You Are Here

Vision... Direction... Trajectory... Mission... Long range planning...

We are consumed with the future and the promise that it surely holds ultimate success.  Victory.  Accomplishment.  And, yes, we all know intellectually that we have to put the work in now to have success later, but I'm not sure we always act that way.

There are a lot of carts in front of horses in today's alliances.  If everyone is the leader and everyone is casting the vision, then no one is.  Every initiative needs vision and every vision needs to be created and articulated, but the bigger point here is that where there is leadership there must be much more followership.  (So to speak.)

I call it the "Vision Vortex."  It is the phenomena whereby an organization or an alliance (especially an alliance) is continually creating a new outline for the path forward and everyone involved is constantly sucked into this spiral where the work never gets done because grand plans are always being drawn up.

The Vision Vortex is a big problem in alliances because, as we have mentioned in this space previously, alliances have an inherent issue with too many leaders and not enough sleeves being rolled up.  There are no feet being held to the fire in many cases and there is always another design for how to have future success. 

Therefore, it is critical to always be evaluating where you are.  And I mean, always.

It should be said that some alliances actually have an easy time with this due to the reason(s) why the alliance exists.  In other words, if Company A builds a widget and Company B sells the widget it is possible that the only thing that matters is increasing sales volume.  Often there are other factors at play, but it is true that some alliances exist for one specific, easily-trackable purpose.  If your alliance has only one goal and you are always able to know at a glance where you stand toward that goal, well, there are other great articles for you on this site.  This one may not hit you where you live.

For everyone else, read on.

The huge majority of alliances are complex.  Getting to the point where two (or more) organizations can truly fuse their focus together into one cohesive vision is magical.  There are a lot of leaders, a lot of goals, and a lot of moving parts to get it all done.  I contend that the first thing you can do to help your alliance to achieve anything meaningful is to establish a method to track where you are toward the mission of the alliance.  There are a few things that you can do to make this happen.

• Mission Statement - Everyone has got to know why the alliance exists.  This gets muddled over time, but there was certainly a reason why it started in the first place even if it is less clear now.  Find out why the alliance was formed and use that to build a genuine mission statement.  The more succinct it can be, the better.  If the mission statement is short and clear it will provide the perfect starting point to keep the teams on task.
• Cadence - The alliance probably has some sort of meeting schedule whether it is in-person, a conference call, an online meeting, or some combination.  You may meet weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.  My suggestion is to build into your meeting schedule a cadence that literally re-states the mission statement and provides a minute or two to mention where the alliance is with regard to the mission.  It doesn't need to be more than two minutes but if it happens at the top of every meeting it will keep everyone on the same page.  When everyone involved knows where the alliance is with respect to the goal it is very easy to contribute to pushing it forward.  And, to flesh this out even more I would suggest a few seconds in this update to quickly point out something that someone did to contribute to the health of the partnership.  Positive feedback promotes teamwork.
• Reporting - The first two bullets are really the key items, but there are a few other things that can be helpful including a more formalized report of where the alliance is toward a goal.  If possible, a weekly or monthly report (or just a simple memo) can be very powerful.  Seeing the results of what has been done in black and white makes it more concrete.  Further, being able to see the path forward in black and white gives everyone marching orders that they can put their arms around.  There is nothing that solidifies this "you are here" message than a formalized reporting process.
• The "Ace" - Why not designate someone to be in charge of the "you are here" concept?  This "Ace" can help draft the mission statement, deliver the cadence, and create the report.  With so many people naturally focused on the future, it can be very helpful to have one person assigned with staying on top of the present day situation.  An alliance project manager of sorts.
• Re-Railed - Finally, you're going to need to have a plan for getting the train back on the tracks when it gets derailed.  If we aren't where we want to be in an alliance, what do we do?  Many alliances will gravitate toward forming plans and building new long-range strategies when things aren't going according to plan.  Listen, when you are off-target you don't need a new target or a new aiming plan... you need an adjustment.  Who is in charge of the fine adjustments in the alliance?  When the vector is slightly off it can be tweaked slightly now, or completely overhauled in the future.  Your choice.  I say plan for the former and avoid the latter.

Sometimes we miss that which is most obvious.  To me, this "you are here" concept is an obvious thing that is so easy to overlook in the midst of all of our busyness and vision-casting.  When we build our alliances and set up our plans, let's stay practical and be mindful of where we are at all times.  That way we can drive the combined, fused focus of the alliance toward its stated mission.