All Systems Must Support Humanity – Including Lean

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

The Toyota Production System (TPA, aka ‘Lean’) is perhaps the world’s most powerful management system.

Many people (including the Lean Pathways team & I) have dedicated themselves to learning & practicing its methods & mindsets, and to unlocking its mysteries.

Practiced diligently TPS provides a bountiful harvest. Like all great systems, TPS can be all-encompassing. It can absorb practitioners to such an extent that we can lose sight of the most important things.

Such as why are we practising TPS/Lean? What’s our Purpose?

Strong companies & people define Purpose clearly & simply. They understand that Purpose (often called True North) must be simple, visual and compelling. Something for the head & something for the heart.

And therein lies the challenge. It’s easy to forget about the heart. The Lean system, the methodologies & their interplay, is so engrossing that it absorb all our attention.

All systems, including Lean, must support our humanity – not vice versa!

Sadly, we all know organizations that lose sight of this fundamental idea. There’s a hollowness to them, an emptiness that ultimately limits their achievement.

The history of the 20th century teaches us that supposedly “idealistic” systems can even turn monstrous when disconnected from humanity.

So what’s this mean for the practicing manager and leader? Practice what I call the “Warm Heart Principle”: Easy on the people, hard on the process.

It’s not all about efficiency. It’s about effectiveness, achieving both our head & heart goals.

Don’t want to be misunderstood. I am not saying it’s okay to relax standards. Leaders have to be crispy at times, and being so is not necessarily inhumane. (Quite the opposite, in fact.)

I am saying, keep your heart goal close. Let it inform the management system you are building.

All systems must support humanity.

Best regards,

Pascal




In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

To Learn Corporate Strategy, Study the Military Masters
Reflections on Deploying Improvement Strategies
Hubris and Ethics
TPS and Agile

Success is the Enemy of Future Success

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Strategy Deployment begins with True North -- our strategic and philosophical purpose.

True North entails developing a clear picture of

1. Ideal condition, and

2. Target condition.

At the process level, this means answering questions like:

"Is the process behaving as expected?"

Corollaries: Do I understand my process? Is our hypothesis sound? If not, how do we adjust it?

"Is there creative tension in our management process?

Corollaries: Are problems visible? Are we challenging ourselves or simply resting on our oars? True North works much the same at the broad strategic level.

In my view, its purpose, at each "level of magnification", is to create discomfort, and reflection (hansei) thereby.

Wakefulness, if you will.

Success is the enemy of future success.

What quality do outstanding individuals (and organizations) share?

Relentless self-examination -- after defeat, and more importantly, after success.

As evidence, I'd offer Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus, Garry Kasparov, Pablo Picasso, and all great sports teams...

Regards,

Pascal



In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

There is No Right Answer in Strategy
Content Follows Form or Acting Your Way to New Thinking
Value & Waste at the Imperial Grill
Value in an Age of Endless Innovation

Reflections on True North

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Strategy begins with our strategic & philosophical Purpose, also known as True North.

True North comprises:

1. a "Hard" goal, usually entailing critical end-of-pipe measures, e.g. Revenue, EBIT, fatalities, and,
2. a "Broad-brush" goal (hoshin), a few words defining our purpose, vision, commitment

I encourage leaders to draw a picture of where we want to be, how we’ll get there, and how we will go about our business.

The business chessboard is foggy, multi-dimensional, and unpredictable. Why bother to define a distant, uncertain future?

Because doing so forces us out of the rut of our current thinking. We engage dormant neural pathways thereby, and begin to see the clear blue sky of what's possible.

True North is also the ‘tie-breaker’, to which we turn for guidance at critical moments. “Is this who we are? Is this where we’re going and how’ll we get there?”

True North will tell us. For example, imagine we are a designer & manufacturer of high-end lighting solving challenging technical problems in high-margin niche markets. Our hoshin is Speed Style Invention. Now suppose a major automotive company, say Toyota, approached us and said, “We’d like you to manufacture lighting for our next Lexus model.”

How would we respond? The answer is clear, no? “We’ll have to decline, with great respect, because that’s not what we do, that’s not who we are.”

Our annual plans will be simple & modular one-pagers that express our hypotheses. We’re often wrong, but we adjust quickly. Life never goes according to plan. Clear hypotheses & modular plans enable the rapid PDCA cycles that’ll dispel the fog & get us closer and closer to True North.

