A strategic exercise for every team or organizational leader in seven steps

Leaders assume that they know what they are doing. And in a general sense, that is probably true. It is easy, however, to be so general in our direction that we miss the opportunities that a laser-like focus could provide. General direction yields general results, while focused direction yields focused results. How do we move from the first to the second?

There is a simple strategic exercise that can help you get there with some other members of your team and a whiteboard work through the following process.

First, write on the board your team's purpose as you currently view it. Don't worry about wordsmithing anything now; just record the purpose.

Second. Make a list of all of your stakeholders. They may be customers, staff, donors, constituents, vendors, or others. Next to each stakeholder, make a note about what is most important to each of those stakeholders. Make sure that you get them all!

Third. Make a list of all your current strategies to reach your purpose. Once you have done this, ask yourself the question: Do these strategies speak to the concerns of your stakeholders, and are they consistent with your stated purpose above?

Fourth. Go back to your stated purpose in One and refine it in light of your stakeholders, your strategies, and the concerns of your stakeholders. Can you get to a purpose statement that is concise, focused, and clear? Keep working on it until you get there, as it may take many tries and multiple minds. Only quit once it is concise, laser-focused, clear, and speaks to the concerns of your stakeholders and mission.

Fifth. Having done this, go back to your current strategies (3) and ask whether those strategies will help you get to your purpose. Having done the interim work, you will probably recognize that some things you are doing will yield different results than you desire, as expressed in your refined purpose or the needs of your stakeholders. Remember, general direction delivers general results, while focused direction yields focused results. Make a note of strategies that need to be rethought, abandoned, or new ones that may be more fruitful.

Sixth. Ask yourself: "Are there any new ways of doing what we do that would be a game changer and not just a tweak?" It is finding the game changers in our strategies that move the dial significantly rather than just a tiny bit. Game changers are new ways of thinking, new ideas that can help you achieve your purpose and outside-the-box thinking. You can tweak all day, but one game changer can propel you months or years ahead of where you are. 

Seventh. Settle on a few key strategies that will get you the highest results rather than on many strategies that will get you a few results each. A laser-focused purpose and the few most fruitful approach will help you get where you want to go far faster and with better results.

Why do many leaders not do this kind of work? They get lost in the activity of the present (activity and results are not the same), the work of the status quo (which keeps you nicely where you are) rather than taking the time to zero in on the most critical issues. Pay attention to the very work that will propel you forward. 

Creating cultures of excellence

AddingtonConsulting.org

When there is not adequate organizational clarity

If there is one thing that many organizations lack it is crystal clear clarity about who they are, what they want to accomplish and how they are going to get there. This is especially true of non-profits and ministries as the profit motive is not the driving factor. In fact, clarity is the glue that holds the organization together as it grows. In my consulting with numerous non-profits I have observed four related consequences of poor or no organizational clarity.

Conflict
I am speaking here of conflict between leaders and departments. Why? Because a lack of clarity from the top results in leaders one level below creating their own clarity and going in their own direction. When there is a vacuum, someone will fill it. The problem is that we fill it with our version of clarity rather than a shared version of clarity, find ourselves at odds with one another, create silos and find ourselves fighting over direction, finances, resources and strategy.

Relational disconnect
This conflict creates relational disconnect and we often assume that the conflict is a result of people with bad motives or who are not team players. More likely the disconnect is a result of the senior leader not developing a shared clarity about who the organization is and how it will get to where it wants to go. The relational disconnects are a result of poor leadership at the very top of the organization.

Lack of alignment
In this situation, senior leaders and departments are not aligned with one another. Each may be doing good things but often they are working at cross currents with each other. If each were an arrow, the arrows would be pointing in different directions rather than all in the same general direction. This lack of alignment creates conflict and relational disconnect and is deeply frustrating to good leaders who often leave if the situation is not solved. 

