The Illusion of Invincibility. Paul Williams
the principal focus was no longer on quality but on growth. Later, this was seen to have been the final nail in the organization’s coffin, when it lost all credibility in the face of the scandal-laced insolvency of one of its clients. This was due to the external perception that their misguided business strategy, focusing solely on growth, was an important contributory factor to the client’s downfall.
Anything Is Better than Bullshit Bingo
If this vision thing is so difficult, then why bother? Our experience suggests that visions are important and answer the question posed by employees and other stakeholders: “What’s in it for me?” It encourages them to identify more closely with the business. You can earn money anywhere, so why would you want to work for this company? In an era when, for many people, work is about more than just putting bread on the table, a compelling vision can act as an invitation to be part of an exciting project. Identifying with something that feels important is one of the keys for motivation. Then again, identity is highly emotional. It’s no coincidence that every year the Gallup Institute, in its well-known “Engagement Index,” measures the level of “emotional attachment” workers have to their employers. When people feel that they’re an important part of something bigger, they get involved in a different way than those who see themselves as small cogs in a big machine. The same message is conveyed by the tale of three stonemasons working on the Cologne Cathedral. When asked what they are doing, one replies, sullenly, “I’m chiseling away at a stone.” Another says, “I am working to feed my family,” while the third explains, with a sparkle in his eye, “I’m building a cathedral!”
As well as identity, a vision creates solidarity—a connection between employees which can, in some instances, reach across continents. Sometimes this works its way into company jargon, such as when workers at Google refer to themselves, globally, as “Googlers.” The bigger a business, the more useful it is to have something visionary which binds it together. Ideally, it promotes a sense of community, even though face-to-face interaction seldom or never occurs. Another theme in one of our interviews was the need in large organizations to have a sense of community in order to enjoy mutual success.
Dr. Christoph Straub, CEO of BARMER, one of Europe’s largest Health Funds, told us about his work as the CEO of a group of hospitals:
I was taken on to integrate a portfolio of several independent clinics and merge them into a single hospital care provider. It should have been possible. After all, others manage it. Nevertheless, we failed because we never worked on the shared identity of the business. It is very difficult to create an identity if the only principle which applies in the business is “Every man for himself” and if the organizational structure is designed, from the top down, so that people have to fight each other. The image we portrayed to the outside world of the clinics being a strong unit was not reflected internally, neither in terms of business culture nor organizational structure. When faced with financial problems, we weren’t able to find any innovative ideas on how to improve the situation. We could have solved these issues, but finding a common solution was not part of the DNA of the business.
This report, based on direct experience, is interesting for two reasons. First, because the reference to a shared identity highlights the importance of a unifying vision. And secondly, because Christoph Straub also makes it clear that words alone cannot achieve anything if the actions of management and the business culture are more inclined to divide than to unite. A vision which is more like a behavioral letter of intent serves as an official invitation to the employees. Whether it is accepted depends on whether the employees perceive the invitation as credible, given their daily business reality. “Are you serious?” “Is that consistent with our values?” (see Chapter 4) and “Is that realistic?” Both the macro level (vision) and micro level (daily interactions) have to work and complement each other.
This also means that, as long as a business is still working on a vision that is not ready to be published, much can still be gained by chipping away at the micro level to secure engagement and cooperation from the workforce. What can help are the core questions which the Gallup Institute uses to measure the emotional attachment and loyalty of employees to a business. How many of the following questions would your colleagues or subordinates say “yes” to? The more questions are answered in the affirmative, the higher the motivation and engagement of those concerned. A closer look at the twelve criteria used by Gallup reveals a combination of appreciative management style, efficient organization, opportunities for self-development, and a fair and positive working environment. That’s hardly rocket science, is it?
The Twelve Elements of Great Managing
—The Gallup Questions
1.Do you know what is expected of you at work?
2.Do you have the materials and equipment to do your work right?
3.At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?
4.In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5.Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?
6.Is there someone at work who encourages your development?
7.At work, do your opinions seem to count?
8.Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?
9.Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?
10.Do you have a best friend at work?
11.In the last six months, has someone at work talked with you about your progress?
12.In the last year, have you had opportunities to learn and grow?
Before a business uses empty statements, interchangeable platitudes, or just the blindingly obvious to create a vision—in short, before it indulges in bullshit bingo—it would be better to forgo all forms of so-called visionary statements. And that applies to start-ups too. However gripping the success stories of Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin may be, not one of them was a first mover, not one of them started out as a gifted visionary with a great new idea. Writing in the magazine Brand eins, Thomas Range is blunt: “Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos didn’t invent online retail. Ebay’s founders didn’t invent the online auction. Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin didn’t invent the search engine. Mark Zuckerberg did not invent social media with Facebook. And the founders of AirBnB didn’t invent private online room rental.” What is common to these and other successful entrepreneurs is a sense for what the market is looking for and systematic and disciplined development and implementation of their business model. If you have been a customer of the one-time online bookseller Amazon for more than ten years, then you will have witnessed firsthand the company’s constantly expanding range of products and digital services.
Conclusion: It takes lots of small steps to set up a business and hold it steady on the long road to success. The best moment to accelerate this process with an appealing vision, for customers and the workforce alike, is probably not in the first tentative phase, but when the business is already well underway and the signs are multiplying that “there’s something in this.” Indeed, that something then becomes the script for an inspiring yet realistic vision. And only then does a vision become an engine of progress and a motivator of people, rather than just a naïve, potentially embarrassing, and, worst of all, distracting delusion of grandeur.
Who is actually responsible for the “vision” of a business? For the Incas, it was clear. The Inca himself, anointed by the Sun God, determined the path, and it is not that much different in modern organizations. A vision statement can only be effective if the leadership team is fully on board and everyone in the business buys into it. Furthermore, it is top management that must have the courage to adopt Collins’s “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” idea and then appoint and work with a competent team on creating a sustainable vision. Not only large businesses benefit from well-documented