Stratex Blockers – Where Are We Going?

 Who are we, and what do we believe in? Where are we going, and how will we get there? Such are the core questions of Purpose. How well we answer such questions – as people & organizations – determines clarity of Purpose – or lack thereof. So how do we answer them?

To define your Purpose is to look up toward a better future. Doing so is uplifting in that it pulls you out of your current quagmire and forces you to consider the entire chessboard, design space, or gestalt, if you will. Everything is connected and if you look closely enough, individual parts form meaningful patterns, which often are the key to strategy.

Who are we and what do we believe in?

Answering such questions requires an intuitive understanding of your history, formative experiences, victories & defeats, and their why & wherefore. A useful subordinate question is: Where do we come from? This is difficult for young companies and especially so for startups, which explains why such organizations often have dreadful, abusive cultures. Often the leaders of such companies cannot imagine anything different because there are no signs, no precedents. There is no Dave Hewlett or Bill Packard, no Charles Kimberly or John Clark history to guide them. And no sages to whisper, ‘What would Dave & Bill have done?’

I’ve been lucky enough to work for some years with a fine international Insurance & Wealth Management firm that has a deep connection to its 150-year history – a history of achievement, stability, and community service. The corridors leading the Board room display foundational images, and the portraits of senior leaders beginning with the founder. The message is unmistakable – This is where we come from, who we are and what we believe in. Needless to say, helping answer such questions is an essential element of my practice.

Where are we going and how do we get there?

Here are helpful subordinate questions, courtesy of Roger Martin: ‘Where will we play & how will we win?’ The first part of this entails defining what markets, what offerings, what part the of the value chain and such. The second part entails defining a compelling ‘winning logic’ that everybody from the C-suite to the front line understands and can explain.

The Stick Model of Value is a useful framework for telling your story. Will we win by creating more Value & thereby increasing the customer’s Willing to Pay? Or by continuously reducing our cost by engaging all team members in waste reduction, so that we sell more? Or permutations thereof?

A high-end recreational vehicle supplier I know has defined their winning logic as follows: ‘Speed – Cost – Innovation: 1) We’ll be faster at design & deployment than our low-cost offshore competitors by…, 2) We’ll reduce of cost of labor through Lean/OpEx methods to less than 20% of total cost so that it’s irrelevant, and 3) We’ll have the best Tech & innovation in our industry by…’

Result? On familiarizing himself with the books, the new CFO said to me, “This place is a cash machine.’  The company also has a rich sense of where they come from & a history of decency & fair play. As a result, people stay, get better & better at their work, and contribute. Win-win.

Last thing, can you outsource all this to AI?

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis         E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org