Dispersed energy and compromised impact
Because the arrows are not pointed in the same direction and departments and leaders are working at cross purposes with one another the energy and impact of the organization is severely compromised. In fact, leaders are often trying to negotiate issues within the organization rather than focusing on the mission of the organization. There is nothing more distracting and discouraging to people who have bought into a mission than to be fighting intermural wars when they could be delivering on the mission.

Organizational clarity matters...a lot. 

The power of clarity in focusing and retaining good staff

In the busyness of everything we do in any organization, it is easy to lose sight of the real reason we exist and the mission that we have. But no matter what kind of organization you are a part of, clarity about who we are and why we exist becomes a far more important catalyst (if present) or hindrance (if absent) in ways that we might not realize.

Consider three ways that clarity or its lack impacts the organization you are a part of.

Clarity focuses all staff around the central mission of an organization while a lack of clarity produces a scattered focus with a great deal of energy being dissipated in activity that is unfocused and ultimately unproductive to the organization's mission. In fact, one way to help staff focus their efforts and work is to ask them how their work contributes directly to the actual mission of the organization.

Clarity allows for accountability of results, while a lack of clarity makes it difficult to evaluate results. Unproductive staff flourishes in an unclear environment, while productive staff flourishes in a context of organizational clarity. The more clear you are on your mission, the more evident it will be as to who is productive and who is not.

Clarity of mission allows you to attract and retain the best talent. Your best employees want to be a part of something larger than themselves. Larger than the next deal or strategy. They want to contribute something significant through the work they do. A clear and compelling mission that contributes to those we serve is a very strong glue for both loyalty and longevity. If our work matters to God, it must transcend how many people attend (say, a church) or what the profit margin is in a business. It needs to count and matter. But none of that is possible without clarity.

Always remember that "clarity leaks," if it is not constantly focused on. We get busy; people forget; the critical gets lost in the urgent. The most successful organizations are highly focused on what really matters - all the time.

Missional and organizational clarity is like a fresh wind of hope

I meet many staff who love what they do and are committed to making a difference but who are deeply discouraged by the lack of direction within their organization. One such individual wrote to me this week, deeply frustrated. She indicated that while she has tried to convince her ministry partner of the need for greater clarity, the response is always, "If God wants us to have more direction, He will provide it." In other cases, good staff have left their jobs because of the lack of clarity around direction.

Ministry ambiguity is disheartening, demotivating, discouraging and disempowering. People want to know where we are going and why and how they can make the best contribution to the ministry. In addition, when there is a lack of clarity, different individuals make up their own clarity which results in competing definitions of clarity within the organization.

Healthy organizations have clarity around their mission, the culture they are building, their non-negotiable guiding principles as well as their central focus. The best organizations have clarity on everything that matters. Clarity gives you a clear target to move toward. When there is a lack of clarity, any direction works but with greatly diminished results. 

Providing clarity becomes a breath of fresh air, a fresh wind for any ministry. I worked this last week with a church that has not had clarity in a long time. By the time we were finished, there was a huge amount of energy in the room as participants realized that it was possible to create clarity for their church that was clear, motivating, healthy, Jesus-focused, and reflected his mandate for the church. One said I have not been this excited for a long time. Of course, a lot of hard work is ahead, but there is a target to work toward that is missional, God-centered and exciting.

My point is that getting to clarity - understanding where you want to go in ministry and knowing how you will get there, along with forging a healthy culture is not just a nice thing. It actually breathes fresh wind into the ministry. It motivates and excites, and most importantly, it gives people hope. Hope that we can make a difference for Jesus. Hope that we have a direction to follow. Hope that we can all be on the same page. Hope that we can develop a God-honoring ethos and culture. Hope that God can infuse us with His power to accomplish His work.

Clarity can help us move from discouragement to hope. If you want to understand how your ministry can make that move, my book, Leading From the Sandbox, can help you get there. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are a roadmap to the hope of clarity. 

TJ Addington (Addington Consulting) has a passion to help individuals and organizations maximize their impact and go to the next level of effectiveness. He can be reached at tjaddington@gmail.com.

"Creating cultures of organizational excellence."