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Winning and Losing

1/18/2011

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Inspired by my son…

Winning and Losing. It is something we all experience; something we all have to do.  In sports, games, business and government, one team wins and one team loses.  There are varying degrees of winning and losing, which becomes more complicated by what’s at stake.  A prize, a medal, cash, pride, etc. 

These competitions where we win and lose, go on everyday, every minute, throughout the world, everywhere you can imagine.  It happens on the on the ball field, with video games, during board games, in the classroom, in the boardroom and on the battlefield.  It happens with families, friends and foes.  It happens in our country, in third world countries, in all cities and communities across the globe. It is never ending.

What do those of us who hate to lose so bad...or love to win so much, that it is way more rewarding or devastating to us than other people?  We know who we are.  We know that we are more driven than other people.  What is it that is in us, unlike the majority of other people, that we are so driven?  Driven to succeed in sports, driven to succeed in business, driven to succeed in life.

This simple, everyday thing we call competition is so elementary to everyday life, and so complex and important to some of us, it takes us on constant roller coaster rides that test our success and coaxes our senses.  This thing we call competition, where someone wins and someone loses, is not always fair.  For those of us that thrive on it, we have to cope with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  This competition thing drives us to higher highs that others will never know this ecstasy of winning.  They will also never understand our agony of defeat the way that we do.  They can only sit on the sidelines and pretend to understand, but they never will.

Those of us who know this will just continue on with the roller coaster ride and try to manage it as much as possible.  When the time comes for us to get back on the competitive track, we will always strap ourselves in and go on the ride; Yes, just for the competitive thrill of it, because we are driven.  Vince Lombardi once said, “If you can’t accept losing, you can’t win.”  How true this is, and by the same token it does not mean that you have to like losing.  He also said, “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”  We all get knocked down at some point in time, and we understand that we will get back up and be stronger the next time.

The difference between the others and us is that we win more than the people who just go through the motions.  The majority of you just expect to exist, not really trying, or having to win (or not lose).  Although we do lose sometimes and it can be very hard on us, we always bounce back, always ready for the next competition, ready to compete and win.  We do not give up; we are persistent.  This is what makes us who we are.  We are the people who go on to do great things in our lives, while the rest of you just exist.

We are the people who cure cancer.  We are the people who develop new technologies for mankind.  We are the people who solve the hard issues in business, government and life, which others do not even want to think about.

So, we will keep beating the majority of you that are just not driven like us.  To those people like us and to those things that challenge us everyday, we will tip our cap to you when you do beat us.  We will be ready for you when we meet again.
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Vision to Results

11/21/2010

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So you figured out that you had a low level VMM.  You've taken corrective action to raise the organizations VMM level, now what?  Your next action needs to be that you have buy-in from your leadership team.  If you team is small, then you need buy-in from the whole team.

At this point I have to assume that your leadership team (or leader) has the attention of the rest of the employee group.  If your leaders do not have this respect, then you obviously have other issues than just vision and results.

Lets talk about the buy-in that is needed. In this case the term buy-in means that your leaders are 100% supportive of the vision of the organization.  To be supportive they first must be informed, communicated to.   This communication is the most important part of the buy-in process; If you fail here, then your vision will fail also.   I like to communicate these type of high level important items by meeting and directing.   Directing is the art of knowing the general place you want to end up, then meeting with the team to direct them to this place.  This is a very effective technique if done right. If done wrong can wind you up some place you do not want to be and also some place you may not recover from.

So, you have this great vision and you are meeting with your team to get them the vision.   You have planned out the strategy to direct them to the promised land.   How do you get them excited and how do you get them to believe in the vision (this is the buy-in part).  YOU MAKE IT THEIR IDEA.  This is where your directing skills come in.  If you do this well then your team will come up with a organizational vision that is what you dreamed of or maybe even a better one, based on where you as a leader wants to take the organization.

Now, if you have a good leadership team and they can communicate to their teams, then you will be ready for improving your VMM level and the results will be fantastic.   Change Management comes into play here, but you can do this.  Get Vision, Get Results.

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Characteristics of VMM Levels

11/18/2010

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Level 0
- Zero vision or unaligned direction among leaders
- Virtually impossible to set goals and take action
- In general, team action waste resources
- It's unknown what work will be acceptable

Level 1
- Unclear vision and direction
- Action by teams could be in opposite directions
- Should know what is not the direction
- Difficult to do meaningful work
- Most likely not going to meet leadership expectations

Level 2
- Good enough vision to do meaningful work
- Most leadership expectations will be met
- Short projects and quick results are desirable
- Vision adjustment can take place

Level 3
- Clear vision is known and understood by leadership and teams
- Provides environment for quickest and best results
- Easy to meet leadership expectations
- Changes in business can easily lead to positive Vision alignment
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Can your VMM be less than zero?