Strategy Deployment is messy, humbling, intuitive, a marriage between the Right & Left brain, between intuition & logic, art & science.

I'm reminded of Jack Nicklaus, perhaps the greatest golfer ever, whose swing routine always entailed imagining the perfect shot.

Or of Michelangelo seeing the perfect sculpture in the marble block.

Have a good summer, all,

Pascal



In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

Frontiers - Lean & IT
Getting the Right Things Done in a Digital World
On Big Data
Why Lean Outside the Factory?

What is Courage & How does it relate to True North?

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Let me build on my earlier blog on Lean, Leadership & Ethics

The ancients defined Four Cardinal Virtues:

Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Courage.

Courage -- the capacity to overcome fear -- is perhaps the most admired.

In Getting the Right Things Done, I defined True North, our strategic and philosophical purpose, as follows:

"Something for the head, something for the heart..."

How does courage relate to True North?

Breakthrough -- transcendent, enduring achievement -- requires all the Cardinal Virtues, and courage most of all.

Courage, like True North, entails head and heart. Courage without the head is simply foolhardiness.

Courage means you understand the risks, and do it anyway.

Is courage a virtue under any circumstance? I'd say not. (Is a courageous terrorist admirable?)

Courage is admirable when exercised in the service of others, of a greater good, of True North.

In summary, achieving True North requires all the cardinal virtues and none more than courage.

In fact, all the virtues depend on courage.
Best regards,

Pascal




In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

Lean, Leadership & Ethics, Part 1
The Work of Leaders
Why is Lean So Hard? – Organizational Elements
The Trouble with Corporate Clichés

What is Courage & How does it relate to True North?

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Let me build on my earlier blog on Lean, Leadership & Ethics

The ancients defined Four Cardinal Virtues:

Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Courage.

Courage -- the capacity to overcome fear -- is perhaps the most admired.

In Getting the Right Things Done, I defined True North, our strategic and philosophical purpose, as follows:

"Something for the head, something for the heart..."

How does courage relate to True North?

Breakthrough -- transcendent, enduring achievement -- requires all the Cardinal Virtues, and courage most of all.

Courage, like True North, entails head and heart. Courage without the head is simply foolhardiness.

Courage means you understand the risks, and do it anyway.

Is courage a virtue under any circumstance? I'd say not. (Is a courageous terrorist admirable?)

Courage is admirable when exercised in the service of others, of a greater good, of True North.

In summary, achieving True North requires all the cardinal virtues and none more than courage.

In fact, all the virtues depend on courage.

Best regards,

Pascal

Reflections on True North

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

A New Year, and a new strategic cycle. Strategy begins with our strategic & philosophical Purpose, also known as True North.

True North comprises:

1. a "Hard" goal, usually entailing critical end-of-pipe measures, e.g. Revenue, EBIT, fatalities, and,
2. a "Broad-brush" goal (hoshin), a few words defining our purpose, vision, commitment

I encourage leaders to draw a picture of where we want to be, how we’ll get there, and how we will go about our business.

The business chessboard is foggy, multi-dimensional, and unpredictable. Why bother to define a distant, uncertain future?

Because doing so forces us out of the rut of our current thinking. We engage dormant neural pathways thereby, and begin to see the clear blue sky of what's possible.

True North is also the ‘tie-breaker’, to which we turn for guidance at critical moments. “Is this who we are? Is this where we’re going and how’ll we get there?”

True North will tell us. For example, imagine we are a designer & manufacturer of high-end lighting solving challenging technical problems in high-margin niche markets. Our hoshin is Speed Style Invention. Now suppose a major automotive company, say Toyota, approached us and said, “We’d like you to manufacture lighting for our next Lexus model.”

How would we respond? The answer is clear, no? “We’ll have to decline, with great respect, because that’s not what we do, that’s not who we are.”

Our annual plans will be simple & modular one-pagers that express our hypotheses. We’re often wrong, but we adjust quickly. Life never goes according to plan. Clear hypotheses & modular plans enable the rapid PDCA cycles that’ll dispel the fog & get us closer and closer to True North.

Strategy Deployment is messy, humbling, intuitive, a marriage between the Right & Left brain, between intuition & logic, art & science.

