Course: The power of being different

Course Layout

 

This course is divided into three areas:

  1. The module menu
    1. The module menu gives you an overview of the individual modules and lessons of the course.
    2. Each module of this course is broken down into smaller lessons.
  2. The content display area
    1. The content display area is where all of the information is presented.
  3. The evaluation tools area
    1. The evaluation tool area provides the questionnaires to be filled out by students at 2 stages in the course: before and after.

 

Module Menu:

Module I: Incrementalism

v     Lesson 1: What is incrementalism?

Ø      Incrementalism is a sign of linear innovation. Linear innovation means: just adding quality to existing models or processes. The profit or satisfaction we get out of that is—surprise—I N C R E M E N T A L !

 

v     Lesson 2: How to eradicate incrementalism from your life

Ø      Some of the useful tips given in Tom Peters’ book “The Brand You 50” on doing self-examination in order to find out how they can be different; on discovering the fields in which you can distinct yourself from others, and, hence, eradicate incrementalism from your life, are discussed.

 Module II: Radicalism: Becoming a Revolutionary

v     Lesson 3: Formulating Personal Strengths.

Ø      This chapter suggests a paradigm shift by teaching you to see yourself as a brand and a gray-haired revolutionary. It blends Hamel’s business theories with Tom Peter’s suggestions on to be your own brand in a unique way, so that you know how and where to start with the “different” you. This is the first of a series of lessons that will transform you into a revolutionary; a radicalist; a nonlinear innovator.

 

v     Lesson 4: Formulating personal mission/vision statement

Ø      The construction of  good mission and vision statements are discussed. A number of similar viewpoints on writing these statements are reviewed.  Your mission should say who you are, what you do and for whom; your vision statement will have to articulate the future.

 

v     Lesson 5: Formulating most important current goal + Plan of action.

Ø      The a-b-c of setting goals is: reach-ability. Baby-steps. Goals that you attain easily, that give you an energy-boost to shoot for the next level, because you can see the results! Depending on your goals, your action plan may be a simple one-liner or a detailed chart with a budget and a hierarchical set up. Ways to go are suggested.

 

v     Lesson 6: Identifying your Target group.

Ø      It is tremendously important to make yourself familiar with your target group’s culture before trying to penetrate it. It’s always easy to see things from your own perspective, assuming that everyone should understand what’s so wonderful about your product or service. Realize that, although there may be plenty of potential clients out there, you want to focus in on the ones that will provide you (or your organization) the highest satisfaction in return for what you provide them.

 

v     Lesson 7: Identifying ways to maintain open lines with sources.

Ø      Some of Tom Peters’ suggestions from The Brand You 50 are presented, such as reconnecting with interesting people you’ve lost touch with; inviting new acquaintances for lunch and going new places.

 

v     Lesson 8: Writing your Declaration of Personal Independence.

Ø      The mission statement, the vision statement, as well as the strengths you’ve formulated in previous lessons, are invaluable here.

Final Assessment

v     Lesson 9: Writing your essay: guidelines.

This knowledge check evaluates your comprehension of the course content.

The first page of each module will describe and provide a link to each of its lessons, enabling you to jump directly to a specific lesson.

Each lesson begins by identifying the module and lesson as well as that lesson's objective.

Evaluation Questionnaires:

§         Pre-course

§         Post-course

 

Introduction to “The Power of Being Different”

Audience:

This is a web-based course that can be used as a functional instrument of education by individual entrepreneurs, small business owners, as well as all other interested adults who want to improve their personal leadership skills in day-to-day operations.

Purpose:

This course discusses the necessity of being different as a powerful tool toward achieving success.

Coursework focuses on increasing the insight of course participants in the importance of moving away from incrementalism (continuous innovation that guarantees safe but small successes), and getting used to radicalism (innovating in a complete different field: doing what others haven’t thought of yet). The course will provide the basics one can maintain to preserve an innovative spirit and assure impulses for constant improvement. These basics will be built upon the following self-analyzing tasks for students:

·         Formulating and presenting their self-perceived strengths

·         Considering and presenting their mission and vision statement

·         Formulating their life goals

·         Defining their target group

·         Formulating ways to maintain relationships with revolution potential.

·         Formulating ways to detach themselves from the status quo

·         Formulating a declaration of personal independence

·         Formulating their next plan of action.

The course will also emphasize on the disadvantages of being risk-averse, no matter how comfortable the status quo may be.  This will be incorporated in the postings and discussions when working on the formulation of ways to detach oneself from the status quo, in the second week of the course. Issues such as diversity, change of daily rituals, and empathic listening to the self and others, will be conferred. The points of view of several management gurus on revolutionary management will be analyzed. Suggestions on how to maintain revolutionary leadership will be made.

Note: It is highly recommended, although not required, that you take the lessons in order. Each lesson assumes knowledge of information covered in previous courses.

 

This course contains the following modules and lessons:

Module I: Incrementalism

v     Lesson 1: What is incrementalism?

v     Lesson 2: How to eradicate incrementalism from your life.

This module discusses the problem that most large, established organizations, as well as people are facing once they gained importance: incrementalism. This is the process of endlessly renovating and improving, and focusing on the most obvious competitors, resulting in the great lag that finally costs them their place in the market.

·         Organizations do that by following the familiar path that all competitors are following, instead of looking for other opportunities

·         People do that by allowing themselves to get caught up in running from one meeting to another without creating time for something completely different, which is THE way to keep an open and novel mind.

 

Module II: Radicalism: Becoming a Revolutionary

v     Lesson 3: Formulating Personal Strengths.

v     Lesson 4: Formulating personal mission/vision statement

v     Lesson 5: Formulating most important current goal + Plan of action.

v     Lesson 6: Identifying your Target group.

v     Lesson 7: Identifying ways to maintain open lines with sources.

v     Lesson 8: Writing your Declaration of Personal Independence.

