visioning
Raise Me Up, Lord
Raise me up Lord, who am fallen down
void of love and fear and faith and awe
I long to rise and in my place abide;
mine is the longing, mine the impediment.
Miguel De Guevara
The second Phase in a quest for growth is seeing clearly and expressing compellingly.
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In 2010, the new CEO of Domino’s, Patrick Doyle was staring at slumping sales and an anemic stock price. While the chain was delivering handsomely on its promise to get customers pizza in record time, “you then had to eat it,” as one reporter complained.
The conventional move to deal with the malaise would have been to quietly chip away at the problem while downplaying consumers’ negative reactions. Instead Doyle and his team decided to focus on customers’ frustrations. They made a bold move to share some of the scathing feedback in national ads and on a digital billboard in New York’s Times Square. Comments like “worst excuse for pizza I’ve ever had” and “tastes like cardboard” scrolled in massive letters across its screen. The result - transformative change got fueled fast. Stakeholders could not escape the fact that Domino’s had a problem. Russell Weiner, the CMO at the time was even quoted saying “By saying what we said about the pizza, we blew up the bridge. That’s what made it so much more powerful. If it didn’t work out, there was no place to retreat to. There was no going back.”
By leveling with consumers instead of trying to spin the situation, the company demonstrated its authenticity and engaged its market directly. Customers were given an essential truth-telling role in the campaign—and an excellent reason to pay attention to what happened next. After all, they’d been enlisted to co-create the needed fix—dubbed “Pizza Turnaround,” which hit the right deeply/simply notes. The result was that the chain’s pizzas got a whole lot better, Pizza Turnaround grew same-store sales by more than 10% within a year, and the company’s stock price took off.
The next phase is to understand how the system in which one is located (beyond direct competitors) is changing, and what opportunities and risks are being created. This includes intentionally breaking free from the current norms and conventions, and can be uncomfortable. By embracing the unknown and adopting humility key members enable themselves to develop a purposeful vision because it allows them to see more clearly what needs to change and why. It allows understanding about why one exists and the ways one’s company operates and creates value. One can then imagine how one might create value differently at a functional, product and service, or even entire business model level. Such an embrace of the unknown and adoption of a humble stance is key to challenging mindsets and assumptions key members hold about the company and its current ways of working, as well as the industry and what constitutes success. And underpinning such a challenge and softening calls for understanding one’s own need to be an expert or an achiever and recognizing the importance of being open to learning. The learning here is more than “problem solving,” which involves focusing on identifying and correcting errors in the external environment. Instead learning in transformation is about looking inward, which calls for reflecting critically on one’s own behavior, identifying ways one often inadvertently contributes to the organization’s problems, and then change how one acts. And this is where the real work of leaning into the emotions of anxiety, fear, and excitement occurs as one’s identity and status moves to the back burner. One is called to view not knowing what the future might look like as a key capability, rather than a sign of personal weakness.
Crafting a Clear Rationale: In the second phase, we develop a compelling vision by examining the reasons for change and consequences of inaction. This facilitates composing and communicating the vision effectively.
Signaling a Departure: The vision must clearly indicate a break from the past, providing a roadmap to the desired future state. This involves crafting resonant messages that address stakeholder interests and concerns, ensuring alignment between the vision and actions. A poorly crafted vision fails to engage stakeholders, demonstrate feasibility, facilitate communication, and adapt to initiatives. Effective communication helps stakeholders understand their roles, address concerns, and foster shared understanding.
Maintaining Consistency: Inconsistencies in embodying and communicating the vision, such as layoffs juxtaposed with management luxuries, undermine support for change. Transparency and fairness in communication are essential to build trust and credibility with stakeholders during transformation.
“Despite hours of work developing a business’ visions, mission, and strategy, executives are often surprised by employees’ comments that they don’t have a north-star. Often these senior leaders jump right back into off-site, trying to finesse statements and make things clearer, only to discover the problem still exists.
There are five underlying issues for this complaint in employees.
- First, there is a lack of communication. Explaining the vision once isn’t enough. It must be delivered in a variety of ways — and repeated.
- Second, some vision and strategy statements are at a high, 50,000-foot-view level, rather than making sure the message is adapted for delivery at all levels of the organization.
- Third, decisions and individual actions may not be aligned with the commitment communicated.
- Fourth, team members may dislike or disagree with the vision.
- Finally, change, by definition, is disruptive. Employees worry about the additional work that might come with the new vision.”