I'm reminded of Jack Nicklaus, perhaps the greatest golfer ever, whose swing routine always entailed imagining the perfect shot.

Or of Michelangelo seeing the perfect sculpture in the marble block.

Have a good year, all,

Pascal

All Systems Must Support Humanity – Including Lean

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

The Toyota Production System (TPA, aka ‘Lean’) is perhaps the world’s most powerful management system.

Many people (including the Lean Pathways team & I) have dedicated themselves to learning & practicing its methods & mindsets, and to unlocking its mysteries.

Practiced diligently TPS provides a bountiful harvest. Like all great systems, TPS can be all-encompassing. It can absorb practitioners to such an extent that we can lose sight of the most important things.

Such as why are we practising TPS/Lean? What’s our Purpose?

Strong companies & people define Purpose clearly & simply. They understand that Purpose (often called True North) must be simple, visual and compelling. Something for the head & something for the heart.

And therein lies the challenge. It’s easy to forget about the heart. The Lean system, the methodologies & their interplay, is so engrossing that it absorb all our attention.

All systems, including Lean, must support our humanity – not vice versa!

Sadly, we all know organizations that lose sight of this fundamental idea. There’s a hollowness to them, an emptiness that ultimately limits their achievement.

The history of the 20th century teaches us that supposedly “idealistic” systems can even turn monstrous when disconnected from humanity.

So what’s this mean for the practicing manager and leader? Practice what I call the “Warm Heart Principle”: Easy on the people, hard on the process.

It’s not all about efficiency. It’s about effectiveness, achieving both our head & heart goals.

Don’t want to be misunderstood. I am not saying it’s okay to relax standards. Leaders have to be crispy at times, and being so is not necessarily inhumane. (Quite the opposite, in fact.)

I am saying, keep your heart goal close. Let it inform the management system you are building.

All systems must support humanity.

Best regards,

Pascal

Reprise: Success is the Enemy of Future Success

By Pascal Dennis

Strategy Deployment begins with True North -- our strategic and philosophical purpose.

True North entails developing a clear picture of

1. Ideal condition, and



2. Target condition.

At the process level, this means answering questions like:

"Is the process behaving as expected?"

Corollaries: Do I understand my process? Is our hypothesis sound? If not, how do we adjust it?

"Is there creative tension in our management process?

Corollaries: Are problems visible? Are we challenging ourselves or simply resting on our oars?

True North works much the same at the broad strategic level.

In my view, its purpose, at each "level of magnification", is to create discomfort, and reflection (hansei) thereby.

Wakefulness, if you will.

Success is the enemy of future success.

What quality do outstanding individuals (and organizations) share?

Relentless self-examination -- after defeat, and more importantly, after success.

As evidence, I'd offer Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus, Garry Kasparov, Pablo Picasso, and all great sports teams...

Regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Success is the Enemy of Future Success - Reprise

By Pascal Dennis

Strategy Deployment begins with True North -- our strategic and philosophical purpose.

True North entails developing a clear picture of

1. Ideal condition, and

2. Target condition.

At the process level, this means answering questions like:

"Is the process behaving as expected?"

Corollaries: Do I understand my process? Is our hypothesis sound? If not, how do we adjust it?

"Is there creative tension in our management process?

Corollaries: Are problems visible? Are we challenging ourselves or simply resting on our oars?

True North works much the same at the broad strategic level.

In my view, its purpose, at each "level of magnification", is to create discomfort, and reflection (hansei) thereby.

Wakefulness, if you will.

Success is the enemy of future success.

What quality do outstanding individuals (and organizations) share?

Relentless self-examination -- after defeat, and more importantly, after success.

As evidence, I'd offer Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus, Garry Kasparov, Pablo Picasso, and all great sports teams...

Regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

What's the Role of the Board of Directors?

By Pascal Dennis

What is the Role of the Board in a Lean Transformation?

I've worked with Boards for some time now. "What's our role?" is their most common question.

Board Policy documents use the word 'governance' – but what’s that mean?"

It's a big deal – role confusion between the Board and senior management can weaken focus & alignment.

Once Purpose becomes fuzzy, we're in a heap of trouble.

