To thrive and prosper, all organizations need a solid foundation based on three pillars: focus, performance, and morale.
When you understand the eight principles underlying the quiz, the overall concept takes on great power and beauty. Because I’m talking about building a foundation upon which you can build an organization of any size.
An organization without focus is like a ship without a rudder—it meanders without direction in a vast sea of possibilities. An organization that lacks performance is like a powerboat with no transmission—the engine may supply plenty of energy, but that energy cannot turn the propeller to move the boat forward. An organization with poor morale is like a rowboat whose crew is pulling in opposite directions—it’s going nowhere fast.
The eight-question quiz both identifies which aspects of the foundation are missing or weak, and prioritizes which aspects need to be strengthened now so the organization can reach the next level of business success. The first three questions deal with focus, the middle three questions cover performance, and the last two questions involve morale.
The Four Rules
For each of these areas to contribute to a solid foundation, the plan or statement:
- must exist
- must be in writing
- must be respected and followed by management
- must be shared with the appropriate people at the appropriate time
Focus
Focus is about direction and guidance. Where are we going? Why are we headed there? And how will we behave on that journey?
Values
Do you have values for your organization that are used and talked about on a regular basis? For example, in staff meetings, do you have people give examples of how they have honored and followed the company’s values? When you hire staff, do you talk with them about these values?
Values establish an ethical framework for how employees will act under stress or difficult circumstances, and provide the basis for the corporate culture. This quiz does not assess the quality of the values, only the strength of the organization’s commitment to its values. A good organization has values that it believes in, and that its employees know and embrace.
If you have values that you share with people when you recruit, you are proactively engineering the culture of your organization. Your employees end up working with people who believe in the same kinds of ethics, morals, and philosophy.
Answers:
“No” means your organization does not have an established set of values.
“I think so” means that someone once told me we have values, but I don’t know what they are and I’ve never actually seen them, so I’m not sure we really do have them.
“Yes, but I can’t list them” means I know our values exist because I’ve seen or heard them, but I don’t remember them clearly enough to list them.
“I know them by heart” means you can say exactly what the values are.
Vision & Mission
People often get confused about vision and mission, saying “We don’t have a vision or mission statement, but we do have a purpose statement.”
There is no universal right or wrong about vision or mission or purpose. Within the context of this assessment tool, “vision” and “mission” have specific meanings.
Vision is internally focused. It’s why you care about doing the work you do. When you go home at night after a long day at work, when you’ve missed dinner and the kids are asleep and your spouse asks, “Why do you spend so much time there? Why are you working so hard at this?” An example might be: “We’re trying to change how education works in this country. When we’re successful, we will have created a better educational system. That’s our vision.”
Mission is externally focused. It’s the value you will deliver to your target audience. An example: Our mission is to create life-long learners: people who know how to learn and enjoy the experience of learning.
Occasionally a purpose statement will cover both vision and mission. It might say, “As a company, our mission is to create life-long learners. And we’re going to do that by changing the way public education works in this country.”
It’s rare for a company to have both a clear vision and mission. But it’s critical to have both. If you describe your vision and mission when you go to hire somebody, then people never leave. They self-select, and they stay. Plus, they’re the people you want to have on board, because they share your vision and mission.
Answers:
“No” means our organization does not have a vision/mission statement.
“I think so” means that someone once told me we have a vision/mission statement, but I don’t know what it says and I’ve never actually seen it, so I’m not sure what it is or whether it really exists.
“Yes, but I can’t repeat it” means I’ve seen or heard our vision/mission statement so I know it exists, but I can’t remember it well enough to describe it.
“I can repeat it verbatim” means I know our vision/mission statement by heart.
Summary:
When an organization knows what it wants to accomplish for its target audience, why that mission is important, and what values it will uphold on its journey, then its focus is clear. What comes next is the “how you get there.”
Performance
Just as values in a drawer don’t deliver any focus for an organization, a business plan on the shelf or a marketing plan that the sales staff doesn’t read also don’t do you any good.
Business Plan
Your business plan is the road map for the organization. It has to talk about your strategy and tactics for achieving your mission and vision. There has to be enough of the organization’s history so you understand why you do things. It needs to have your vision and mission and values.
The business plan states how we’re going to go through the next period of time. We need to make sure we are constantly moving towards our goal. Our strategy is what we’re going to achieve in this next section of time. Tactics are how we’re going to achieve those strategic goals.
