“All of the world’s greatest pieces of architecture were built twice: first in the architect’s mind and only then in real life. You might get lucky once or twice. But luck can’t cut it forever.” - Richard Franzi, Killing Cats Leads to Rats
Sustainable success is not an accident. The most straightforward and effective way to get to the end is to simply begin with the end in mind, and this is most certainly true when it comes to your business decisions. It is crucial to define your desired, and expected outcome. Rather than setting overly-ambitious, vague goals, envision the specifics of what you want with tangible clarity. There are many benefits to clarifying your end goal, in addition to simply reducing the potential for unintended consequences; clarity also encourages communication, provides a sounding board for ideas, creates a more multi-dimensional perspective, and encourages a sense of ownership.
Communication
The first benefit of clarifying outcomes is that it encourages business leaders to communicate their vision to the team. It is one thing to be crystal-clear in your own vision; however, it is equally important to be able to convey your message to others in order for effective implementation to occur . Achieving your intended end goal is much more probable when your team’s “purposeful action” is aligned with your desired outcome. you’re that much more likely to achieve it. If you expect your people to engage in purposeful action towards a stated goal, it is your responsibility to ensure that you are effectively conveying your standards, goals and vision.
Collaboration
Keep communication channels open and unobstructed, and stay open to discussions with your team. In the brainstorming process, multiple perspectives, voices and ideas can be a competitive advantage. Open communication also allows you, as a business leader, to have a “sounding board” to test your ideas and receive feedback and gain valuable insights. By having this opportunity to re-think elements of your plan in a safe environment, you will reduce the chances of future problems and, of course, unintended consequences.
Perspective
The future is fluid-- you never know for certain what will occur, which is why flexibility is key. Inviting a diversity of thoughts and views to the table will allow you to embrace flexibility and perspective by providing a far more multi-dimensional picture of future projections that you might never have seen on your own, providing a more vivid picture of your desired outcome and how to achieve it.
Ownership
Finally, sharing your strategy gives your team a powerful feeling of ownership over the idea, resulting in team members feeling respected and acknowledged. Increasing emotional investment increases engagement as well. When people feel like something belongs to them, they will be more inclined to care, and spend time thinking about it, getting excited about it, and ultimately, achieving it. This sense of ownership allows individuals to feel capable of effectively translating your vision into the ultimate desired outcome.
More information can be found in my recently released book, Killing Cats Leads to Rats: Mitigating the Unintended Consequences of Business Decisions. Purchase the book on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/2pGJB6D