This module reviews possible ways to get into the lead and stay there. The phenomenon of radicalism will be discussed. The need to “look in different places”, and “how to become a gray-haired revolutionary” (Hamel, 2000), will be focused on. Participants will be encouraged to offer suggestions on how to become a revolutionary in their own company or life.

Some appropriate components of how to obtain a state of mind to detach oneself from the status quo and start moving ahead will be presented, and then discussed.

This is also the week where we will develop a dialogue on some important issues to make renewal a constant factor in your life. Some of Tom Peters’ hints from his book The Brand You 50 will be reviewed. Students will be given assignments and exercises to assist them in formulating their own “mode” in becoming and staying radicalists.

Final assessment:

v     Lesson 9: Writing your essay: guidelines.

This part, which is presented at the end of module II, evaluates your comprehension of the course content.


Module I: Incrementalism

This module discusses the problem that most large, established organizations, as well as people are facing once they gained importance: incrementalism. This is the process of endlessly renovating and improving, and focusing on the most obvious competitors, resulting in the great lag that finally costs them their place in the market.

·         Organizations do that by following the familiar path that all competitors are following, instead of looking for other opportunities

·         People do that by allowing themselves to get caught up in running from one meeting to another without creating time for something completely different, which is THE way to keep an open and novel mind.

 

Lesson 1: What is incrementalism?

In the dictionary increment is described as “added amount” or “increase.”

Gary Hamel, the management guru that we will cite very often in this course, has multiple ways of defining incrementalism. One of them, maybe the shortest, is “Trying harder.” He refers here to companies that review and re-review their processes to see where they can upgrade their efficiency and effectiveness to produce more, faster, cheaper, and the like. But they forget one thing: it may be much more rewarding if they just do it COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! See, the problem with incrementalism is, that sooner or later you’ll hit, what Hamel (2000) calls, “ the wall of diminishing returns:” Your revenues will continue decreasing, up till the moment that you will pass your break-even point and start losing money! For think rational; how long can you continue to upgrade processes? How long can you continue to polish existing models? How long can you maneuver within the maintenance of old, established wealth without creating new ones? (Read Gary Hamel’s Leading the Revolution, 2000, p. 37, if you want to deepen this out).

As an entity of its own, increase is generally something positive, right? But if all you do is adding to existing patterns, you will find yourself always being maneuvered in the position of a follower. This doesn’t mean that incrementalism is bad in any case. It just means that true leaders in every field of their life try to be unique; different; radical. And that, of course, is the opposite of incrementalism.

To make it even more clear how disastrous incrementalism can be in business, here’s a paragraph, borrowed from Thomas Homer-Dixon’s The Ingenuity Gap, (2000, pp. 302-309):

“Incrementalism assumes that our circumstances are reasonably stable and change is slow. Because the past isn't that different from the present, decision-makers can draw on what they have learned from the past - their practical knowledge, habits, and standard operating procedures, for instance - to guide their decisions in the present. But today our circumstances are sometimes marked by sharp upheavals and swift obsolescence of technologies and past knowledge. Also, today people often don't have the luxury of making small, provisional decisions and then waiting to gauge the results: as we have seen, for instance, in the Asian financial crisis, micro-events and decisions can have macro-consequences, and by the time a decision-maker realizes that the consequences of a small decision aren't good, it may be too late to change the course of events.” (http://publish.uwo.ca/~mcdaniel/incremen.html)

Bruce Vladeck writes in his article Medicare and the politics of incrementalism  incrementalist models fit extremely well with patterns of actual policy making, bureaucratic behavior, and even popular discourse. Incrementalism also provides the basis for a remarkably coherent historical narrative, beginning with the political system's Madisonian constitutional design and affirmed by the broad patterns of two centuries of America.” Vladeck warns us for using incrementalism as a strategy in our work, personal life, or any other area.

Gary Hamel calls for companies to “get off the treadmill of incrementalism.” It is Hamel’s definition of incrementalism that we will use in this course. Hamel's message is about strategy; it's about customers; it’s about the supply chain, but more important, it’s about innovation and radical new business models. That’s what he calls: the end of incrementalism.

 

In an interview with William Finnie, published in the Jan/Feb 2001 edition of “Strategy and Leadership”, Hamel states, “The returns on incrementalism are not what they used to be. We are reaching a point of diminishing returns on most of the traditional improvement programs that companies have been pursuing. Companies need strategies that are radical, and they need to develop them at a faster clip than ever before.”

To make his point even more clear, Hamel states, “In an increasingly non-linear world, a company's future depends on its ability to generate and exploit non-linear ideas. Incrementalism is no longer enough. Any company with a largely undifferentiated strategy will be consigned to mediocrity. So what is radical innovation? From where does it come? And how do you increase the odds that it will bubble up in your company?”

A good way to explain incrementalism is found in Hamel’s article “What CEOs can learn from America” (http://www.fortune.com/sitelets/wtc/ceo2.html) where he explains:

There is a reason that many Industrial Age paragons--from AT&T to Coca-Cola to Motorola to Intel--are struggling to adapt to a world where change jumps and spins, tumbles and careens. Along with virtually every other company born before yesterday they are much better at optimization than they are at rule-breaking, game-changing innovation. Incrementalism is wired into their metrics, woven into their management processes, and baked into their compensation criteria. Innovation, experimentation, and creativity are tolerated when safely corralled in R&D or product-development units, or locked up inside of incubators and new venture divisions, but they are seldom full-throated rivals to optimization and incrementalism. Put simply, most companies don't do paradox well.

This lopsided enthusiasm for incrementalism was perhaps forgivable in a world where change meandered rather than lurched. But in a discontinuous world, an inability to manage the paradox of optimization and innovation amounts to a mortal sin. The recipe for failure here is simple: pour ever more energy into optimizing what is already there.