In my experience, governance entails answering questions like:

• Has the Leadership team defined Purpose (True North)?
• Does Purpose align with the needs of the community & other stakeholders?
• Has the Leadership team developed a planning & execution system to deliver Purpose?
• Are there clear metrics with which we can assess progress & Leadership performance?
• Is the organization on track to achieve Purpose?
• Does the organization have a sound financial plan to support its activities?

Governance differs, therefore, from management which entails things like:

• Defining Purpose
• Aligning Purpose with the needs of stakeholders
• Developing a planning & execution system, and a plan to deliver Purpose
• Developing clear metrics and tracking progress towards Purpose
• Developing a sound financial plan to support its activities
• Developing a management system that sustains good results

Management must build a good management system and manage within it.

The Board must ensure that they are managing effectively. Gemba walks with Board members are a good way of helping them grow into their essential role.

Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Success is the Enemy of Future Success

By Pascal Dennis

Strategy Deployment begins with True North -- our strategic and philosophical purpose.

True North entails developing a clear picture of

1. Ideal condition, and

2. Target condition.

At the process level, this means answering questions like:

"Is the process behaving as expected?"

Corollaries: Do I understand my process? Is our hypothesis sound? If not, how do we adjust it?

"Is there creative tension in our management process?

Corollaries: Are problems visible? Are we challenging ourselves or simply resting on our oars? True North works much the same at the broad strategic level.

In my view, its purpose, at each "level of magnification", is to create discomfort, and reflection (hansei) thereby.

Wakefulness, if you will.

Success is the enemy of future success.

What quality do outstanding individuals (and organizations) share?

Relentless self-examination -- after defeat, and more importantly, after success.

As evidence, I'd offer Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus, Garry Kasparov, Pablo Picasso, and all great sports teams...

Regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Success is the Enemy of Future Success

By Pascal Dennis

Strategy Deployment begins with True North -- our strategic and philosophical Purpose.

True North entails developing a clear picture of

1. Ideal condition, and

2. Target condition

At the process level, this means answering questions like:

"Is the process behaving as expected?"

Corollaries: Do I understand my process? Is our hypothesis sound? If not, how do we adjust it?

"Is there creative tension in our management process?

Corollaries: Are problems visible? Are we challenging ourselves or simply resting on our oars?

True North works much the same at the broad strategic level.

In my view, its purpose, at each "level of magnification", is to create discomfort, and reflection (hansei) thereby.

Wakefulness, if you will.

Success is the enemy of future success.

What quality do outstanding individuals (and organizations) share?

Relentless self-examination -- after defeat, and more importantly, after success.

As evidence, I'd offer Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus, Garry Kasparov, Pablo Picasso, and all great sports teams...

Regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

What is Courage & How does it relate to True North?

By Pascal Dennis

Let me build on my earlier blog on Lean, Leadership & Ethics

The ancients defined Four Cardinal Virtues:

Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Courage.

Courage -- the capacity to overcome fear -- is perhaps the most admired.

In Getting the Right Things Done, I defined True North, our strategic and philosophical purpose, as follows:

"Something for the head, something for the heart..."

How does courage relate to True North?

Breakthrough -- transcendent, enduring achievement -- requires all the Cardinal Virtues, and courage most of all.

Courage, like True North, entails head and heart. Courage without the head is simply foolhardiness.

Courage means you understand the risks, and do it anyway.

Is courage a virtue under any circumstance? I'd say not. (Is a courageous terrorist admirable?)

Courage is admirable when exercised in the service of others, of a greater good, of True North.

In summary, achieving True North requires all the cardinal virtues and none more than courage.

In fact, all the virtues depend on courage.
Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

True North, Strong & Free

By Pascal Dennis

Difficult week for the Great White North. Two of our finest killed in cold blood by extremist crazies.

Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, a 28 year veteran and tireless advocate of veterans causes, was killed in a targeted hit and run in a Quebec parking lot.

Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a 24-year-old father, and a reservist with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, was shot in the back while standing sentry at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The extremist then ran into the Parliament buildings where he was gunned down by Kevin Vickers, the sergeant-at-arms for the House of Commons and 29-year RCMP veteran.

Patrice Vincent and Nathan Cirillo were buried with full military honours. Their families have been deeply touched by the outpouring of solidarity and support from across Canada.