Strategies need to be SMART: They have to be Strategic, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Time-bound. When you come up with a strategy, you’ve got to be able to do it. It’s got to be realistic and there has to be a window of time in which it will get done.
When companies do a strategic planning session or retreat and come out of that with 15 strategies, those aren’t strategies because you can’t do that many. It’s not realistic. I recommend a short-term, a mid-term, and a long-term, which usually means, “What’s our strategy for the next quarter, the next 12 months, and next 2 or 3 years?”
Answers:
“No” means we don’t have a business plan.
“I think so” means someone has said we have a business plan, but I haven’t seen it or heard any details so I can’t be sure.
“Yes, but I haven’t seen it” means I know we have one, but I don’t have a copy and haven’t read it.
“I have read it” means I have actually read the business plan.
Marketing Plan(s)
A marketing plan is how you’re going to sell your product or service.
Why is “Marketing Plan(s)” plural? Do you need a different marketing plan for different markets? For different products? What about for things that are seasonal? How often do you see snow blowers on sale in August? There’s no pain or fear about snow in August, and you need pain or fear to sell a product. People don’t become afraid they’ll need a snowblower until it starts to get cool.
The marketing plan has to tell you:
- Who the market is.
- Why they want it. What value do they see? Not why you think your product is valuable but why your market thinks it’s valuable.
- Who’s your competition? Who will your ideal prospect go to if they don’t know about you?
It’s vital for an organization to meet all four rules for its marketing plan. The plan has to exist. It has to be in writing. It has to be honored, followed, respected, believed in by the leadership. Leadership has to be supportive of the marketing plan, not “this is a wretched plan; I don’t think it’s going to work.” And the plan has to be shared with the appropriate people at the appropriate time.
Does the receptionist need to see the marketing plan? Absolutely yes. He or she is the face and voice of your organization—and the only person who literally touches everyone who interacts with your organization. Nobody else does that. When you go into an organization, you instantly know if the receptionist is a good one or a bad one.
Answers:
“No” means the organization does not have any marketing plans.
“I think so” means you have reason to believe the organization has a marketing plan, but you can’t be sure.
“Yes, but I haven’t seen one” means you know that a marketing plan exists, but you haven’t read it yet. (This answer is the “worst case scenario” because the organization has gone to the trouble of making a marketing plan but hasn’t shared it with people.)
“I read one that is used” means you have seen and read a marketing plan that the organization actually uses.
Goals Roles & Responsibilities
It’s possible to make a huge list of everything I want you to do. For example: Empty the trash every night, make sure the bathroom is clean and has plenty of toilet paper and soap and paper towels, check the copier every week. But in this situation, what I really need is for you to make sure the office is clean and functioning smoothly. And that’s a role, not a goal. A role you have responsibility for.
Hence, what is each person’s role—what are they responsible to make happen? And how are these roles and responsibilities communicated to them?
Written job descriptions might be wrong for any of a variety of reasons. Situations and technology change over time. A job description written 40 years ago and never reviewed since is likely to be wrong.
Answers:
“No” means that people’s roles and responsibilities are not clearly stated, either verbally or in writing.
“Yes, but they are wrong” means that people do have written job descriptions, but those descriptions are wrong. “My job description says I’m supposed to do this set of tasks, but I don’t do that, I do other things.”
“Yes, but not written” means that people do have clear responsibilities, but they’re not written down. Perhaps a person’s responsibilities were communicated verbally, or perhaps a person was hired because he or she already knew what needed to be done and didn’t need to be told.
“They are all written down” means everyone’s roles and responsibilities are written, clear, and easily assessible.
Summary
Your business plan tells you what you need to do in the next short period of time. The marketing plan tells you how you’re going to sell. Goals/Roles and responsibilities tell you how you’re going to be measured against what’s expected of you.
Next we look at the pillar for morale: factors for how well people function in the organization.
Morale
Two elements affect people’s morale within an organization: Familiarity with the structure they work within, and knowing who to talk to when problems arise.
Structure & Systems
Large organizations easily fall into the trap of doing things for stupid reasons. It’s not that they don’t have a reason, but it’s often a reason with no alignment with the organization’s mission, vision, focus or performance. It’s done because someone with power in the organization said, “Because I said so.”
When you have systems and structure, this problem is less likely to arise and easier to solve. When you understand how your work product gets to you before you get it, and what happens to it after you’ve finished doing your job with it, then you know how you fit into the big picture. The more you understand what a critical role you play, the better your morale will be because you have purpose. You can validate that you’re a contributor.