So let’s get to the point. In this lesson the following ideas are crucial:

ü      Hamel’s business definition can also be applied in the personal field. This is where we will find that strategies that work in business, work just as good in private life.

ü      Incrementalism is a sign of linear innovation. Linear innovation means: just adding quality to existing models or processes. The profit or satisfaction we get out of that is—surprise—I N C R E M E N T A L !

ü      Incrementalism is not always a no-no. In some situations it may be wise to be a follower…at least for a while. But we have to keep focused on the essence of life: making a difference as much and often as possible.

ü      Incrementalism as a strategy is outdated in the world of today.

ü      The main conclusion from all the above statements is, that the world is changing at an increasing speed, and: if we don’t want to lag; if we want to continue being part of the game, we will have to come up with innovations: for our companies, AND for ourselves.

Self test:

Summarize for yourself the most essential lessons you think you have learned from this session. Save them, and you’ll have a great tool for the future.

What did we do:

Write, in not more than 100 words, what this lecture was about in your opinion.

What have I learned:

Summarize in not more than 100 words (your own words) what this information about incrementalism means to you specifically.

How will I apply it:

Explain in not more than 200 words how you think you will apply the knowledge you gained through this lesson in your professional life. (Application in your personal life will be discussed in the next lesson, but you may already start to think about it if you want).


Lesson 2: How to eradicate incrementalism from your life.

In the previous lesson we looked at incrementalism—gradual improvement—from a general perspective. One of the conclusions we could draw from that lesson is, that incrementalism blocks creativity. Well, that is not only the case in business, but in our private life as well!

Although, again, it’s not always wrong to perform a step-by-step process in order to improve a good product or service over time, it should never be a rule of life to merely improve existing models or patterns and not come up with something entirely different. If you like games, for instance, you probably remember how excited you were when the Sony play station came out. This was not just an improvement of an existing product, but a revolutionary step in game-playing!

Tom Peters encourages his readers in “The Brand You 50” to do some thorough self-examination in order to find out how they can be different; to discover the fields in which they distinct themselves from others (p. 102). In this book Peters also gives a number of very useful tips on how to make sure that you are injected with fresh ideas regularly, and, hence, eradicate incrementalism from your life. Here are a few things, derived from that book that will trigger your creativity:

¯     This is your life. Your unique journey. Forget what “they” will say. Do what “you” feel is good.

¯     Ask yourself: What do I want to be?

¯     Become your own brand. “Brand You.”

¯     Establish your personal brand; create a Yellow Pages ad for … you. What would you write?

¯     Make sure that all things you are involved in, are interesting to you. Call them, if nothing else, like Tom Peters does: WOW Projects!

¯     Commit yourself fully to The Project Life. Pursue Mastery.

¯     You -- Brand You -- are a “package.”

¯     "Inc." yourself. Become accustomed to the mindset: I am a company.

¯     Don’t hush anymore; speak out! Brand You is about what you value!

¯     Work on your capabilities. Brand You demands a rich, diverse portfolio of skills.

¯     Be multiple applicable. This will prevent you from becoming “obsolete.” Brand You Warriors wear at least Eight Hats

¯     Paint a compelling, technicolor word picture of who you are.  (In the sessions on Radicalism, we will get deeper into this part)

¯     Walk the Talk. ("Be the change you want to see in the world." -- Gandhi)

¯     Turn crummy little tasks into Hopelessly Cool Projects. It is possible! It depends on your approach toward what you’re doing. If you see it as a positive challenge, you may surprise everyone!

¯     Work with what you've got! Make it a masterpiece!

¯     You are your portfolio: Think Quality of Project Portfolio

¯     You are the WOW-ness of every project. So: Score WOW-ness!

¯     Focus!

¯     You are your Clients I: Brand You is defined by his/her clients: Who they are. Who they aren’t.  So … listen to them! Connect with them!

¯     You are your Rolodex: Make it a habit to meet interesting people. The freakier, the cooler. And one more thing: be loyal and credible!

¯     Make sure you can add to your “product line” (= what you’re excelling in) regularly.

¯     Dare … Daily.

¯     Build your own “Brand You” web site. A really cool one!

¯     You are your own P.R. agency. For starters: Join Toastmasters if you need some upgrading.

¯     Work on your Optimism. (Spreaders of doom + gloom rarely attract followers!)

¯     Renew regularly.

¯     Learn from … anyone. Anywhere. Any time. Become a sponge … for Cool Stuff. (Work on exposing yourself to cool stuff.)

¯     Install your own personal “Board of Directors” with people that you admire and trust.

¯     Be a leader in your own life. (“Leadership” is independent of formal position. Period.)

¯     Obtain power. Know how to play politics. Power matters, and stuff that gets done demands superb political skills.

¯     Develop your own marketing plan. We are all in sales. All the time. You need not only know what your product is, but also, how you will sell it best!

¯     So what is your product????

¯     Be a Free Agent…in every aspect of your life. Take responsibility. Be creative! Be different!!!!

So, this is Tom Peter’s book, The Brand You 50, in a nutshell. If you really want to make sure that you maintain your creativity and only use incrementalism when it is strategically the wisest thing to do, you should buy this book and regularly read a couple of pages. It helps.

 

Self test:

Summarize for yourself the most essential lessons you think you have learned from this session. Save them, and you’ll have a great tool for the future.

What did we do:

Write, in not more than 100 words, what this lecture was about in your opinion.

What have I learned:

Summarize in not more than 100 words (your own words) what this information about incrementalism means to you specifically.

How will I apply it:

Explain in not more than 200 words how you think you will apply the knowledge you gained through this lesson in your personal life.


Module II: Radicalism: Becoming a Revolutionary

This module reviews possible ways to get into the lead and stay there. The phenomenon of radicalism will be discussed. The need to “look in different places”, and “how to become a gray-haired revolutionary” (Hamel, 2000), will be focused on. Participants will be encouraged to offer suggestions on how to become a revolutionary in their own company or life.

