I have been thinking about establishing a vision for our organization, centered around our services that are provided in two strategic 
areas:

Financial Planning & Administration 
Procurement & Supply Management

Please read through this very thoughtfully and provide your insights into the four (4) levels of questions I have listed below.
We will spend some time on this at our staff meeting in August working together to develop a VISION for our organization.
After you review these questions yourself, please discuss these questions with your employees and your customers and
see if that changes your view of your VISION or helps confirm it.  Come prepared to this meeting to present to the group what you feel
should be our VISION for our department.

Going through the process of defining a mission or vision encourages
people to clarify both their organizational and individual values.  The
process has them clarify what is important to them and how what they
want can be achieved through achieving the organization's vision.  It
allows them the opportunity to get in touch with "what's in it for me,"
as well as what's in it for the company, which brings an individuals'
purpose into alignment with the organization's mission.

Without a vision - an image of the way we want it to be - many of us
tend to focus most of our attention on what's not working.  By directing
our energy toward correcting what is wrong with the present and focusing
only on problems to be solved, we often lose sight of our ultimate
objective in the process.

In contrast, having a vision inspires us to look at the possibilities of
going beyond what is wrong and what, in the past, have been our
limitations.  It pulls us to look at what is working and where we can
go.

Focusing on limitations bogs us down.  A purpose or an expanded vision
empowers us and pulls us towards the possibilities.  When we focus on
overcoming problems, the purpose becomes to overcome the problems and
more appropriate or already-chosen objectives might be hidden from us.


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This was really brought to light when by an individual in Seattle the week
before Christmas in 1990.  Doug tells the story this way:

"The weather was cold and the ground was icy and slippery."

Ed and I walked out from a shopping mall one evening to get to our car,
and I almost lost my footing on the first step I took outside.

"As we walked towards the car, I was being very careful not to fall. Suddenly,
I heard Ed's voice calling from far behind me.

Ed was standing next to the car.  I had walked a whole parking aisle and a
half past where the car was parked."

"Ed and I both left the store at the same time, with a clear objective
- to get to the car.

Ed managed to maintain that focus.  Within that focus (on a primary
objective), he also included a secondary objective of getting to the car safely.

Without even being aware of it happening, I had become so focused on
walking safely that I had lost touch with the primary objective and walked
right past the car."

"While doing a very good job of what I was doing, it did not serve in
accomplishing the primary objective.  If Ed had not gotten my attention, I
could have become so good at walking safely that I might still be walking."

**************************************************************************

Where might your team (or organization) be falling into the trap of
focusing so much attention on overcoming problems that they lose track
to their primary objectives?

How clearly focused are your teams on their primary objectives?

What can you learn from this story that will help your teams stay focused
on their objective?

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It seems obvious that people should be clear on what they are doing,
just as it seemed obvious that Doug should have been going to his car
when he left the shopping mall.  Just because we are clear on an
objective when we start out to accomplish it doesn't mean that level of
clarity stays with us.

Often around our office one of us will be working on a project and get
stuck.  It still amazes us how quickly we can help each other get back
on track with a simple question like, "What are you trying to accomplish
with what you are doing?" or simply, "What is your objective?"  These
effective questions (EQ's) quickly refocus our attention from wherever
it is back to our objective.

****************************************************************************

What might be the value of occasionally asking your team questions like,
"How does what you are doing fit into our objective?" or "Describe what
we are trying to accomplish."

In what areas might your team be doing a good job of "walking safely,"
yet not getting any closer to its primary objective?

****************************************************************************

By focusing on overcoming problems, we tend to be mired in more and more
problems.  By continually refocusing on an elevating mission, however,
we move towards our objective and simply handle problems as needed.  By
focusing on the forward side of the NeFER (Net Forward Energy Ratio),
the creativity, energy, and enthusiasm of our people is both released
and focused.


****************************************************************************

Years ago we heard a story about three men laying brick at a work site.
All three had the same tools, mortar of identical consistency and materials
that were alike.  Yet, the men somehow appeared different to an
observer.

Curious, the observer asked the first worker, What are you doing?"

"Laying brick," the laborer grumbled.  "It's a paycheck even if it is
hard work."

"What are you doing?" the observer asked the next man.

"Well," the second worker replied, "I'm one of the construction people,
and we are putting together the east wall of a structure."

"What are you doing?" the observer queried the third worker.

"I'm helping to build a cathedral," he wiped his brow and spoke
excitedly.

"And someday right where we are standing the spirits will rise high
above us, and people will be meeting to worship and be educated."

****************************************************************************

The differences the observer noticed in the men were the variations in
attitude.  The first worker held a job.  The second man had acquiesced
to common goals.  The third goal had bought in and become aligned with a
powerful purpose and vision.

By getting in touch with the personal value of an organization's vision,
our people see how their individual goals fit in to the organization's
goals.  In doing so, the individual and organizational goals become
aligned.  In other words, both individual and organization begin moving
in the same direction toward a shared vision.  People are empowered when
they are clear about how their personal goals are supported by the
organizational objectives; when they are in touch with "what's in it for
them" for doing what needs to be done.

As leaders, we cannot assume people will automatically see "what's in it
for them."  In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen
Covey says, "you can buy a person's hand, but you can't buy his heart.
His heart is where his enthusiasm is, his loyalty is.  You can buy his
back, but you can't buy his brain.  That's where his creativity is, his
ingenuity, his resourcefulness."

