Achievable Vision
Problem Definition:
You are bewildered. Your vision for the organization is not gaining traction. The stakeholders or clients don’t seem motivated to work with your vision. You are new to the organization. That adds to the sense of being “wrong-footed”. You had nursed a noble intention to build a world class culture for the organization. But your ideas and script for that might look like, seems to have missed the mark.
Change is essential, and the urgency of its need is apparent. But what is the exact kind of change you would need to orchestrate. How can you generate a vision that is more practically grounded and naturally attractive to the stakeholders and clients, essential to the raison d’etre of the organization?
Your internal perspective on what the organization needs could clash with the inertial forces essential to the organization that give it character and value. Where are you being blind-sided? You are open to working with your EI coach to sort through the several issues that concern you about this situation.
The Takeaway:
The ground needs to be prepared to orchestrate change, particularly in organizations that carry within them some amount of inertia. Recognizing the inertia forces, figuring out the motivational levers in the situation - these are jobs ideal for your sessions with your EI coach. Together you can script the vision - you are responsible for implementing into existence.
The Diagnosis:
Your EI coach, uses extensive cognitive resources of survey data, questionnaires, anecdotal data, conversational data… etc. to evaluate the culture and character of the organization. She helps generate a multi-perspectival view of the organization. This helps restrain the bewilderment, chaos, and misunderstanding you feel about your new portfolio.
•Together you work to understand the motivation of the personnel involved. What skill-sets and passion are available? What are the constraints within the organization? What prejudice do you have to dismantle?
•Can new priorities be created, that are insightful and realistic? What can the eco-system of this organization deliver? What are the reefs and rocks you need to avoid?
•The EI coach sifts through your priorities to
determine if they demonstrate how much you
cherish the ground reality of the organization,
the kind of service the organization might provide,
that would truly be “world class”.
Business Reflection:
The Tata Group Global Expansion;
Merger & Acquisition of Jaguar, Land Rover
The chairman Ratan Tata orchestrated this acquisition for the Tata Industrial House in 2008. The leadership insisted that Jaguar – Land Rover stay true to the culture and roots of the founders, responsible for the creation of the brand. Where Ford had previously failed in working with the JLR brand, Tata Motors made some subtle high level changes in priorities, that transformed the performance of JLR. They did not want to Indianize it or Tata-ize it with the acquisition. This approach has paid rich dividends, and the brand has reinvented itself for the market-place, today.
Literary/Cinematic Reflection:
The Hundred Foot Journey
(Dir. Hallstorm; 2014 )
Helen Mirren
is prejudiced
about every
other kind of
cuisine,
culture, or
sociology.
Her standards
and her chefs
are challenged by a bedraggled immigrant family who buys an empty lot, 100 feet across her elite restaurant that offers a kitsch version of Indian dining.
Unfortunately for her, she discovers that within her neighbors clumsy milieu of immigrant flavors and sounds is a rare diamond. A chef of exceptional ability, who creates amazing Indian dishes. Who, interestingly, is eager to work with her. She gradually realizes the gifted Indian chef could transform the fate and stature of her restaurant in the eyes of the “Michelin” critics, whom she has been struggling to impress.
Copyright: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Business Reflection:
Ratan Tata Building The Nano; for the middle-class
Indian family:
Building an affordable car that would accommodate
a small Indian family, that would not cost more than
$2000. Sizing down the vision, to what he felt was the right priority for the Indian auto-market. Tata Motors struggled to find the right industrial venue to achieve this “small” stretch goal, and after some crippling initial setbacks, found support and land in the state of Gujarat. Backed by an inspired leadership, continually stressing the right priorities, the goal was achieved. The Nano is available to the Indian consumer today.
EI Authors A Transformation:
You have understood the organization better. You now isolate the priorities that have been in existence, and you carefully edit and trim them in ways that sustains your connection with the personnel involved.
Your success relies on your openness to feedback and a 360 degree view of multiple perspectives. The chaos is gradually being reined in and transformed. You intelligently integrate the critical review of all the stakeholders involved, and roll out your vision with small momentum builders, ideal for the organization.
You have learnt the art of orchestrating the change you need to see happen in ways that don’t repel the organization. The “vision” is gently introduced in a deeply grounded sense, where the people take ownership for the new ethos and believe it has evolved from their efforts as much as it has from yours.
The Impact:
Your leadership is appreciated and endorsed; you win yourself a deep level of organizational support. Your ground of action has grown, and larger orchestrations of initiative you recognize maybe rolled out.