Some appropriate components of how to obtain a state of mind to detach oneself from the status quo and start moving ahead will be presented, and then discussed.

This is also the week where we will develop a dialogue on some important issues to make renewal a constant factor in your life. Some of Tom Peters’ hints from his book The Brand You 50 will be reviewed. Students will be given assignments and exercises to assist them in formulating their own “mode” in becoming and staying radicalists.

 

Lesson 3: Formulating Personal Strengths.

Since this lesson is part of the radicalism module, and—as you will soon discover—ties in excellently with this topic, let’s first talk about Gary Hamel’s idea of what radicalism is. Hamel shakes us up by asking, “Can you go nonlinear?” With going nonlinear he means, going in a different direction than what is logically expected and, hence, predicted. Hamel then warns us that, “In the age of revolution it is not knowledge that produces new wealth, but insight.”

If we first limit our scope to the business area, we see that Hamel explains, “Without radical innovation, a company [you may also read: “person” here] will devote a mountain of resources to achieve a molehill of differentiation” (Hamel, 2000, p. 51).

You know what? All of the above can pertain just as well to your personal life. In every way! Like we learned in the first module, lesson 2, you can end incrementalism in your life and start reinventing yourself on a regular basis by perceiving yourself as a company. You are a brand on your own, completely provided with:

ü        A mission and vision statement;

ü        Goals and action plans,

ü        A target group (because, don’t forget, you have skills, which are the products that you sell!), 

ü        Unique, self-tailored ways to maintain open lines with sources, and

ü        A declaration of Personal Independence.

 

This indicates that the general rules that count for businesses, also count for you as a free agent!

Embroidering on this thought, and personalizing Hamel’s statements on companies, we can conclude that people who “are creating new wealth [be it emotional, financial or material wealth] are not just getting better; they’re getting different—profoundly different.” (Hamel, 2000, p. 55)

Another important phenomenon that Hamel introduces is, “Gray-haired revolutionaries.” He emphasizes on the absolute importance for business organizations to attract visionaries who have the ability to transform businesses into “Gray-haired Revolutionaries.” What this means? Gray-haired Revolutionaries are “companies that have managed to reinvent themselves and their industry more than once (Hamel, 2000, p. 209)”.

So why couldn’t you do that with yourself? Didn’t Tom Peters give us a couple of wonderful tools in lesson 2, module 1? Remember that he mentioned that we could renew ourselves regularly by, for instance, having an own “board of directors,” meaning, people that we can discuss several issues with in order to obtain their valuable point of view; and developing our own marketing plan, because we all have something to sell to the world.

In the coming lessons we will work on transforming ourselves into revolutionaries. Radicalists. Nonlinear innovators.

Keep in mind, that “Revolutionaries don’t release wealth, they create it. They do more than just conserve, they build. (Hamel, 2000, p. 19)

Although Hamel explains the following for businesses, it also works in personal life:

“Concept innovation starts from a premise that the only way to escape the competition is to come up with a concept that is so different from the rest, that all traditional competitors are left scrambling.” (p. 69) This means that, by practicing nonlinear innovation, or radicalism, “you are not necessarily competing; you are not positioning yourself against competitors, but you are going around them! You are avoiding instead of attacking them.”

Derived from Hamel’s advises, here are a few questions you might want to ask yourself. The questions are personalized especially for this purpose:

1.      Have I let others define my focus? If you manage to not only define what you want, but also do it a little more thoroughly than others, you are well on your way to becoming a winner!

2.      Do others see me as a rule taker rather than a rule breaker? (In other words, have I just been a follower up till now?)

3.      Has my approach changed in some important way in the last two years (two months if your main source of interest is the Internet)? In other words: Have I built any new competencies; have I approached new potential clients; have I created any new sources of competitive advantages?

4.      Has there been any erosion of that what distincts me from others? In other words: has there been any negative change in the way I am perceived?

5.      Has it been getting more difficult to socialize with really cool people? Remember: cool people only want to talk to other cool people!

(This list was derived and modified for this purpose from Hamel’s “Leading the Revolution”, 2000, p. 52)

Now, getting to the point: To know who your clients should be, you need to know what your product is. And to know what your product is, you will have to formulate your personal strengths:

A helpful way to do that is provided by Matrix Resources (http://www.matrixresources.com/)

¯     The first step is: Constructing Your Profile

Construct a current profile of personal strengths and weaknesses.
The selection process begins with defining yourself. This means finding out about your relative abilities, personality, aptitude, communication skills, presentation skills and willingness to try new tasks. […] Attempt to construct your personal profile by addressing the following issues:

• Define personal strengths and weaknesses. (See below: SWOT analysis)
• In your current position, which tasks do you enjoy the most. Which tasks do you enjoy the least?
• What skills benefit my current employer the most?

Your answers to these personal issues will shape a model of current values and needs as they relate to you and your career.

SWOT analysis:

A very helpful tool to define your personal strengths and weaknesses is to make a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

On the site http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm you will find all about the SWOT analysis. Below we’ve pasted the most crucial information for this purpose. You may visit the site if you want to go more in depth.

To carry out a SWOT Analysis, write down answers to the following questions. Where appropriate, use similar questions:

Strengths:

Consider this from your own point of view and from the point of view of the people you deal with. Don't be modest - be realistic. If you are having any difficulty with this, try writing down a list of your characteristics. Some of these will hopefully be strengths!

Weaknesses:

Again, consider this from an internal and external basis - do other people seem to perceive weaknesses that you do not see? Are your competitors doing any better than you? It is best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.

Opportunities:

Useful opportunities can come from such things as:

Threats:

Carrying out this analysis will often be illuminating - both in terms of pointing out what needs to be done, and in putting problems into perspective.

You can also apply SWOT analysis to your competitors - this may produce some interesting insights!

(available at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm)

Once you’ve determined your strengths and weaknesses, you can move on to finishing up the formulation of your personal profile.

