Especially when you are not there?
Organizations shift through three phases: Decline, stagnancy, or growth. The speed at which an organization moves is dynamic. Which phase is your organization in? How fast is it growing or declining? Who or what influences your organization to move? What causes your organization to change direction and speed? Are the influences internal or external?
How can you take charge and direct your organization? How can you avoid chaos and bring clarity? Through effective communications. Consider the water cooler chat. In many organizations you hear some version of “The communications around here leave something to be desired” or “I don’t know how they expect me to do that…” In order to communicate effectively, owners and managers need to be clear with themselves on what they want to achieve. Writing goals down is one of the most effective ways to cause action towards their achievement. However, merely writing the goals for an organization is not enough. Simply saying “We want to achieve $1 million in revenues this quarter” may or may not make it happen. You must also ask “How will we achieve those goals?” The clearer that answer, the greater the chance the goals will be attained.
Imagine going on a trip with your organization. Everyone piles into his or her own vehicle and you say, “I don’t know where we are going or how we are going to get there. But, hang on! Here we go!” What do you think the results would be? Certainly chaos now has a chance. Some might travel east, some west, north, or south, taking the polar routes. All hopefully converging… where? Without an objective and a map, would you even know if you were successful? Which is another way of saying how do you know that you aren’t? There must be a roadmap to attain goals. The roadmap must then be shared with those we need to travel with us.
The simplest form of a roadmap for organization is a business plan. A well-written business plan (like a roadmap) answers five equally weighted questions:
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·What are we building? (Where are we going?)
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·Why are we building it? (Why are we going on this trip?)
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·What are the results we will measure? (What are the milestones along the way?)
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·How are we going to build this? (What route do we take?)
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·What’s the work to be done? (What do we have to do to get there?)
A well-written plan:
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Is simple enough that it is easily reviewed frequently. Why have a map if you don’t read it? (Try the simple and formidable One Page Business Plan©)
Is easily revised: It is stable, it is not static. Business (and road) conditions change.
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Has the objectives scored, holding people accountable. It has mile markers.
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Is the basis for clear effective organizational communications. Is simple and communicated to the entire organization appropriately. They are on the road, why not show them the map?
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Creates leadership and management by fact. – No one is surprised about where they are or what is expected of them.
Author and consultant Patrick Lencioni in his book “The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive”, maintains that one of those obsessions is clarity. Further, he indicates that the simpler the communication of the clarity, the less likely you are to create confusion.
Regardless the business, department or project size, there is always room for chaos. Minimization of chaos, can be facilitated by the well written plan.
Bart Gragg – President – Maverick Business Advisors, Inc.