And we’ve all been touched by the support of our American cousins, who sang our anthem at NHL games in Pittsburgh, San Jose and Boston.

Extremists evidently believe that random acts of brutality destroy morale and breaks a people’s will. This may be true in chaotic places where there is no rule of law, or tradition of stability and good government.

But in a free society such acts rouse the spirit and unite the people. Thousands lined Highway 401, the Highway of Heroes, to salute Cpl Cirillo’s motorcade.

The leaders of all three major parties, normally ornery as polecats, embraced and declared solidarity, then led the House in the singing of our national anthem.

The extremists have poked a polar bear.

A hundred years from now the crazies and their cheerleaders will be forgotten. But there’ll still be an honour guard at the War Memorial.

And people will still be doing yoga and playing Frisbee on the front lawn of Parliament.

Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Reprise - More Reflections on True North

By Pascal Dennis

Is there anything more demoralizing than being cut off from Purpose?

A good way of driving a person mad is forcing them to do purposeless activity over and over.

Strategy Deployment begins with True North, our strategic & philosophical Purpose.

True North comprises:

1. "Hard" goal, usually entailing critical end-of-pipe measures, e.g. Revenue, EBIT, fatalities, and,
2. "Broad-brush" goal, a few words defining our purpose, vision, commitment

We also encourage leadership teams to draw a picture of where they want to be.

Our image will show our hard & broad-brush goals, and how we will go about our business.

But the business chessboard is foggy, multi-dimensional, and unpredictable.

Why bother to define a distant, uncertain future?

Because doing so forces us out of the rut of our current thinking.

We engage dormant neural pathways thereby, and begin to see the "clear blue sky", i.e. what's possible.

Rapid experimentation in accord with the Plan-Do-Check-Adjust cycle dispels the fog.

We get a little better every day.

Strategy Deployment is messy, intuitive, imprecise, a marriage between the Right & Left brain, between intuition & logic, art & science.

I'm reminded of Jack Nicklaus, perhaps the greatest golfer ever, whose swing routine always entailed imagining the perfect shot.

Or of Michelangelo seeing the perfect sculpture in the marble block.

Cheers,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

What's the Role of the Board of Directors?

By Pascal Dennis

I've given a number of talks to Boards, and am often asked: "What's our role?"

Board Policy documents use the word 'governance' -- but what does that mean?"

It's a big deal -- role confusion between the Board and senior management can weaken focus & alignment.

Once Purpose becomes fuzzy, we're in a heap of trouble.

In my experience, governance entails answering questions like:

• Has the Leadership team defined Purpose (True North)?
• Does Purpose align with the needs of the community & other stakeholders?
• Has the Leadership team developed a planning & execution system to deliver Purpose?
• Are there clear metrics with which we can assess progress & Leadership performance?
• Is the organization on track to achieve Purpose?
• Does the organization have a sound financial plan to support its activities?

Governance differs, therefore, from management which entails:

• Defining Purpose
• Aligning Purpose with the needs of stakeholders
• Developing a planning & execution system -- and a plan -- to deliver Purpose
• Developing clear metrics and tracking progress towards Purpose
• Developing a sound financial plan to support its activities
• etc.

Management must manage, the Board must ensure that they are managing effectively.

Trust that makes sense.

Best,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Leaders - do you take time to recharge?

By Al Norval

The new year is in full swing and as Leaders it’s a great time to reflect on the past year. Typically when we talk about reflection, we talk about business results and the processes we used to achieve those results. Good reflection includes questions such as:

Did we reach our goals?
Did we execute our plans?
Was our hypothesis proved right?
What did we learn?

Today, as Leaders I’d like you to reflect on something a little different. I’d like you to think about the example you’re setting for your team. One of the great phrases my friend, Pascal Dennis, says about Leadership goes like this: “What you do, is what you get”. Your people watch your every step and your actions speak louder than your words.

As a Leader what do your actions say about you?

Do you set an inspiring vision for your organization along with the corresponding strategic plans on how to achieve True North? Do you build the capability of your team so your people can drive improvement themselves? Do you live by and uphold the values of your organization?

Or do you rush from one crisis to the next sacrificing long term improvement for short term quick gains? Do you have a healthy diet, sleep and exercise routine that keeps you fit through the challenges you face along the way? Do you take time out to build your own capabilities and strengthen your own leadership skills? Do you take time to re-charge yourself? Putting it bluntly – are you an elite corporate athlete or a couch potato?