Here’s what your personal profile could look like:

Personal Profile
· Team Player
· Self Initiative
· Customer Service Oriented
· Expertise in core business knowledge
· Excellent communication and presentation skills
· Mastery of computer skills and business applications
(http://www.matrixresources.com/)

¯     Now it’s time for the second and final step in formulating your strengths: translating them into personal objectives.

Translate strengths and weaknesses into personal objectives.
Next, translate these thoughts to a blank sheet in the form of personal objectives. Be demanding of yourself, and avoid being nebulous. For example, you might state that "Leverage my customer service and outstanding skills to support key business operations" " as opposed to "Work with customers".

Here’s what your personal objectives could look like:


Personal Objectives
· Support customers in Financial Services Division
· Join a Financial Users Business Organization to improve business skills
· Invest personal time (and money) in training courses to learn Financial software

(available at: http://www.matrixres.com/matrix/website.nsf/d30fff78d7922037852566e100540aaf/4cd6b024f94854f58525696500676c60?OpenDocument)


Lesson 4: Formulating personal mission/vision statement

Intro:

In his book “Crafting Effective Mission & Vision Statements,Emil Angelica defines a good mission statement as “a short, snappy statement of the purpose of the organization" that possesses four qualities: breadth, durability, challenge, and distinction.”

Angelica defines a vision statement as follows: “A vision statement "sketches a picture of the organization's desired future in a few paragraphs," answering two questions: "What will be different in the world in three to five years because our organization exists? And, what role will our organization play in creating that difference?”

In fact you already have the basics here.

But let’s go into a little more detail.

The Mission statement:

Tom Peters said: “A true mission is a clear and compelling goal that focuses people's efforts. It is tangible, specific, crisp, clear and engaging. It reaches out and grabs people in the gut.” (http://www.tompeters.com/toms_world/t1993/050793-in.asp)

Sweeney (2002) explains in an article, titled “What's your mission?” published by Credit Union Management; that “a good mission statement […] must explain [your] objectives, [and] purpose. Your mission should say who you are, what you do and for whom.”

Short and to the point is the secret of a good mission statement. It may vary from one sentence to a paragraph. But don’t make it too long. A mission statement needs to communicate the essence of you or your organization to your stakeholders and to the public.

What is important about your mission statement is that your  main ideas are articulated, understood and supported by your stakeholders.

Why is a mission statement important?

 

For many reasons, among which the following:

§         Stakeholders can waste time "barking up the wrong tree"

§         You may not be able to think broadly enough about your possibilities if your mission statement is unclear or overly narrow

§         You may not realize when it is time to change your focus.

§         Most importantly, "If you don't know where you're going, it doesn't matter which way you go."

 


Suggestions for your Mission Statement.

 

Your mission statement could consist of these main points:
 

¯     A Purpose statement:

·         What you seek to accomplish.
An example of a purpose statement is "to motivate school-dropouts."

In defining purpose, it is essential to focus on outcomes and results rather than methods: How is the world going to be different? What is going to change? Thus, the purpose of a mental health counseling agency would never be simply "to provide counseling services," for that is describing a method rather than a result. Rather, the purpose might be "to improve the quality of life" for its clients.

¯     The Business Statement:

This statement outlines the activities you choose in order to pursue your purpose. Specifically, you must answer, "What activity am I going to do to accomplish our purpose?" For example, there are many ways to work on the motivation of school drop-outs:

·         to organize tutoring sessions

·         to educate the parents in motivation at home

·         to provide job training to school drop-outs.

Each of these are different activities, but they may be different means of achieving the same purpose.

¯     Values:

Values are beliefs, which you hold in common, and endeavor to put into practice. The values guide you in performing your work. Specifically, you should ask, "What are the basic beliefs that I have?"

Examples of values include: a commitment to excellent services, innovation, diversity, creativity, honesty, integrity, and so on.

¯     In addition to the three elements discussed above, you may want to address the following questions in developing your mission statement:

(More detail available at thesite from which this text was personalized: http://www.allianceonline.org/faqs.html)

Clearly, the answers to the these questions could be included in the mission statement or added as elaboration of the mission statement.

Pinskey (1997) writes, in 101 ways to promote yourself, “Whether you’re a big business or a mom-end-pop-store, whether you’re global or on a street corner in a town with a population of 700, a mission statement:

o        Presents a way to establish and understands goals

o        Regulates the means and the time frame by which these goals will be accomplished

o        Brings substance and meaning to why you are doing business. (p. 7)

Once you’ve written your Mission Statement, ask yourself these questions that Tom Peters formulated:

Do [I] have a real mission -- a Big Hairy Audacious Goal [BHAG]? Do [I] find it exciting? Does it get [my] juices going?" Does it get [me] out of bed in the morning? Can [I] say it a hundred different ways, yet the goal is still clear? And, finally, is it aligned with the underlying core values and purpose of [me, Inc.]? Keep in mind that a BHAG without the bedrock of deeper values and purpose lacks the spirit of great human achievement. (http://www.tompeters.com/toms_world/t1993/050793-in.asp)

 

The Vision Statement

A vision statement attempts to articulate the future. It must be consistent with [your] mission, […] strategy and philosophy. (Sweeney, 2002, Credit Union Management, p. 9)

Emmerich (2001) states, in her article What’s in a Vision? published by CMA Management, “A […] vision statement needs to be decided by management, yet it needs to capture the hearts of those who work on the team” (p. 10).  If that team entails only yourself, that’s okay. Let it capture your heart, then.

Emmerich suggests further:

1. Make your vision statement compelling

Emotion, not logic, compels people to do great things. That's why those vision statements that stir emotion work, while those that rely on logic are rarely effective.

