us. There are feelings before the choice (to shortchange QII). Then there are feelings the come immediately when we do what we’re doing instead… then there are still more feelings when we end the day saying, “*(@_!_)# another day with no time for QII.”
If I can indulge in a bit of prognostication, I suspect that if your pattern is “do QI &III but miss QII” you’re feeling a mix of stressed, overwhelmed, impatient, excited, and focused (even driven). If you’re getting sucked into QIV then your feelings are likely to be bored, uncertain, distracted, lonely, or lost.
Then, despite the knowledge that QII is the only way out, you still go to another quadrant, and, for the moment it feels good. If you’re QI and QIII focused, you probably get great feedback, maybe overhearing, “He’s so reliable….” “You can count on her….” If you’re escaping into QIII, you get a bit of relief. In any case, there’s a feeling payoff — an emotional benefit. What is yours?
The first, and perhaps most important step, to getting out of the pattern is to recognize the emotional drivers. What’s triggering your pattern, and what payoff are you getting from it? Knowing that is not enough – you need to DO something with those feelings. That’s another article… but I’d love to hear your ideas (post a comment!)
I also noticed that in these conversations, and many others – including many in my own head, there’s a refrain about being busy: “I can’t do this unless I can devote a block of time…” Many a project have lingered on my “to do” list because I told myself I didn’t have the six hours or three days or whatever to complete it. Consider this:
If you had a month you could devote completely to your future, what would you do with that month?
How about if you had one week?
What could you do if you had one day?
How about if you had five minutes?
We all have time, but for most of us it’s fractured — five minutes here, and hour there. While it’s extremely challenging, somehow we have to reclaim those dribs and drabs of time and turn them into a worthy contribution. As usual, I would suggest the challenge lies not so much in the technical achievement of this end, but in the emotional transition we must undertake in order to bring the A game to these momentary matches.
Survive or Thrive
To conclude, here is powerful reminder from Karen McCown, Six Seconds’ Chairman:
If you focus on survival, then your survival is at question; if you focus on thriving, then your survival is assured – and more is possible.
Each week you have but a few discretionary hours to cash in: Will you spend or invest?
In SEI Cert class today, Yoshimi said she really liked what I said about Pursue Noble Goals, so I’ll try to recreate it:
Pursuing a Noble Goal isn’t about taking some “lofty” action in the future. It’s about understanding why we might do such a thing, then putting that “why” in action today in “everyday” interactions.
Our lives are made in small moments that add up.
Pursuing a Noble Goal is about ensuring those moments add up to significance — that they add up to what we mean to create.
Sometimes people hear the word “pursue” as something abstract and outside us – it’s really about putting it in action within us.
In the Six Seconds EQ Model, the “capstone” is a competency we call “Pursue Noble Goals.” Members of the Six Seconds’ team were discussing this last week, and reflecting that especially in “tough times” it’s easy to feel stuck and have a sense that the work you really want to do is occluded by the “stuff you have to do.”When we say “pursue” Noble Goals, that could sound like, “I have to give up the day to day and totally focus on the truly significant.” Nice, but unlikely.
Pursue Noble Goals really means putting purpose into everyday action. If your purpose is supporting equity, how can you build more equity between the people in the elevator today? If your purpose is sustaining a vibrant earth, how can you change what you buy for lunch to be more sustainable? If your purpose is nurturing compassion, how can you think and feel as you wash the dishes so you end that experience more compassionate?
In other words: Consider the alignment between WHAT you are doing each moment, each day — HOW your are doing that, and WHY? Is your intention coming through both in the action and in the way that action is undertaken?
In promoting Satyagraha, nonviolent compassionate activism, Gandhi explained that you can not make peace through anger. Anger and violence make more anger and violence. Real peace only can be made through peaceful means. Sometimes we think the “end justifies the means,” but in this vision, the means IS the end and the end is made of the means. So when we talk about Pursuing Noble Goals, that’s the standard: Live it. It’s not something to work toward in the future, it’s a future to bring into the present. Everywhere, all the time.
Great experience w my kids discovering a way to make a difference – and how that connection to purpose created emotional transformation. Wrote it up on family travel blog…
Recent conversation w a client – major deja vu. How often have I had this same discussion: what they say they do isn’t what’s happening day to day. A beautiful, compelling mission is worthless unless it lives in the the daily interactions of the organization.
It’s incredibly difficult to craft that powerful mission statement, that brief phrase that evokes the substantive and significant meaning of the organization. After years of fiddling around and finally getting the words “just right,” it’s probably pretty annoying to hear that isn’t that important. Don’t get me wrong, the “right” mission statement is incredibly important — it’s just unimportant in comparison with the real challenge: putting the mission in action.