“What you do, is what you get”

Now is a good time to reflect on the year that was and put a plan in place for next year.

How can you become a better leader?

Think about it.

Cheers

Leadership is About Language

By Al Norval

This time of year is always a great time to not only set our strategies for the coming year but to reflect on our organization’s True North. I often find that an organization will do a great job of setting their Mother A3’s for the next year but put much less emphasis on their True North. Problem is that without understanding True North, how can an organization know if the strategies in their Mother A3’s will get them there? Reminds me of the old saying “If you don’t know where you’re going, any path will take you there”

What is True North?

It’s your organizations Philosophical and Strategic Objective. It generally represents a timeline of 3 – 5 years into the future.

Now that we have reviewed and refreshed True North, is that all there is to it? Of course not, we need to make True North come to life. We need to use it to inspire a vision of the future that engages people to help the organization achieve True North. To do that leaders need to have dialogue and conversations about True North.

How do you do that in a large organization?

When discussing why people didn’t understand or seem to have any knowledge of True North, I once had a leader say to me “But I sent out our True North in an email”.

Leaders need to talk to people about True North. To do that, leaders need to be very efficient and effective in their communications. A few simple, well spoken words have more power than hours of endless chatter. Leaders need to boil their message down so people can understand it and “Join in”. A clear, concise message using common everyday words that people can understand wins out every time. No Corporate talk, no jargon, no buzzwords.

Leadership is about language. If we want to communicate an inspiring vision about where the organization is going and why it’s important, we need to be conscious of the words we use and the message we send. If we are, we’ll achieve the biggest gain of all, that is engaging the hearts and minds of the people to help us achieve True North.

Cheers

Lean Pathways Problem Solving Kata

By Pascal Dennis

My friend and colleague, Mike Rother, has done us a fine service.

His book, Toyota Kata, shines a light on Toyota-style problem solving, and comprises five questions:

1. What is your current condition?
2. What is the target condition?
3. What are the obstacles?
4. What experiments will you run next?
5. Where can we go see the results?

All fundamentally sound & helpful.

Our Lean Pathways kata goes like this:

1. Do I have a problem?
2. Do I know the cause?
3. Have I confirmed cause & effect?
4. Have I confirmed the countermeasure?

(For a deep dive the interested reader is referred The Remedy)

How do the two katas related?

In fact, they express the same underlying algorithm and thinking, and are synergistic.

Mike's kata is very helpful in getting people started, and getting them necessary problem solving "reps".

Toyota Kata also links problem solving to brain physiology and learning in a very interesting way.

Our kata explicitly links to problem to True North and Strategy Deployment, and highlights important technical aspects, such as:

• Three types of cause -- Point of Cause, Direct and Root Cause
• Nature of experiments to prove cause & effect
• Role of STW, visual management & Jidoka in confirming countermeasures

In summary, as Hemingway once observed, "It's all true..."

Pascal

Reflections on True North

By Pascal Dennis

Strategy Deployment begins with True North, our strategic & philosophical Purpose.

True North comprises:

1. a "Hard" goal, usually entailing critical end-of-pipe measures, e.g. Revenue, EBIT, fatalities, and,
   


2. a "Broad-brush" goal, a few words defining our purpose, vision, commitment
   

We also encourage leadership teams to draw a picture of where they want to be.

Our image will show our hard & broad-brush goals, and how we will go about our business.

But the business chessboard is foggy, multi-dimensional, and unpredictable.

Why bother to define a distant, uncertain future?

Because doing so forces us out of the rut of our current thinking.

We engage dormant neural pathways thereby, and begin to see the "clear blue sky", i.e. what's possible.

Rapid experimentation in accord with the Plan-Do-Check-Adjust cycle dispels the fog.

We get a little better every day.

Strategy Deployment is messy, intuitive, imprecise, a marriage between the Right & Left brain, between intuition & logic, art & science.

Michangelo's unfinished sculpture "Bound Slave"

I'm reminded of Jack Nicklaus, perhaps the greatest golfer ever, whose swing routine always entailed imagining the perfect shot.

Or of Michelangelo seeing the perfect sculpture in the marble block.

Cheers,

Pascal