2. Eliminate the mumbo jumbo

Get to the heart of your message and to what really matters to your customers and employees. A clear vision needs to be short - preferably fewer than 10 words. If it cannot be repeated in a short sentence, it is not going to work. Every [stakeholder] needs to hear it, understand it, believe it, repeat it, and act on it incessantly for it to take hold.

3. Resist stating the obvious

An effective vision statement serves others and ties into people's motivations. [Your co-workers] want to feel that they are making a positive impact on people's lives, not merely a positive impact on the company's bottom line. They want to be able to follow a vision that helps them realize their personal passions and beliefs.

Articulating your vision is the most powerful thing you can do; it's also one of the most difficult things to do. However, by speaking with your employees [if you are running a company] and learning what they're good at, what their goals are, and how they want the organization to grow, you can develop a vision that motivates and inspires your team to greatness.” (Emmerich, 2001, p. 10)

Tom Peters identified a clear vision of the desired future state of the organization as an essential component of high performance. (http://www.allianceonline.org/faqs.html)



So, What Is a Vision and How Can You Get One?

According to Alliance Online’s page, “a vision is a guiding image of success formed in terms of a contribution to society. If a strategic plan is the "blueprint" for an organization's work, then the vision is the "artist's rendering" of the achievement of that plan. It is a description in words that conjures up a similar picture for each member of the group of the destination of the group's work together.”

”There is one universal rule of planning: You will never be greater than the vision that guides you. No Olympic athlete ever got to the Olympics by mistake; a compelling vision of his or her stellar performance inevitably guides all the sweat and tears for many years. The vision statement should require [you] to stretch [your] expectations, aspirations, and performance. Without that powerful, attractive, valuable vision, why bother?”( http://www.allianceonline.org/faqs.html)

”A vision statement should be realistic and credible, well articulated and easily understood, appropriate, ambitious, and responsive to change. It should orient [your] energies and serve as a guide to action. It should be consistent with [your] values. In short, a vision should challenge and inspire [you] to achieve [your] mission.”

The Process for Creating a Vision
Like much of strategic planning, creating a vision begins with and relies heavily on intuition and dreaming.

As part of the process, you may brainstorm […] what you would like to accomplish in the future. […] Write down the values that you [have] in pursuing that vision.


Exercise in Creating a Vision (http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/cav.html)

Take the time to assimilate this information, use the following example to exercise your planning techniques:

It is five years from now and you have, marvelously enough, created your most desirable district. Now it is your job to describe it - as if you were able to see it, realistically around you.

Respond to the following questions:

To keep in mind:

Steven Covey captured the essence of a vision statement by explaining, “Psychologist Viktor Frankl found that having a transcendent vision made it possible for people to survive the Nazi concentration camps. And I suggest that having a transcendent, super ordinate vision is the best way to galvanize a team and find success in today's chaotic corporate world.” (Covey, 2001, Mission Implausible, p. 42)

 
Lesson 5: Formulating most important current goal & Plan of action.

Formulating your goals requires evaluations, analysis and reflection. But if you formulated your mission and vision statements, you should have a pretty good idea about where you are now (your mission statement should indicate that); where you want to be (your vision statement should explain that); and what the first step is to get there.

Remember that the a-b-c of setting goals is: reach-ability. Baby-steps. Goals that you attain easily, that give you an energy-boost to shoot for the next level, because you can see the results! That goes for everything: the CEO’s of even the most impressive mammoth organizations know it, and we all should know it as well from our day-to-day operations.

 

Another important reminder when formulating goals is, that you should set them according to your own standards and not those of others.

Your current goal:

This should be nothing more than a statement of what you want to achieve on short term. Some helpful steps:

¯     Review your mission and vision statement.

§         It’s especially the mission statement that may give you the answers to your current goals. Your vision statement is more of a direction to keep in mind for the future. Comparable to the point B you are heading toward, so to speak.

 

¯     Ask yourself:

§         If there is one thing in my life, work, or relationship that I would want to change, what would that be?”

o        This question may require some deep digging inside for some of us if we want to obtain an honest answer, but once formulated, the direction for the near future is set: working on the realization of it!

There! Your current goal should be set. Make sure that every goal is focused on making you feel better toward yourself and the world. Otherwise it’s not worth achieving!

Plan of action:

Once you have formulated your goal, you will have to develop your action plan toward realizing it. Depending on your goals, your action plan may be a simple one-liner or a detailed chart with a budget and a hierarchical set up. To use a generic, simple model here: You may get yourself focused on a plan of action, given your goal(s), by asking:

§         Where do I start?

§         What will it require from me to bring about that particular change?

§         Are there any costs (emotionally, financially, materially) involved?

§         How will I cover those?

 

Try to keep it simple. Remember: baby steps and reach-ability!


Lesson 6: Identifying your Target group.

Depending on your goals, you should know whom you are aiming at. Who will be your clients? Who are the ones that you can sell your product to? What are their habits? How can you reach them? What do you expect from them? These are some of the questions that become important at this stage.

If your target group is a whole society, keep this in mind:

It is tremendously important to make yourself familiar with a society’s culture before trying to penetrate it. It’s always easy to see things from your own perspective, assuming that everyone should understand what’s so wonderful about your product or service.

Just reading about all the blunders made in history by large multinationals, proves that even the most sizable and experienced marketers make that error time and again. (Marques, 2001, The Importance of Recognizing Culture in Marketing)

 

It may be extremely important to follow a few steps when entering a market, no matter whether the reason for entering is for business, personal, or other purposes. Here are the basics:

·         Don’t assume that everyone sees or accepts things the way you do. Historical and cultural baggage can “color” the way people look at things. Even the simplest things like choice of colors, gestures, conversation distance; time scheduling, etc. could become painful issues.

·         Make sure you know someone in that society that can bring you “at level” with local habits. Convince yourself that this person is aware of the latest slang and habit-changes in the target area.