If the first two bricklayers had been provided EQs, they may have
discovered their own personal value in being part of the project and had
a higher level of commitment to it.  We cannot predict the personal
benefit that any individual will perceive, and what the perceived
benefit is, is not important.  What is important is that they are in
touch with it.

USING EQs (Effective Questions) TO DEVELOP PURPOSE AND VISION

EQs fit into the concepts of purpose, vision and alignment perfectly.
In fact, a structured sequence of EQs has proven to be useful in
developing purpose and vision.  When this approach is used with a team,
natural alignment occurs because the purpose or vision is truly shared.
The key is a multileveled approach to questions that gain the individual
participation, develops the mission, and gains buy-in from the team
members.

Here is an example of how this process might proceed:

First Level:
"What are we doing that is already working well?"
"What are we best at?"
"What is our organization best known for?"
"What are our greatest strengths?"
"What is unique about us?"

Second Level:
"What is causing us to do well in each of these areas?"
"What are our people doing best in each of these areas?"
"What contributes most to our success?"
"What systems and processes particularly help?"
"What about these are particularly effective?"


The Level One and Level Two questions are focused on what is already
working. They put us in touch with the positive aspects of our current
situation and, therefore, are highly energizing and empowering.  They
prepare us for addressing the more creative and feeling aspects of our
ultimate vision by opening our minds and hearts.

Third Level:
"How would you describe the ultimate objective for our organization?"

"If you overhear a conversation about our organization one year/two years/three
years down the road, what do you want people to be saying about us?"

"What would it be like around here if you were really excited about
coming to work every day?"

"If you could create the ultimate work environment, how would you
describe it?"

"What would we be doing that would have you excited about being
part of it?"

The description of the mission or the expanded vision itself comes from
the Level Three questions. These questions can be phrased many ways, and
each configuration may help a different member of the team gain greater
clarity about what they want. Frame them in several different ways to
pull out many perspectives.

The vision becomes shared through the participation process and through
individual discovery of our own piece to the overall vision. In an
advertising function, The Prudential Insurance Company has used this
theme for years:" Own A Piece Of The Rock." Belonging is important, but
ownership of the overall vision is even more important to long-term
success.

Fourth Level:
"If we could achieve this objective - the vision of the way we want it
to be - what would be the organizational benefits?"

"If we could achieve this, what would it do for our team? For you
personally?

The purpose of Level Four's questions is to gain buy-in. Buy-in is
solidified as people get clear on the personal benefits of contributing
to the cause. Once people understand how they will benefit from
achieving their shared mission or vision, the available energy is
enhanced enormously.

The traditional approach would have a manager saying, "This is the new
mission, and here is why we are going to move in this direction." At
best, this approach generates compliance or acquiescence, but the energy
of compliance or acquiescence does not come close to the energy and
enthusiasm of ownership. At worst, telling our people our vision
generates defensiveness and resistance.

It is difficult to match the remarkable dynamics that occur when a
critical mass of people in an organization become committed to and
aligned with a shared, inspired vision or mission. These dynamics
include an exciting level of empowerment of the people, amazing
availability of discretionary energy, extensive creativity, and a
profound team synergy.

We can take the previous line of questioning one step farther to include
the following EQs:

"What do we need to do more of, better or differently to achieve this
objective?"

"What could I, as your leader, do more of, better or differently to help
you achieve this objective?"

"What two or three things can we count on you to do to support this
vision?"

It is in this step that people take responsibility and ownership for
what needs to be done - not because we told them what to do but because
they have discovered it for themselves. This step develops the critical
action plan. Without specific and appropriate action, the exercise is a
lost cause.

Notice how these questions align with the Framework for CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT (and Structured Effective Questions). An additional synergy is
created when we use the empowering framework and pull the answers from
the people through EQs.

Shared purpose and vision, and the resultant alignment, must come from
the inner heart of an organization - its people. Through the use of EQs,
the vision is discussed openly and is put into words, thus forcing
internal accountability and commitment for later actions. Alignment
through shared purpose or vision continually provides the forward side
of a very powerful NeFER.

In the book Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge, Warren Bennis and
Bert Nanus write, "A vision cannot be established in an organization by
edict, or by the exercise of power or coercion...In the end, the leader
may be the one who articulates the vision and gives it legitimacy, who
expresses the vision in captivating rhetoric that fires the imagination
and emotions of followers, who - through the vision - empower others to
make decisions that gets things done. But if the organization is to be
successful, the image must grow out of the needs to the entire
organization and must be 'claimed or owned' by all the important
actors."

Outstanding organizational performance and deep personal fulfillment
work together and reinforce each other. These exciting results can only
come through being clear on a purpose, sharing vision and being in
alignment. When in alignment, every system and technique becomes a
vehicle for infusing the spirit of renewal into the organization rather
than simply a mechanism that works only as long as leaders keep pushing
or pulling them.

More than anything else, alignment through shared purpose and shared
vision enables and empowers people and organizations to grow from the
inside out. This kind of growth goes far beyond reducing resistance to
change; it promotes renewal and builds a tenacious, vibrant spirit
within individuals, teams, and organizations.


Morris A. Brassfield
Enron Transportation Services
Senior Director
Operations Support Services
Three Allen Center 3285
333 Clay Street
Houston, Texas 77002

713-646-7006  Business Phone
713-503-1409  Cell Phone