More than that, when you know where the product or data you work with is coming from and how it’s being produced, you can go to the people who are sending it to you and say something like, “You know, if you could deliver this to me in a spreadsheet instead of a database, that would make my life so much easier.” And that person might say to you, “You know, I spend 20 hours a month putting that into a database for you, but I get it in a spreadsheet format. So just sending you the spreadsheet saves me 20 hours a month. You made my day!”
These systems and structures need to be written down. The document spells out, “How does work flow through the organization?” This allows everyone to understand processes that occur before and after their own involvement, which ensures effective execution of their own area.
Answers:
“No” means the organization does not have clear systems or structures, either verbal or written, for how people do their jobs.
“I think so” means you have reason to believe the organization has some systems and structures for how jobs are done, but you haven’t personally seen or heard them.
“I was trained on them” means that someone taught you the processes you need to know to do your job, but it wasn’t in writing. (The danger here is similar to the children’s game of “telephone” or “grapevine” where the starting child whispers a sentence into the next child’s ear, each person whispering a repeat of what they heard into the next ear, all the way around the circle, until the last person says out loud what they heard, to the great merriment of all when they hear what the first child actually said.)
“I have them in writing” means the organization has a written “how work gets done” document that accurately describes the flow of work through the organization. The document includes how your job gets done plus what happens before work arrives at your work station and what happens to it after you’re done with it.
Communication Protocol
Communication is HUGE. There’s always some components of it that are absolutely crystal clear. A communication plan is about making everything as crystal clear as is reasonably possible.
Communication protocol means “I know who to talk with to find out what I need to find out when I need to find something out.” I know where to go to get the answers I need. Sometimes it’s a person, sometimes it’s a website, sometimes it’s a binder. When I need to make sure other people know information that I have that they don’t, I know how to get that information to them.
For example, you’re working in a corporation. You think you see somebody stealing from the company. Who should you tell? Do you know who to tell? You might say, “I think so, but I’m not sure.”
It’s not necessary to document every possible scenario. If you say, “If you ever think you see an employee acting not in the best interest of this company, no matter whether it’s sexual abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse, theft. I don’t care what it is. If you ever see someone acting in a manner that you think is not in the best interests of this company, you go to Susie in HR whose title is whatever.” You just covered a whole boatload of stuff. If you allow yourself that kind of flexibility of scope and range, the communication plan becomes very simple.
A good communication plan is one of the eight components that allow you to make that solid foundation. When you have that communication plan, it makes everybody happy. Morale becomes incredibly strong.
Answers:
“No” means you don’t know who to talk to or where to get information you need.
“I think so” means you have an idea about who to talk to or how to get information you need, but you’re not sure it’s correct.
“Yes, but not memorized” means you have written guidelines for who to talk to or how to get information you need, but you have to look things up when you have a question or issue.
“I know it by heart” means you know exactly who to talk to or where to go to get the information you need.
Summary
When people understand where and how their work fits into the bigger picture, they have a sense of purpose that strengthens their morale. Also, having written systems and structure that describe how work flows through the organization reduces the likelihood of tasks being done for stupid reasons. A clear communications plan also strengthens morale because it enables people to be proactive in dealing with problems.
Focus, Performance and Morale Revisisted
For each of these eight areas to contribute to a solid foundation, the plan or statement:
- must exist
- must be in writing
- must be respected and followed by management
- must be shared with the appropriate people at the appropriate time
When an organization has values, a vision and a mission, it has focus. It knows where it is headed, why it’s going there, and how it will behave along the way. Sharing these values, vision and mission during the hiring process allows the organization to build a self-selected and dedicated staff.
An organization has performance when it has a SMART business plan (strategic, measureable, action-oriented, realistic and time-bound), together with realistic marketing plans for each target audience and product, as well as clear roles and responsibilities for all employees. Enthusiasm for accomplishing the vision is smoothly transformed into effective actions for reaching the organization’s goals.
An organization’s morale is strengthened when it has accurate, written systems and structures for how work flows through the organization, and when employees have a clear communications plan. Such a plan shows where to get information they need but don’t already have, and gives guidelines for who to talk with about difficult or challenging circumstances.
When all eight aspects of Focus, Performance and Morale are in place, an organization has a strong foundation allowing healthy growth of unlimited size.
