Vision

The Famous Wall and Harvard

August 31, 2010 by admin

One day when I was still at 1-800-GOT-JUNK? we were adding to the ‘Can You Imagine?’ wall, and I tossed out the idea of being studied by Harvard Business School for a future case study.

I offered it up almost as a joke, but I really could see Harvard studying 1-800-GOT-JUNK? because we wanted to build a world-class brand.

When Harvard did eventually do a case study on what we’d built, it further proved that you could achieve what you conceived and believed.

‘Conceive, believe and achieve’ became a mantra for us, and when Harvard learned about 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, it wasn’t by accident—it was because of our renowned wall.

The front entrance wall was used to express our desire to be included in a Harvard case study. Eventually someone visiting 1-800-GOT-JUNK? said, “Hey, I know someone at Harvard who approves the cases, would you like an introduction?”

If we didn’t commit to the vision by writing it on the wall, it wouldn’t have happened. Either way, what we conceived and believed—getting into a Harvard case study—was actually achieved.

I’d love to hear what you’re visions are for your company. Share them here…

Leaning Into The Future

February 20, 2010 by admin

Creating a Vivid Vision (formerly Painted Picture) in order to reverse engineer your success is something that made intuitive sense to me.

I’ve since learned that it’s far from intuitive for everyone else.

Most people don’t think about the steps that are needed for personal or business success, and those that do can become easily frustrated with the planning process.

In 1998, when I was first exposed to visualization at an Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) meeting. I started to think of this whole process as ‘leaning out into the future,’ which many people find helpful when they’re trying to understand this process. Eight years later, I heard another Vancouver entrepreneur, David Chalk, describe visualization as ‘leaning out into the future,’ too. Obviously, it made sense to people to think about the process this way.

A few of the other entrepreneurs from my EO Forum Group also got excited about this process and began to use visualization and the reverse engineering it in our own ways.

Once you’ve leaned out into the future and created your Vivid Vision, reverse engineer to make it happen. A good example of how this works is the custom home construction process. In this specific scenario, the finished product—the home—is the equivalent of our Vivid Vision. But before creating it, home builders meet with clients and ask them to describe all kinds of areas of the home they want built or renovated. They get photos from clients and draft sketches based on these photos and other materials. After a few discussions to determine precisely what the clients want, the desired home begins to take shape visually. The plans, the builder and architect then draw up show a clear, vision of what the home should look like.

Using the plans as a guide, construction workers, electricians, plumbers and other team members build the client’s dream home, or ‘reverse engineer’ it. Custom home construction is the perfect example of reverse engineering in action: by starting with what the home should look like, all of the players on the team, from construction workers to the folks putting the paint on the walls, know exactly what they’re supposed to do. Everyone’s role is clear and the desired outcome is, too. It should work the same way in your organization and it can—but only if you use a Vivid Vision as a guide.

I always mention to the CEOs that I coach that an organization’s Vivid Vision should serve the same purpose for you and your employees as the plans for a custom home: it should show you the way forward in reaching your ultimate objectives for your organization.

Don’t forget: Draft your Vivid Vision with care, attention, and detail. This way, everyone on your team understands his or her role.

A Blueprint for Success – It WORKS!

January 25, 2010 by admin

Years after working with an Olympic coach, I realized that the process of visualization was a lot like building a dream home. If you can visualize what the dream house–or your designer kitchen–looks like, then you can talk to an architect and explain the vision you have in your mind. You can even tear photos out of magazines to help explain what you see in your mind. Once the architect can ‘see’ the same vision as you, he or she can create the blueprints for your dream home.

When you have a blueprint for success, you are more likely to achieve your desired goal, whether it’s building a house, winning a sports competition, or growing a business. That’s why as a business coach and mentor, I believe that it’s essential that you communicate what your business is going to look like at every stage of its growth, but most importantly, what it’s going to look like in three years. I like this timetable because people will have a better idea of how to incorporate over-arching goals into their day to day work, since it doesn’t seem as far away, but isn’t in the same category as other daily tasks.

Just so we’re crystal clear: This blueprint or ‘Vivid Vision (formerly Painted Picture)’ isn’t a to-do list, a five-year plan, or a vision statement. Vision statements are when everyone gets in a room and you pull together the words that best describe your business, and you create a one sentence vision or mission statement for your company that no-one reads and no-one cares about ever again. This is different. This is when an entrepreneur, CEO or whatever you are plants one foot in the present, and then dips the other into the future, into what ‘could be.’

When you peer into the future, what do you see? What do you want to be there? What materializes in front of you as the epitome of success? Don’t worry about how you’re going to build it, just focus on describing what you see over the next three years. One exercise that can be helpful is to imagine you’re filming every aspect of your business: your employees, customers, supplier relationships and so on. Once you’ve completed this exercise in its entirety, you’ve created a ‘Vivid Vision.’ Scroll down here to read the Vivid Vision. This is where I start my CEO Coaching of all the Entrepreneurs I mentor.

For more information on this topic, check out: Building a World Class Culture and Leadership at 100MPH.

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