11/4/2010

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Yes, you can have a VMM less than zero.  In the simple form of VMM the lowest level is a zero; However, in more complex instances, you can have a negative VMM.  Before we get into the explanation, let me emphasize that a zero level VMM has a core business function and either has no vision or direction at all, or is at least not communicated to the organization.
A negative VMM occurs when your organization is operating its core business under the premise that there is a vision for the organization and the perception is that employees are operating from that perceived vision.  When this happens over a period of time without proper communication of the organizations vision then operational separation may occur.  Operational separation is when the vision is so distorted over time that operational units that should be performing core task as a single unit, start operating as separate units. Since the definition of a Level 0 VMM is: no vision or direction of a current business state...when you have two "business states" because of operational separation and the organizations VMM is a Level 0 then this combination will result in a negative VMM.
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If Practice Makes Perfect...

9/7/2010

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...then, you have to define "perfect." 
 
My 15 year old son plays soccer.  He has been playing soccer most of his life.  He is in his second year of high school soccer, his forth year of club soccer and his first year of a new soccer training academy at a local university.  This all adds up to an average of nine training sessions per week.  Then about once a month they have a weekend tournament that consists of three or four games.  When high school season starts, they will have about 10 games during the four month season.  This all adds up to a lot of training/practice per game played. 

Why is this even important to this blog?  How is it relevant to business?  Easy.  In business we do minimal training per our work, or as I put it, game time. This is very scary.  We ask our team to perform at it peak but we do not provide them the training or practice needed to be perfect.

Well it can, but what is the level of training/practice are you getting?  Can it make you perfect?

More on this later...
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Winning Results

9/2/2010

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Vision is the glue that holds organizations together. It is the thing that gets everyone on the same page all moving in the same direction, trying to achieve the same goals. A business, just like in sports, in order to win everyone has to know what the vision of the organization is...and they have to believe it.

Look at any sports team you know or follow, armature or professional. They all want to win. That's their goal, to win every game, every match. A businesses goal is usually to make money, make a profit, that is their way of winning. But what is the vision of the coach or leader that will help the team win? How are the tasks you do related to the goals and vision of the organization?

A high school boys soccer team has a goal of winning every game for the season. This is a great goal, maybe even a stretch goal depending on the team. So what is the coaches vision for the team? Is it having the most fit players, the smartest players, the best soccer technique players, the best game strategy?  It will be a combination of these and other items.  A winning coach will know, but if he does not tell his players and set their expectations, then how will they be able to take action and get results?  Just telling the players what to do will only produce average results at best.

Now, take this to a typical business.  They should be operating as a team and this team needs to know the vision of the leader (coach).  It is so important that the team knows how the leader wants it to function in order to win.  If this vision is communicated properly to the team then the team will take the ball and run with it...and the results will be what the leader expects.  Get Vision, Get Results.


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Carving your own path

9/1/2010

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There has been many articles and books written about taking charge and leading the way.  This is a respectful theme and has a lot of merits.  People that take the lead are usually looked upon as the leader.  So what's the big deal?  Why is this an important subject and why now?

The big deal is that you may be leading your team in the wrong direction without knowing it; This discussion is important because you may not realize that you are.

How can you tell if you and your team are on the right path?  Ask yourself these four simple questions:
  1. Do I know exactly what the Vision of my organization is?
  2. Are the Goals of my team aligned with this vision?
  3. Can every Action that my team performs be tied to a specific goal and are the deliverables acceptable to an owner?
  4. Are the Results that my team's producing directly contributing to the vision and goals of the organization?
If you can not answer all of these questions, then you need to quickly re-evaluate the path your are on.

In the past, I have had some very smart and experienced leaders tell me that although they are not sure of the vision of their organization, they should still keep moving forward by setting goals, taking action and producing results.  So I ask them the simple question: How do the results you produce tie back to the vision and goals of the company.  And of course the answer is that they didn't know, but they thought it did.  They thought they knew enough to effectively to move forward.  They assumed that the organization was a VMM level 2 when they were probably only at a level 1 or 0.

Here is the mistake that most of us are making.  We get frustrated with the communication that is coming from our leaders, the CEO's, the Boards, the Executives...and we take it upon ourselves to "carve our own path."  We get great results, based on our belief's, and feel good about it.  STOP IT NOW!  The results probably don't align with your companies vision. If they do then you just got lucky.

Get Vision, Get results!
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Answer Poll Question

8/31/2010

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Now that the first part of the site is up, please respond to our poll so that we can get a sense of where organizations are with their companies vision.  Life is too short, have a vision of where you want to be and set your direction...and go do it! 
Get the Vision, Get Results!
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    Chet Hall - Wanting you to be the best you can be.  Get Vision, Get Results

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