One key reason I write daily is to share learnings, both those from my three-plus decades in business leadership, as well as learnings from others I am voracious about learning from along the journey. Today am sharing thoughts on what it takes to deliver upon a transformative vision and how that requires a different approach to a more conventional plan for growth. I hope you find value in this, and know you can book a video call with me at any time through the link on my site, I’m always here to listen and then seek to add value to you and your business or organisation.
This particular blog is spurred by connecting the dots (as so often is the case!). Over the last week or two, I have had in-depth conversations with people ranging from a charitable/community organisation leader, to the owner of a well-established business with revenues of a few million, to a business in the range of 10s of millions, to leaders of a multi-billion business, to someone seeking to create a transformational shift for their country through addressing the climate crisis in a way that will shift the entire economy.
So far, so typical in terms of the variety of my conversations (I am blessed indeed!). That said, a recurring theme in these recent conversations was that each leader is currently very much focussed on the future growth of their organisation and, in each case, have big and brave ideas for that future. As I talked with each of them, a few themes emerged as I listened:
- The ideas they have will result in a truly transformative change in their organisation
- They moved quickly from the ideas to what to do in order to get there
- In that thought process, I saw some clear gaps that I then recommended they address and note below
It is indeed common to think of an idea for a future growth goal for a business or organisation, then to leap back right away to: “what do we need to do to get there”. However, when that idea will result in a major and transformational change, I recommend (and indeed did recommend in these conversations) a different approach.
In summary, the “I have an idea, now let’s look at how we get there” is a “bottom-up” approach. This works well for something where each step is predictable and can be planned for (and budgeted for) in a linear and predictable way.
However, when the idea will be truly transformative, the way forward is a “top-down” vision, as the shift from “here” to “there” will undoubtedly result in unpredictable shifts and changes along the way that, if the process used is purely “bottom-up”, can result in changes in the “plan” costly in terms of time and budget, as well as disruptive to the people in the organisation as they create uncertainty and loss of alignment and engagement. So, what process would I recommend for a “top-down” approach to realising your transformative vision?:
- First, adopt the mantra “slow down now to speed up later”. Take your time to build a firm foundation that will give you the stability you need as an organisation as you then move towards that transformative change.
- Second, VISION
- Take time to develop the Vision, the WHY. It needs to be more than an idea, it is a clear vision for what your organisation will look like when you have achieved everything that executing your transformative idea will result in.
- That Vision must start out as a one-sentence (or less!) contextual Vision. Yes, that can be hard, but it must be clear and truly concise
- Once you have that one line Vision, then create a cascading engagement strategy (see “Cascading Leadership” for a method) where you meet with a gradually increasing number of stakeholders to build out that Vision, then arrive at the three to four (no more) Focal Areas (the WHAT), the lenses through which every activity from that point forward will be viewed. For example, if you choose “DEVELOP” as a focal area (and with a context of developing People), this lens will influence so many policies and actions around people, community and more.
- Third, PLANNING
- Having established your WHY (Vision) and WHAT (Focal Areas) over time and with a consciously planned process of engagement that will then give you alignment and commitment from your people and stakeholders, the next step then (and only then!) becomes the HOW (Planning).
- To Pause for a moment, this is what I mean by “Top-Down”, as you started with the Vision, then the Focal Areas, and only after those were clearly thought out and everyone committed to them are you ready to move to the “HOW”, to planning what to do.
- BTW, this is often called “Strategic Planning” in business, typically a three-year plan. However, in many, many years of working with companies around this process, I typically find that such “SPs” are very often “bottom-up”, building on what they already are, rather than a suitable method to look at a transformative vision. This is why I recommend the “top-down” process on Vision and Focal areas prior to entering into the standard “SP” development process.
- Fourth, BUILD IN STEPS
- This one is specific to a vision that is truly transformative. In several of my recent conversations with leaders looking at transformative ideas, another common theme was seeking to build a plan to get from where they are today to realising the final vision all in one plan.
- From decades of experience, my advice is clear on this. Don’t try to do this. First, if you try to plan out everything to realise a vision of transformative change, you will run into unexpected shifts in direction for reasons you can and cannot predict. Second, and at least as importantly, you run a real risk of your people losing connection and belief in the vision if the plan is too involved and has too many steps, takes too long, and feels too different from what they are currently doing.
- So, instead, build in steps. Design with the end (the transformative vision) in mind, and yes, always view everything in the plan through that lens, eg “is this step moving us closer to our vision?” is a great question to always have in mind. However, while designing with the end in mind, do this in manageable steps that feel like a stretch but always feel achievable to those who have to plan and execute them.
- For example, if you want to take your business from one that is known for one core services area and has revenues of (say) £3m to one that covers many and varied related areas of service as a “hub” for clients and has revenues of over £30m, rather than try to create one plan to 10x your business, please don’t! Instead, build it step by step, with perhaps a first step being to show that you are growing by acquiring in other businesses that are closely related to yours so that you double your revenues to £6m and both your people and your clients can understand the synergies. This first step is big for sure (doubling your revenue), but you can perhaps execute that in 2-3 years, all the while being sure people know that the big and transformative vision remains that £20m+ “hub”. Then, once step one is complete, you then look at step two, and so forth.
Once again, I hope this outline is of value, then if this feels like your business or organisation, I’d love to talk with you further.