Thursday 27 September 2012

After the summer, to infinity and beyond

I think if the famous Pixar designers  of Toy Story had a pragmatic catch phrase for their iconic space hero Buzz Lightyear to be  more recognisable in the real world, they would have him leaping off the bedroom lamp stand and forcefully hollering, ‘To Autumn, Winter, Christmas, Spring and our financial target policy’.  

In fact, why not consider a more realistic maxim for all our role models or significant life champions, whoever you choose them to be.  Arnold Schwarzenegger robotically pronouncing ‘I will return at some point with a stable plan which complements a new business model;’ Winston Churchill, stoic, ‘We will engage in a pugilist rule based combat system potentially on or near a sand centred saline fluid area’; Pepsi’s authentic description, ‘It’s a vegetable based fizzy beverage which is quite good’; British Airways stimulating ‘The Biosphere’s preferred aeronautical conveyance systemic enterprising purveyor of human commodity’ and Carlsberg’s mouth-watering ‘Almost a strong chance that this is close to a reasonable product if compared to global influential competitors of similar merchandise’.

Well of course; “to infinity and beyond”, I’ll be back”, “We’ll fight them on the beaches”, “It’s the real thing”, “the world’s favourite airline” and “(probably) the best lager in the world”, are definitely more impactive and stimulating for which there is a very powerful reason.

The truth and undeniable certainty is that your people want to see, feel or hear a vision which will motivate them towards being their professional best, and of course, this is defined in an authentic mission statement based on values.  And why value?  If we don’t value, we don’t care too much; if we don’t care too much we don’t deliver; if we don’t deliver we don’t compete.  Compete! In business?

So please complete this simple and free questionnaire

Is your mission statement incredibly impactive?
·         Yes
·         No
·         What is a mission statement

Do your staff value your great business mission?
·         Yes
·         No
·         Erm

If yes to the above, how do you know?

What is built into your business world to completely understand what motivates your people?

This is a free text reply area.

 
Finally the end of summer for me is triggered by my annual negotiating cost with mechanics.  As I sit in the Saab garage waiting for the service cost to my reasonably modest estate car and having instructed them NOT to replace the cam belt, the sales guy leans over and says ‘You’ll be back’’, a great statement because I will be (probably).