To make a mission live requires “drilling down,” carefully focusing to align intention and action. Think about the basic activities that take place in your organization each day: What does it look, feel, and sound like to do those in accord with your mission?
For example, Six Seconds’ mission is: “Supporting people to make a positive difference, everywhere, all the time.” So how should we answer the phone? How should we respond to our colleagues when we disagree? To live that mission, how should we be defining our organizational roles, setting budgets, or even choosing what paper to buy? How about the culture we need to create — and the feelings that are essential to drive that?
Nan Summers, a friend and member of our network, once told me that when she was at Disney they had a phrase, “Everything Speaks,” meaning each little “tidbit” of the environment and the people there transmits some message… either the one intended or something else. When you drill down, you recognize what & who is speaking, and adjust that to line up with the deeper shared purpose. This requires giving up some level of autonomy — but not so much that you lose authenticity… big challenge! Emotional intelligence is invaluable here because you need to see beyond the tactical.
“Everything speaks” emotionally even more than logically — millions of subtle messages come to prevade an organization and shape a culture and climate that’s infectious. New people come in and adapt — and every interaction, every look, every nuance, ultimately transmits to the customer’s or client’s feelings of trust & loyalty.
Yet most organizations — businesses, government agencies, schools — that I encounter can barely articulate their purpose, and have little bandwidth to spare to consider how that purpose is being undermined or supported. Just imagine how, if leaders made it an absolutely priority to ensure that the mission was alive at every level, these enterprises would rocket forward. Have you ever been part of such a place?
I hear a lot about the need to “brand” myself—to create a clear, crisp, lean message/image of who I am and what I do. I can despair as I attempt this. I feel too quirky, too idiosyncratic to make myself easily understood. My wide range of passions, talents, and attributes don’t fit together in any conventional way. Will I ever be able to create something that resonates in the marketplace?
Lately, I’m comforted with new thoughts. If the world seeks to put us in a box, our own originality will always defy this. Great artists and thinkers can resist the crush toward conformity by either creating work that is easily accessible (bestsellers and blockbusters) or creating work that won’t be appreciated for a very long time. I may not be talented enough to do either type of great work, but at least I know that my eccentricity isn’t the problem.
If we give ourselves the chance to fully blossom, we will develop wonderfully novel personalities. Since we are always under pressure to conform, it may take decades to develop our unique character. But adults who follow their passions and talents will create a singular template that is a gift to the world. I am realizing that my own gifts may only be seen or appreciated by a few (hopefully). But this is important (despite our culture’s worship of fame and acclaim).
As children, we come into the world in a certain time, place, and circumstance. But as soon as we’re planted in our immediate environment (family, neighborhood, school), we begin to have an utterly unique experience of life. Even identical twins see the world through their own solitary lens.
This idea consoles me. We will each, like the drawing above, start out with peers and siblings but life’s events and our particular temperament will twist and bend us. We will develop an utterly novel perspective on life. Can we cherish our originality instead of denying our rare and beautiful gifts? Can we develop ourselves fully instead of trying to be like everyone else?
We just finished the Level 1 Certification here in Dubai with another amazing group. I’m struck – again – by the way this work connects people from all “walks of life,” cultures, religions, and races. We have people in this group from 12 countries that I can name – Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Canada, US, South Africa, Oman, Germany, Portugal, Russia, India… plus a few more!
And here we are in Dubai, one of the new centers of the world, amidst construction cranes (32 out my window), and economic uncertainty, and new hope. Together finding that we each have a compelling purpose waiting us – that when we strip away the differences and uncertainties we are all driven together to make a positive difference… starting here, now! We live with layers of fog that keep us from seeing one another – and in these unique moments we focus our hearts’ attention and find that we are “just people,” and together we are more.
My sister works in a highly competitive, political environment.She calls it the “hall of mirrors” because of the constantly shifting alliances and schemes of her colleagues. Soon after her employment, “Jill” discovered that the charming banter of her co-workers hid stealth campaigns of character assassination and departmental warfare.Despite the risks, Jill dedicated herself toward transparency and integrity.She decided to trust her co-workers. She said it was easier on her than assuming the worst.
Jill’s tender and playful attitude helps others relax and brings out the best in them.Recently she gently obtained support from a famously uncooperative co-worker.“Ralph” even seemed delighted to assist.That’s Jill’s brilliance, she brings out goodness and then people feel good about themselves.I could see this in the supportive culture that has blossomed between Jill and her new friends.They are happily working together, despite the tumult all around.
I thought of Jill’s workplace while reading The Futurist’s lead story about an “ethical” area of the brain.Scientists are exploring if our brains are wired to develop an ethical awareness just as we are wired to develop language. If this is so, then even if moral beliefs (like languages) differ according to culture, we may share a deeper programming toward principled behavior.Are we structured to inwardly desire “goodness?”If we betray our own better selves, do we suffer inwardly?Jill’s warring coworkers do seem stressed and unhappy. Is being “good” part of our intended design?
