Beyond the Sound Bite: Being Your Visions, Outcomes, and Values

Many organizations go through the process of articulating visions, values, and desired community impact/benefit. It is most often part of a strategic planning process, but also can come up when organizational leadership feels the organization is off track or struggling to be relevant in a changing world. Independent of the reason for changing or refining the vision, values, and benefit of an organization, doing so is a significant step in the development and evolution of the organization. Making the change indicates that there is a desire to be different from what we are and have been in the past. It is, at its core, a change in the identity of the organization. People are choosing to define the organization with different words, different beliefs, different desired outcomes, and potentially different approaches. THIS IS BIG!

Change is not an easy thing, precisely because it requires us to do things differently than we have done them in the past. Changing identity may be the most challenging type of change, because it requires a whole new way of thinking about who you are and then finding a path to actually behaving differently. But once we all agree on what we do want the organization to be and to accomplish in the world, we must create the conditions that will support that transformation. We must find a way to BE the organization we envision through our vision, values, and outcomes.

Being The Envisioned Organization
Imagine an actor taking on a role. The best actors appear to us as if they ARE the character: they talk like the character; they behave like the character; they interact with others the way we think that character would; and they appear to make decisions that align with what we expect of that character. In fact, it is quite common for us to actually believe that the actor IS the character expecting them to behave like that character in real life.

Poor acting is the reverse. It is when we find the whole thing unbelievable or poorly executed. The ability to be true to the character seems to be missing or out of the actor’s grasp. Or the actor simply behaves in a way that the character wouldn’t while playing the role. What the character is supposed to be does not match with what the actor is doing.

While we never want to be acting, or faking it, as leadership of an organization, the core principle still holds true – if we do not embrace the identity and behave in ways that demonstrate we ARE that identity, we run the risk of never achieving it and being perceived as a bad actor.

So what does it take to move from just being rhetorical in our identity, telling the world this is who we are, to embracing and enacting our identity?

In my work, I have found that successful organizations, like successful actors, go through the following natural process to truly become the organization their vision, values, and outcomes profess them to be.

1. Talk the Talk: Everyone representing the organization knows the language and uses it with everyone, internally and externally. People invest hours refining the language that describes the identity of the organization through developing values statements, visions statements, mission statements, and intended community impact/outcomes. Success comes when we embrace it and remind people that the language is changing. Even if our old language “seems” the same or “gets” at the same idea as the new language, that is the language of our old identity and it will hold us there rather than moving toward the new identity.
   
   To facilitate this shift, provide people the opportunity to answer and discuss the following:
   
   
   What will it take for all of us to be able to talk about the organization in this way with this new language?
   
   
   
2. Walk the Talk: Talking is one thing, but behavior is what is believable. Once comfortable talking with the new language, leadership consistently demonstrates the words in action. They are able to look in the mirror and determine if what they see is in alignment with the desired identity. This requires understanding what it takes to be accountable to accomplishing outcomes and behaving in accordance to the values.
   
   To facilitate this shift, provide people the opportunity to answer and discuss the following:
   
   
   What will it take to ensure we behave with one another in accordance with our values?
   
   How do we make sure everyone clearly experiences the values we profess?
   
   What will it take to ensure that all of our actions and decisions align with accomplishing our desired community impact/benefit?
   
   
   
3. Listen for Feedback: A mirror is not enough as it only reflects what we think and what we see. Imagine that actor never getting feedback from a director or screenwriter about how well they are portraying the character…External perspectives are critical. Reach out into the community to learn what other people expect based on the vision, values, and outcomes professed by the desired identity. Without the external voice, we run the risk of being in our own echo chamber that simply amplifies internal ideas (this is particularly risky if you haven’t mastered talking the talk as you can end up echoing old ideas and old language).
   
   To facilitate this shift, provide people the opportunity to answer and discuss the following:
   
   
   What would these values look like in action to you? What would you expect to see from an organization that holds itself accountable to these values?
   
   What do you think it takes to accomplish the community impact/benefit this organization aspires to?
   
   What would it take for you to believe that we are an organization that does this?
   
   
   
4. Act on What You Hear: The fourth piece of the puzzle is acting on the answers to all the questions asked above. Through listening for feedback and walking the talk, a great deal of salient advice will come forward. You have access to people’s expectations, both internally and externally. You have ideas about what works to create the impact and benefit that you profess. You have investment from all those who have contributed and been engaged. Now you have the opportunity to be authentic in your identity and use all of that knowledge to make decisions about the organization, it’s strategy, and its operations.
   
   Hold open the space to continually asking and discussing the following:
   
   
   What will it take to ensure we are true and authentic to our Identity as professed in our values, vision, and outcomes – both internally and externally?