·         Try to find out what really intrigues this society. Different cultural groups have different ways of catching each other’s attention. In Caribbean communities, for instance, the joke-sketch style is what catches the attention. Serious ads don’t even work when you try to convince them to pay taxes!

·         Always ask several people within that culture what they think of your product/service. The more opinions you can gather, the better your insight will be in possible hurdles you may encounter.

·         Keep an eye on developments. What’s generally accepted today may be abandoned tomorrow. Nothing is more awkward than trying to look “cool” by using stuffy, outdated terms.

Before anything else, though, try to figure out the level and criteria of acceptance. In Europe it’s generally accepted to use stronger language and show more nudity or cruelty on mass media than in the U.S.  On the other hand, Americans have a more “open” attitude toward each other in a conversation than Europeans. Yes, the world is developing into a global village, but we’re not there yet. Not by far. So while we’re working on it, respect local cultures…(Marques, 2001, The Importance of Recognizing Culture in Marketing)

 

 

Zooming in on the clients: a more detailed view.

Realize that, although there may be plenty of potential clients out there, you want to focus in on the ones that will provide you (or your organization) the highest satisfaction in return for what you provide them. “A small number of clients typically generate most of a business’s sales and profits.” (Slutsky, 1992, How to get clients, p. 3)  Slutsky continues, “To begin to understand where you might improve the quality of your client base, create different categories, then see into which ones your clients fall. Discover what they have in common and group them accordingly.”

Slutsky (1992) provides us with 4 helpful hints in order to identify our target group, given the product or service we formulated in our mission statement. He recommends that, for every potential client we want to consider, we should ask these questions:

1.      Does the client need [my] product or service?

2.      Can the client use [my] product or service in quantities now or in the future?

3.      Does [my] product or service meet the client’s specifications?

4.      Can the client afford my product or service? (p. 6)

Slutsky’s book focuses in-depth in the target group issue by explaining the most important things to keep in mind when dealing with clients:

1.      Identify the less profitable part of your business and skip it!

2.      Establish credibility to attract your target group

3.      Persistence is the key to success in reaching your target group..

 

Implications of each idea:

1.      Identify the less profitable part of your business and skip it!

2.      Establish credibility to attract clients.

3.      Persistence is the key to success in reaching your target group. We can learn from children.

§         Slutsky illustrates this point with the example of a child nagging her mom to go out and play. The child persists at least 16 times, after which the mother finally yells “Okay! Get the hell out and come back in half an hour! (p.134). He then mentions the book “Green Eggs and Ham”, by Dr. Seuss, about a salesman named Sam-I-Am, and a Cat. Sam-I-am never quits in trying to “sell” the cat a new product until the cat tries it, just to make Same-I-Am shut up. Slutsky reasons that children learn how to persist from the books they read, and apply it in their life. So why can’t we in reaching our target group?


Lesson 7: Identifying ways to maintain open lines with sources.

The best source to find answers to this topic is… Tom Peters.

In The Brand You 50 (1999) he comes up with a wide range of suggestions, from which we will present ten here (but there are many more!).

¯     (p. 158): point 7. Create a new habit: Visit your Rolodex. Once a month. Pick a name of someone interesting you’ve lost touch with. Take him/her to lunch…next week.

¯     (p. 158): point 9. New habit. You’re in a meeting. Someone you don’t know makes an interesting contribution. Invite him/her to lunch…in the next two weeks.

¯     (p. 158): point 12. Going out this Saturday night? Go some place new.

¯     (p. 158): point 13. Having a dinner party next Sunday? Invite somebody—interesting—you’ve never invited before. (Odds are, he/she won’t accept. So what? Go for it. It’s just like selling encyclopedias. No ring doorbell=No sale)

¯     (p. 159): point 16. At church this Sunday, the pastor announces a new fund drive. Sure you’re busy. (Who isn’t?) Go to the organizing meeting after services. Sign up!

¯     (p. 159): point19. You’re really pissed off at what’s going on in your kid’s school. So run for the school board.

¯     (p. 159): point 21. An old college pal of yours invites you to go on a long weekend by the lake. You never do things like that. Go.

¯     (p. 161): point 39. Take the door off your office.

¯     (p. 162): point 41. Join Toastmasters.

¯     (p. 162): point 48. Call the wisest person you know. ( A fabulous professor you had 15 years ago?) Ask her/him to lunch. Ask her/him if he or she would be willing  to sit with you for a couple of hours every quarter to talk about what you’ve done/ where you’re going. (Try it. It can’t hurt.)

Creativity self-test:

Think of 5 more ways to maintain open lines with your sources. Don’t just write them down. Keep yourself to really doing them!!!
Lesson 8: Writing your Declaration of Personal Independence.

Tom Peters writes in The Brand You 50 (1999), “ How do you—probably still on a big company payroll—take your f-i-r-s-t steps toward Psychological Independence? Write your own […] Declaration of Personal Independence (DPI). (p. 16)

Peters gives a few ideas on how to write the DPI by suggesting to consider the following contents:

¯     Who are you

¯     What is your product?

¯     How is it special?

¯     How is it different from others’ similar offerings?

¯     How can I demonstrate its trustworthiness?

¯     How can I demonstrate I’m “with it”/contemporary?

¯     How can I demonstrate “cool”? (p. 66)

Peters calls for you to work on your skills. Seriously! Every skill you need to reach your goal, to live your mission statement, to make your vision statement real, should be mastered.

He prepares us that “the harder you work at this…the bigger the payoff. In the world of branding, there are layers, upon layers upon layers of meaning to get translated into the Lasting Value Proposition.

According to Peters, here is what the essentials are in your Lasting Value Proposition:

It combines for the likes of us:

(1)   A growing skill base (the stuff you know);

(2)   A proven track record (project implementation that sticks);

(3)   Managed word-of-mouth reputation (client testimony, seminars conducted at local trade shows, your web Site);

(4)   Dressing for Success (how do you and your calling card look?);

(5)   Speaking skills (join Toastmasters….today); and

(6)   The illusive but all-important issue of character (in the end you are “selling” the Essence-of-You). (1999, p. 66)

As you may have recognized, the mission statement, the vision statement, as well as the strengths you’ve formulated in previous lessons, are invaluable here.

