Sharing Vision and Values

Consider a marriage. A good marriage enables children to grow up healthy and well-developed. But what defines a good marriage?

In a healthy marriage, the spouses complement each other’s styles. They have a process and a culture of mutual trust and respect so that their inevitable conflicts do not become destructive.

Each of them grants and commands respect and trust. There is a clear structure of domestic responsibilities; each knows what tasks are his or her own responsibility, and what belongs to the other.

Is that enough ? No. Why not? Let’s go back a step. What if the two partners have different ideas of what a marriage is all about? One might want an open arrangement, sexually, while the other wants a traditional, monogamous marriage. These two definitions of marriage are mutually exclusive. So what now?

That’s simple. It is not going to work.

For a team to work together as a team, there must be a shared vision and shared values as well.

(Conversely, sharing a vision and values is not sufficient either. Many companies that started out with exactly that – the Body Shop, for example,– eventually failed commercially because they lacked the right structure, and process. To achieve success, all four ingredients – structure, process, people, and shared vision and values – must be in place.)

Values are what we believe in.

Vision is a statement of the desired in light of the expected: Where do we want to go, given where we are right now and how far we can reasonably expect to get in the time available? In this construct, of course, the first clause – desire – is the domain of the (E), and the second – reasonable expectations – the domain of the (A).

How do you design the vision and determine the values of a company?

At the Adizes Institute we train people to do it. The detailed methodology is in manuals, and the process takes about six days. But here are some pointers:

Defining the Market Product Scope

When I taught at universities, students used to come to ask me for help in deciding on a future career. I noticed that the students who knew who they were also knew where they wanted to go. Those who were less sure of their identities were also less sure of their destinations.

Thus we should start with “Know thyself,” which also happens to be the first item on my list of leadership characteristics.

How do you know yourself? Let’s return yet again to the functionalist, or (P) view: You are what you do for and to others, period. So if you want to know who you are, watch what you do to others.

How does an organization “know itself”? Again, start with the (P) function. An organization is what it does for or to others, period. So:

Who are our clients and what do they want? Which of their needs do we satisfy? Which don’t we satisfy?

That gives you a continuum.

Now, ask another question: What are our core capabilities – what do we know how to do?

Now put these two continuums next to each other:

You should now see four distinct sectors. Area 1 is where we have the ability to satisfy our clients’ needs – and we do satisfy them. Area 2 is where our clients have needs that we do not satisfy, or satisfy adequately. Area 3 is where we have capabilities whose potential is not being realized. Area 4 is the unknown: Clients’ needs that we do not know about, or that we do not have the ability to provide.

A startup company is all in Area 1. As it grows, the fields of Areas 2 and 3 increase as clients develop other needs that the company does not attempt to satisfy, and the company develops capabilities it doesn’t exploit.

When a company ages and becomes bureaucratized, the organization gradually loses its market and Area 1 shrinks. (When another company comes into the market to compete against an aging company, they don’t start by going after Area 1. They penetrate Areas 2 and 3 first. After building up business there, they use those areas as a base from which to attack Area 1.)

Now we can answer the question “Who are we?” The answer is that we are what we do (Area 1); what we should do (Area 2); and what we can do, if we choose to (Area 3).

This is called the company’s “market product scope,” and it is applicable not only to businesses but also to not-for-profits, which also have clients and capabilities.