Project Management Screw-Ups
Set That Direction!
Create a Compelling Direction that Will Make Others Want to Follow You
Lonnie Pacelli
Lonnie@leadingonedge.com
Published by Leading on the Edge International at Smashwords.
Copyright 2011 by Lonnie Pacelli
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Don’t make creating a direction statement harder than it needs to be
Vision, mission, goals, values, objectives, and guiding principles. Terms that you’ve all heard of but that create confusion within a team when you try to use them to develop something practical. I’ve been in many strategy meetings where team members have argued over their definitions. “Wait a minute, our mission looks more like a vision!” “Do we need both values and guiding principles?” “I understand what our goals are, but what are our objectives?” These meetings became a classic case of trying to do things right, versus trying to do the right thing. At the end, the team felt great because they finally settled upon what was a vision versus a mission, and then promptly forgot about the work that was done in the strategy meeting and went back to doing their job. It’s just like spending two days trying to squeeze into size 8 dress shoes when you’re a size 10, then after you finally squeeze your little tootsies into the size 8s you take them off and put on your size 10 tennis shoes. Then you hang the size 8s on the wall to show you’re in line with company values, but you never try to put them on again because they just hurt too much.
Colleagues, I’m going to debunk a lot of conventional thinking on this topic. Let’s cut through the fog and get down to some very practical basics. There are a lot of different opinions on the “right” versus “wrong” way to set and document direction. Frankly I’m not interested in which way is more right or wrong; I’m much more interested in creating a direction that makes sense to the team and that the team can rally behind. Knowing the difference between a mission and vision, between goals and objectives, or between guiding principles and values isn’t the important thing. There’s no pop quiz here and I strongly doubt that anyone ever lost his or her job because he or she misquoted a mission as a vision. Don’t make developing a direction statement harder than it needs to be.
I feel that you need to follow four very simple, basic guidelines to develop a good direction statement:
You need to know where you want to go
You need to know when you want to get there
You need to know how you’re going to get there
You need to know what things you are going to do to get there
Think about these four steps in planning your next vacation. You need to know where you want go (Disneyland), when you want to get there (July 4th) how you’re going to get there (drive), and what you’re going to do to get there (get gas, stop for meals, check into hotels, break up fighting kids). If all goes as planned, you’ve successfully arrived at Disneyland to see the fireworks well rested and fed and the kids are still talking to each other.
Let’s take another step and apply this to a mythical pen manufacturer.