 

 

 

Final Assessment

Lesson 9: Writing your essay: guidelines

Write an essay about the lessons learned in this course. Make it original. You can, for instance, decide to write about your experiences on being different since you started practicing what we’ve discussed in this course. Or you can look into the future and write how you think it will benefit you. To get you going, here are some general essay-writing guidelines:

1)      Decide on your topic: make sure your heart is in it. Don’t bore yourself with something that will only lead to a dead end. Think thoroughly before you start writing.

2)      Organize your ideas. You can prepare an outline or diagram to put your ideas about the topic on paper, in a moderately organized format. Decide whether you want to make it flowing, or more bullet-point-like. You can always change your structure later.

3)      Write a thesis statement. This is simply a two-part statement:

                     i.            The first part is about the topic. How are you going to build that up? What will your focus be? How many different points will you highlight?

                   ii.            The second part explains why you are actually writing the essay: what is so interesting about the points you mentioned under the first part? Here’s where you give the action details.

4)      The topic you have chosen must now be explained, described, or argued. Each main idea that you wrote down in your diagram or outline will become one of the body paragraphs. Make sure that each body paragraph will have the same basic structure.

5)      Write the introduction. This should be designed to attract the reader's attention and give her/him an idea of the essay's focus. Hint: try to begin with an attention grabber. It works great!

6)      Write the conclusion. This brings closure to the reader, summing up your points or providing a final perspective on your topic.

7)      Do the finishing touch. Wait! Before considering your essay finished, review the formatting again.  

                     i.            Check the order of your paragraphs.

                   ii.            Check the instructions. Are you on target?

                  iii.            Check your writing.

 

 

 


Course Outline

 

Prelude (1 Week before start of Course)

Week 1: Progress is Not Enough

Week 2: The Power of Being Different

Conclusion (Week 3)

ü       Email to students:

§         Course outline

§         Course literature

§         Course’s asynchronous posting address

§         Course online meeting time and place with instructor

Sunday:

§         Upload posting #1.

o         Topic of the Week:

        Incrementalism.

o         Pre-evaluation questionnaire

Sunday:

§         Upload posting #3.

o         Topic of the Week:

        Radicalism: Becoming a Revolutionary.

§         Email course sponsor copies of students’ work for reviewing of 5 random samples.

 

 

Monday:

§         Email all students:

o         Word of Welcome

o         Topic of the Week.

o         Notification of first posting.

o         Posting address

o         Deadline and instructions for student’s feedback.

Monday:

§         Email all students:

o         Topic of the Week.

o         Notification of first posting.

o         Posting address

o         Deadline and instructions for student’s feedback.

Monday:

§         Downloading post-evaluations

 

Tuesday:

§         Synchronous session # 1, between instructor and students on a need-basis, in TappedIn at scheduled time, as emailed in pre-week.

Tuesday:

§         Synchronous session # 3, between instructor and students on a need-basis, in TappedIn at scheduled time, as emailed in pre-week.

Tuesday:

§         Course evaluation, including:

o         Students’ questionnaire feedback

o         Retention Rates

o         Grades

o         Level of students’ reaching course objectives.

 

Wednesday:

§         Upload posting #2.

o         Topic: How to eradicate incrementalism from your own life.

Wednesday:

§         Upload posting #4.

o         Topics:

        Formulating Personal Strengths.

        Formulating personal mission/vision statement

        Formulating most important current goal + Plan of action.

        Identifying Target group.

        Identifying ways to maintain open lines with sources.

        Declaration of Personal Independence.

        Essay guidelines.

Wednesday:

§         Email to students:

o         Grades

o         Feedback

o          

 

Thursday:

§         Synchronous session # 2, between instructor and students on a need-basis, in TappedIn at scheduled time, as emailed in pre-week.

Thursday:

§         Synchronous session # 4, between instructor and students on a need-basis, in TappedIn at scheduled time, as emailed in pre-week.

 

 

Friday:

§         07:00 PM (PST)

o         Downloading all student submissions

Friday:

§         07:00 PM (PST)

o         Downloading all student submissions

§         Upload posting #5

o         Topic: Post-evaluation questionnaire.

 

 

 


Course hierarchy

 

Text Box: Course:
The Power of Being Different

Text Box: Week 2: RadicalismText Box: Day 5:
Deadline submissions

Posting post-evaluation

Text Box: Day 4:
Synchronous session #4

Text Box: Day 3:
Posting #4:
ü	Formulating Personal Strengths.
ü	Formulating personal mission/vision statement
ü	Formulating goal + Plan of action.
ü	Identifying Target group.
ü	Identifying ways to maintain open lines with sources.
ü	Declaration of Personal Independence.
ü	Essay guidelines.
Text Box: Day 3:
Synchronous session #1.
Text Box: Day 4:
Synchronous session # 2
Text Box: Day 2:
Synchronous session #3.

Text Box: Day 1:
Email to students:
ü	Topic of the Week.
ü	Notification of third posting.
ü	Posting address
ü	Deadline and instructions.

Text Box: Day 0:
Posting #3:
ü	Topic of the Week (radicalism)

Email course sponsor students’ work.

Text Box: Day 1:
Email to students:
ü	Word of Welcome
ü	Topic of the Week.
ü	Notification of first posting.
ü	Posting address
ü	Deadline and instructions.  
Text Box: Day 0:
Posting #1:
ü	Topic of the Week (incrementalism)
ü	Pre-evaluation questionnaire

Text Box: Day 2:
Posting #2:
ü	Incrementalism in your own life.
Text Box: Day 5:
Deadline students submissions.
Text Box: Week 1: Incrementalism