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InVision, Mission, Principles And the HumanBrainI discussed the basics of creating visionand mission statements. This time I will showhow I developed my own vision statement.When I went into business as a managementconsultant, I was careful to develop a visionstatement for myself. This was some time ago,and I have changed. Therefore it was appropri-ate to take the time to reevaluate myself, myprinciples, vision and mission.Developing effective visionand mission statements mustbegin with expressing basiccharacter. I had to think hard about what kind of person I am, and then answer the question:“What kind of a person do I want to be?”
Anyone can put together a list of nice principles and values. Unfor-tunately, by itself, such a list isworthless.
To begin with, for reasons discussed inVision,Mission, Principles And the Human Brain, I wanta core based on principles. What principles?The principles I chose to define the me I want tobecome are:IntegrityCuriosity
The BusinessStrategy NewsletterIssue 2-2009
The Tempo! newsletter contains supportingmaterial for Tempo!, a business strategybook written by Henrik MårtenssonThe Tempo! newsletter is published byHM MediaTech.Email:
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Theory YEnthusiasmInitiativeCourageWisdomTenaciousnessAnyone can put together a list of nice principlesand values. Unfortunately, by itself, such a list isworthless. It has great value as a starting point,but it is necessary to go further and define thebehaviors you want. If you do not do that, youhave made a token effort, and will get token re-sults.In the end, it is all about behavior. If my principlesdo not guide my behavior, they aren’t really myprinciples at all. Therefore, I had to think aboutthe behaviors that follow from my guiding prin-ciples.
If my principles do not guide my behavior, they aren’t really my principles at all.
Here is something important to understand be-fore developing your own statement about prin-ciples: Words are
not
principles! The same wordmay have different meanings to different people.A word that is full of positive meaning to you,may be meaningless, or even have negative con-notations, for someone else. For example, Icringe when I hear managers talking about “in-creasing cost effectiveness” as if it is always theright thing to do. If you have read
Tempo!
, youunderstand why
1
.Consequently, I have made sure to write downthe desired behaviors and priorities behind theprinciples.
2
1
Total cost is Cost
capacity
+Cost
delay
. Increasing cost effectiveness is the same thing as decreasing Cost
capacity
.Unfortunately, reducing Cost
capacity
will eventually increase Cost
delay
. Cost
delay
increases exponentially whenCost
capacity
is reduced linearly. Thus, pushing cost effectiveness too high can increase Cost
delay
more thanCost
capacity
is reduced. When this happens, total cost goes up. The proof is in
Tempo!
.
MyCharacterIntegrity Curiosity Theory Y Enthusiasm Initiative Courage Wisdom Tenaciousness
MyCharacterIntegrityTheory YEnthusiasmInitiativeCourageCuriosityWisdomTenaciousness
The first step in developing vision and mission statements is to decide which fundamental princi- ples you want to drive your character. In the diagram I have described the character I want to strive for.Seeing your principles as a supporting hierar- chy can be a great help when figuring out the behaviors each principle promotes.
I also find it useful to think of my principles ashierarchically structured. For example, I viewcourage and curiosity as prerequisites for ini-tiative. Without courage, I will not dare takeinitiative, and without curiosity, there will beno reason to do it.
Words are
not
principles! Thesame word may have differentmeanings to different people.
Integrity
The first principle I chose was a given:
Integrity
,a solid core of principles and honesty.Having integrity does not make you a nice per-son. It merely means you will act according toyour principles, whatever they are, and thatyou will be free of deceit and untruthfulness.Integrity can be a very uncomfortable principleto live by. It means following my principles, allof them, are more important than pleasing otherpeople, being comfortable, and even more im-portant than being safe.Can I live up to it when the pressure is on? Timewill tell. At least I know the standard by which Imeasure myself.
Curiosity
Curiosity
, the second principle was also easy. I amcurious by nature. I like to learn new things, I liketo dig deep, and I like to connect new things Ilearn with the things I already know. I take pridein my ability to do paradigm changing, double-loop learning. (
Modesty
is not a core principleyet. Maybe next time around.)Fortunately for me, I get curiosity for free. It isthe way I have been wired since I was a smallchild. For some reason, I have continued to becurious through my adult life. If anything, myneed to know more, and to figure things out, hasincreased over the years.
3
CuriosityI will crossparadigmboundariesI will activelypursue knewknowledgeI will activelypursue newexperiencesI willtranscendparadigmsI will continuoslyintegrateknowledge andexperience
IntegrityMy principles willalways guide mybehaviorFollowing myprinciples meansmore to me thanpleasing otherpeopleFollowing myprinciples meansmore to me thanbeing comfortableFollowing myprinciples meansmore to me thanbeing safeI will behonest withmyselfI will behonest withothers
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