This week I am fortunate to be in California with 6 Seconds. Friday and Saturday was the Choose to Change conference in San Jose which saw emotional intelligence practitioners gather to share their work, experiences and research. I am a huge fan of technology, but nothing can ever replace the sense of connection when we are sharing the same physical space. The highlight for me of those two days was this sense of support and shared purpose. I found all the talks terribly interesting but listening to Anabel Jensen speak was a real pleasure that will inspire me for a long time to come…..
There is currently a Master Class taking place in Monterey Bay. About twenty 6 Seconds professionals are spending five days learning and teaching around improving our own work and skills, sharing good practice and discussing ways to inject energy and knowhow into the global network of emotional intelligence enthusiasts.
Our collective understanding of human functioning continues to grow and our expertise at transformative teaching with it. One of our challenges is finding ways to make some of the invisible processes and personal changes more visible. This needs to happen to encourage organisations and schools to commit the necessary time, patience and funds into using emotional intelligence to help them develop the types communities, both local and global, that we know we all want, but recognise we can only create collectively. Many discussions this week with 6 Seconds members have been looking really intelligently and imaginatively at the issues around the need for visualisation of our work.
Did you see the little blurb in the Sunday NY Times business section? MBA students from the top 15 schools were asked to select the 3 topo factors they wanted in a job. #1 was ‘challenging job responsibilities”. The second was money – not the first as many think. Work-life balance followed and then came ‘potential to make a contribution to society’. These are MBA students, not teachers or social workers, and although money is important to them they want to contribute.
“Some days all I want to be is a missing person.” – shouted the bumper sticker on the car in front to me. Have I ever felt like the slogan on the bumper sticker; you bet I have. Some days the feelings of being overwhelmed from the stuff life throws at you just makes me want to become a missing person.
Soon after I had that delicious interlude with escaping, the words of the poet David Whyte grabbed my attention, “If you stop thinking about the world, the world stops thinking about you.” I then wanted to blow my horn and get the drivers attention and yell, “The world needs you – don’t run away!”
Soon the light changed and both of us continued on our day’s journey. My mind kept reflecting on the bumper sticker and David’s words. I couldn’t help appreciate the importance of understanding emotions and how powerful they are in determining how we approach life. Feelings of being overwhelmed and scared can kick off a cycle of reactions that could result in running away – literally and figuratively. Or we could use a simple but profound process of validating how we are feeling, exploring the why(s) that helped generate the feeling and begin to assess the consequences of our reaction. Many times, this in itself can soothe that desire to run and help us formulate a response that doesn’t risk the world forgetting about me. The world needs the best of all of us.
Clearly it’s difficult for a large organization to stay focused when people don’t have a shared picture of where they’re going. What are we in business to accomplish? To avoid confusion, let’s call this the “What.” Most mission statements I’ve seen have some clarity around the What: To be the best bank in someplace. To deliver world-class hospitality. To deliver technology solutions supporting key government programs.
What constitutes significance? A start is “value above and beyond utility.” Something can have non-utilitarian value because it’s beautiful or impressive or makes us laugh. A great statue, an impressive building, a winning team or a compelling story all have value above and utility. That’s part of the human experience from time immemorial and not a bad touchstone for motivation. Maybe “being the best,” if it really happened, would have significance. I suspect that companies that change their domains, like Apple has done with mobile computing, carry significance because of that groundbreaking experience. But there’s still something deeper: meaning.
On one hand, that’s a practical and realistic way of coping. Look, we’ve all experienced that some days we can barely tread water fast enough… and some days we sink… and on those days it’s “impossible” to put time and energy into the future. How can you invest when you can’t put bread on the table?
Because we’re not driven by “what we know.” We’re driven by what we feel.
Pursue Noble Goals really means putting purpose into everyday action. If your purpose is supporting equity, how can you build more equity between the people in the elevator today? If your purpose is sustaining a vibrant earth, how can you change what you buy for lunch to be more sustainable? If your purpose is nurturing compassion, how can you think and feel as you wash the dishes so you end that experience more compassionate?
Soon the light changed and both of us continued on our day’s journey. My mind kept reflecting on the bumper sticker and David’s words. I couldn’t help appreciate the importance of understanding emotions and how powerful they are in determining how we approach life. Feelings of being overwhelmed and scared can kick off a cycle of reactions that could result in running away – literally and figuratively. Or we could use a simple but profound process of validating how we are feeling, exploring the why(s) that helped generate the feeling and begin to assess the consequences of our reaction. Many times, this in itself can soothe that desire to run and help us formulate a response that doesn’t risk the world forgetting about me. The world needs the best of all of us.
