Cup of Joe

Vision statements, mission statements and strategic objectives are often misused and abused because they’re too often misunderstood.

Too many organizations understand that it’s important to have these things, yet don’t seem to understand just how powerful they can be.

Each year, I spend more than 170 days traveling, flying to various cities and staying in different hotels. While the comfort and decor of each room varied, there was one thing I knew would be consistent.  If I looked inside the drawer of the bed stand, I’d find a Bible. I could be sure I’d find that Bible because of the strength of a vision and the conviction of a mission.

The Gideons International, founded in 1899, is the oldest Christian business and professional men’s association in the United States. They have more than 260,000 members in more than 180 countries that are “united” (their word) in carrying out the same program using the same methods to accomplish one objective. Their literature states, “The primary object of the Gideons is to win others to the Lord Jesus Christ, and an effective means to this end has been the wide distribution of the Word of God.”

Paul McCartney testified musically that even Rocky Raccoon knows how successful the Gideons have been in their mission.  A recent count revealed that they have distributed more than 1.3 billion Bibles around the world, in more than 80 languages. Whatever one’s religious beliefs, they’d be hard to deny the success of this organization.

Let’s take a look at the Gideons’ success in light of the terms vision, mission, and strategic objectives, with a focus on the importance of a vision in an organization. Without knowing the specific words of the Gideons’ vision statement (if there is such a “statement”) one can deduce that the vision is that every lonely, life traveler – in their most quiet or troubled moments – will be next to a book that can lead them closer to Jesus.  The mission that supports the vision is to place Bibles in the “human traffic lanes and streams of national life.”  One strategic objective, which helps achieve the mission, is to place or deliver Bibles to every room in every hotel in the country.

In any organization, the vision of the leaders, or the owners, needs to be big – yet easy to understand.  It needs to speak to the hearts and minds of the others in the organization in a way that motivates them to fulfill the mission by achieving the strategic objective(s).  The vision is the why behind the what.  It provides a level of understanding in a very personal way to each individual in the organization, about how they fit into the picture. Without this understanding, we simply have people, goals and tasks. Organizations without a “unifying” vision usually find they have to work harder at getting people to work together, and helping people make better decisions. A “unifying” vision and a clear mission provide a shared context and a shared understanding for everyone in the organization. This makes for a stronger, more intelligent, more synergistic group.

You say that your organization has a mission statement?  Great.  You say a committee of very important people spent a great deal of time selecting the perfect words.  Great.  You say that everyone really seems to like it and it’s printed on a sign on the wall in your lobby?  Great. Would you like to know how effective it is?  Ask yourself how well the individuals in the organization understand the why behind the what. I’ll bet you that all 130,000 Gideon’s know the why behind their what.  Just ask Rocky Raccoon.

By: Joe Caruso, Caruso Leadership Institute – www.carusoleadership.com

As a keynote speaker during the 19^th annual 2008 CASE Conference, Joe was asked to contribute a feature article for the newsletter for the Council of Administrators of Special Education, CASE, a division of the Council for Exceptional Children, published bi-monthly.

Leading in an Out of Control World,  by Joe Caruso

A lot is asked of the CASE professional. It’s difficult enough to try to properly function in the dysfunctional and out of control environment that special education professionals deal with every day. Now CASE is asking you to lead as well?!

How does one lead a process that they don’t control? Further, how can one lead disparate individuals in micro-communities with varying and various agendas? Not to mention that there is no “leadership” line item on your already stretched too thin budget.

The fact is that we all live in a world that is out of our control. In my most recent book, “The Power of Losing Control,” I point out that we can divide the world we experience into two types of worlds—our primary world and our secondary world. Each of us exists alone in our primary world and everyone else lives in our secondary world. The distinction between these two worlds is based on one simple fact.  We have no control over anyone in the secondary world. Zip. Zero. Zilch. (And any other word that starts with a Z that denotes zero.)

This is not a pleasant thought for most people, yet the fact that we don’t like it doesn’t make it any less true. Sometimes we want to believe we can control our kids or our spouses, our partners or our friends– at least to some level, but we can’t. It’s absolutely impossible. And there is a very simple reason we can’t.

The concept of control is an all or nothing concept. We can’t be in control of something or someone unless we are in complete control. While some of us might find it somewhat seductive to believe that we can partially control this or that, we are deceiving ourselves when we do so.

Picture yourself driving a car with me in the passenger seat. You are in complete control of all of the knobs, buttons, the steering wheel, etc. except for one thing… I control the accelerator. Now, consider this–is the car in control or completely out of your control as we drive? How would you explain to the nice police officer that eventually pulls you over that the car was pretty much, kind of or partially under control?

The fact that the secondary world is completely beyond our ability to control it is not a comfortable, warm and fuzzy thought for most of us. But as soon as we totally understand and accept this reality then we have taken the first step toward learning how to be a very powerful force in our respective secondary worlds. You see, it is an out of control world, yet while we have no control over it, we definitely have power in it.

The problem is every time we confuse ourselves by thinking we can control our secondary worlds, we actually start trying to. This is where most of our frustrations begin and a whole lot of our energy begins to get wasted.

Instead we need to bring our energy to that which we can control…ourselves. When we do so, we can start to realize that while we can’t control the secondary world we can influence it. And the less we try to control it, the more powerful our influence can become. This is the key to how one can lead an organization, process or movement that they can’t control. Great leaders know that the real power of influence is all they need.

Joseph Campbell said it best. “The world is a mess. It has always been a mess. It is not ours to fix it.” It is, however, the leader’s job to influence their part of the world as best they can in order to help create a better world.

Today’s CASE professional lives in an out of control world for sure. But each and every one of you has the ability to lead — from wherever you are, whenever you can– by positively influence what’s happening. It’s not an easy responsibility for the average person, but then again, I haven’t met a CASE professional whom I would consider merely an “average” person, let alone a person who tends to shy away from difficult challenges.

I have the honor of being chosen as one of your keynote presenters at your conference in Myrtle Beach this coming November. The theme for the conference is, “Leading Edge to Data Driven Decision Making.”

Knowing how to analyze and utilize data is an essential tool for effective leadership. I’m told that there will be a number of concurrent sessions during your conference that will help your members find out what data is relevant as well as how that data can be accessed and utilized to help you make good leadership decisions and lead more effectively.

For my part, I will talk about leadership and how leaders can most effectively make use of data. You can count on hearing that all information isn’t necessarily data and that all data isn’t necessarily relevant. I’ll also be letting you know how to know the difference between good, solid data and mere information, and how leaders make data relevant in order to influence others and help drive processes and objectives.

In the out of control, information overloaded, over-governed, under-funded world of special education, this year’s conference promises to be chock full of the exact kind of information that will help you find more power in your respective out of control world. I’m looking forward to seeing you there and to helping you be the best leaders you can be in the important work that you do.

By: Joe Caruso, Caruso Leadership Institute – www.carusoleadership.com