The Thoughtful Organization

Are you thoughtful? In this season of summations, as you look back on the year, ask yourself if you were thoughtful. You were certainly reactive, often put out fires, routinely made split second decisions, but were you thoughtful? An annual bout of thoughtfulness can align and realign you at the inflection point of the past and future of your business.

Is your organization thoughtful? Often we don't think of our organizations as 'thoughtful' or not 'thoughtful' or as 'reactive'. Often we don't think about our organizations as aseptic mechanical devices, not organisms. If something is mechanical, then it cannot be thoughtful. It's a machine. When I push buttons, it works, when I don't it is lifeless.

The lifelessness of an organization comes from the definition as we're taught traditionally comes from "to organize", like a file cabinet might organize paper. I think a better, living definition is treating an organization as a living organism, with emphasis on the living, breathing, thinking aspects of the business.

Organizational life. Intuitively, we know that organizations are organisms. In our businesses we see people come and go, products come and go, seasons come and go, yet we expect the organization to live beyond the short-term deadlines. Businesses suffer loss, as people do, from death, financial trouble, poor decisions, misfortune. We talk about "breathing life in the the business", "bringing in new blood" and "resurrecting a product" because we know that there is a life, in the business, separate from the owner.

Organizational thinking. Being thoughtful about your business or organization is separate from the daily to-do lists, separate from you job in the business. We all have tasks and jobs, but as owners, as leaders, we must take time to look beyond daily tasks to be thoughtful about our business; to do some organizational thinking. Strategic planning, project planning and delegation are all subheadings for organizational thinking. If you want to be truly thoughtful about your business you must ask even bigger questions, then be thoughtful about your answers.

Exposure to the outside world. I was just a part of the NAFDMA (North American Farmers Direct Marketing Assoc.) live board retreat in Williamsburg, VA. I was clearly outside my world in which, as many of you can relate to, I am the benevolent dictator. Here, I was just a board member, a junior one at that, trying to catch up. NAFDMA is clearly a thinking organization and as a new board member I can see that I am clearly standing on the shoulders of hard work done by previous boards. It's this exposure to a new situation that got me started thinking about our Maize Quest organization and our farm organization and our Fun Park organization.

Self-examination. Seldom do you find a group, as I did at NAFDMA, so willing to examine itself, its programs, its products, its value to members, its unique position in the market. It was an exercise in creative destruction - What should we build up? What should we tear down? Why are we here? Why do people join? Why do they leave? What do they love? What pisses them off? It was a bit ruthless and occasionally contentious, but it was so valuable. When was the last time you took a hard look at your business and asked hard questions? With a group of people, freed from political correctness by mutual trust, you will get the real answers. Clearly, you have to know where you are right now, before you can pilot a course to the future.

Mission, vision and all that crap. Quite frankly, a lot of what passes for organizational thinking is a load of crap. Wordsmithing vision statements destined to rot in a binder on a shelf is a classic example of all that embodies the negatives of corporate retreats. (Here's a link to a great web tool for generating crappy mission statements that sound nice. http://www.netinsight.co.uk/portfolio/mission/missgen.asp) Please don't dismiss the value of missions and visions because of a previous experience or assumption. Even if you don't have a mission statement, you live a mission. Often your mission simply becomes "Survive and Hope" - (you work to survive and hope things get better, as if it will happen by magic.)

Guiding principles. While official mission statements are of questionable value, knowing your guiding principles is vitally important. It takes some real thought to write down the answers to:

"Who do we really serve?"

"Why do people visit our farm, when they don't have to?"

"What makes us special?"

"What to we add to society that no one else does/can?"

"How do we treat guests?"

"How do we treat employees?"

"How do we make money?"

"How could we double our profit?"

"How could we lose our shirts next year?"

Just the act of asking those questions to 2-10 people on your team starts amazing conversations, maybe some arguments, perhaps a fist fight, perhaps an epiphany, and just maybe some clarity. I guarantee you that it moves your organization "up the Bell Curve", because it is so easy to just keep pluggin' away, that most businesses simply won't do it. They choose not to be thoughtful.

Get a mantra. If someone asked you what you do, could you say it in 5 words or less? That's a mantra. When employees join, I tell them the training is easy. I can do it in three little words.

Maize Quest Mission Statement (From that Mission Statement generator):

We are in the business of pursuing a high level of customer satisfaction with dedication to personal goals from the bottom up.

Maize Quest Fun Park's REAL mantra: "Make people happy."

Is that clear enough? We teach employees that that's the only filter they need to remember. It's so simple, it is profound. It took us a while to come up with it, but when we thought about it, our success boiled down to successfully delivering on those three little words.

Do NOT set goals, until you've done this assessment. You can't possibly set goals until you know who you are, what makes you special, how you add value, and have memorized your mantra. Once you do, the goals almost set themselves! You must set goals for 2012, I command it! :-) but that comes next.

Take the time to be thoughtful. This is the most wonderful time of year. I hope you enjoy a season of blessings and a season of thankfulness. Take some time to be thoughtful about your living, breathing organization. Ruthlessly examine yourself and your organization. As you do, write down your guiding principles; spell out your mantra. Answer those questions listed with a full discussion amongst your family and team. 

The inflection point. The inflection point is the point at which things change direction. At the end of the year, you are at a natural inflection point and it's time for a serious bout of thoughtfulness. Read some emails. Get a new book. Attend a conference. Talk with colleagues in your industry. Share and absorb. Be thoughtful.

Start this new year with a clear outlook and a clear understanding and it will indeed be a happy new year.

Have a great week,

Hugh

PS Just to be clear: If you don't spend the time developing an organizational purpose, mission or mantra, you still have one. I've seen businesses with missions/mantras such as:

-Don't piss off Grandpa.

-We've always done it this way. (as if the world never changes)

-Out yield/rent/sell/grow/shine that S.O.B neighbor. (at all costs)

-Make payroll / bank payment.

-Keep peace in the family. (even if we go out of business)

-Make everything equal. (even if not everyone works equally)

-Win (my personal) award for acres/yield/revenue.

-Show Dad I can do it. (even if I don't want to do it)

These may seem like silly examples, but they are real examples of missions and mantras followed, lived by and suffered for by real people. If you don't create your own, you're likely living a self-defeating mantra you learned in your childhood, from your neighbor, from a competitor or other outside force. Shouldn't you be living your own? Would you rather it be imposed upon you? ...Me neither.