Picture This: 

A Mission Statement With Results
By Richard F. LeBlanc

EDITOR’S NOTE: Richard F. LeBlanc is Worldwide Director of ACCESS, a
proprietary training program of Integrated Control Systems, Inc., a Florida
Corporation. Integrated Control Systems holds the trademark and copyrights
for all of the IMPAC 10000 system and ACCESS materials. Richard also serves
as Vice President of Training for Integrated Control Systems. He may be reached
at the company's international training center in Punta Gorda, Florida,
1-800-992-4672, or via email at 110677.1231@compuserve.com.

 It has been several years since I walked into an organization that did not
have a "Mission, Vision and Values" statement posted prominently behind
glass in some highly visible location.  It has also been several years since
I have worked with a company that has actually been successful in meeting
those objectives.

The issue is success -- and results.
  The problem seems to be in defining,
"Where do you want to be -- now? 
as opposed to the more commonly 
defined, "Where do you want to go?"

    	Nevertheless, the underlying
 question is, "Do lofty mission
statements provide sufficient
 motivation for people to change?"
Or is there a better way to create and
 implement a "Picture of Success?"
    	The need to be proactive in defining  organizational goals is a
given.  Getting to a commonly defined agreement on what that picture of
success looks like is the challenge.
    	There is a difference between having a strategy, and executing
one.  There is a big difference between strategic planning (which is actually not 
planning at all, but forecasting) and making sure that you have the right
people in the right place at the right time with the right tools and the
 right training to do the job at hand.
    	A well-run organization has top management that accepts the
responsibility for both design and ownership of the company's long-term
 cultural and operational foundation and for its shorter-term implementation.
Numerous companies spend thousands, or even millions, of dollars
working with internal or external consultants in designing and presenting
effective change programs in hopes of successful implementation of a
five-year plan or other program.

   	When it comes to these change management initiatives, the questions
to ask are: "Is it necessary?" and "Are you getting what you paid for?"
   	A quick read of work by training experts Mary Broad or John Newsome
will give anyone cause for doubt about the actual transferability of skills
or application of training technology as it is most often presented.
    	In order to achieve results is it not first necessary to precisely
define the current situation?  Of course! Having a better understanding of
our zones of stability, what really needs to change and how one might
proceed is crucial before beginning to change.  Having a sense of
organizational reality is the first step in preparing to draw a  picture of
success, itself the preamble to getting appropriate levels of action and
commitment at all levels of any organization.
   	For several decades now a standard program for "doing," delivering,
distilling and defining goals and expectations from strategic objectives has
been employed  (in some way, shape or form) by most training professionals.
The process uses the "SMART" mnemonic, and, although there have been
several variations of this model, it remains (with proper focus) a very powerful
tool in getting people and companies to draw their pictures of success in
ways that will allow for action and results. 
   	SMART has meant Specific, Measurable, Agreed Upon, Realistic and
Track-able. 
   	It is important to begin this process with a very clear
understanding that where we are now is not where we want to be. Making
strategic and operational goals SMART is not done as an academic exercise --
it is about change. It is about knowing that we have a picture of success,
even now, that we can't see clearly, but are willing to do something
differently tomorrow than we are today in order to ensure our survivability.
   	Having worked with hundreds of companies over the past 20 years
(including numerous Fortune 500 companies) in helping draw their pictures of
success, it has become evident to me that the standard definition for the
"S" in the model (Specific),  still stands.  "Specific" is correctly described
as having the attributes of quantity, quality and time.  While these elements
are necessary, a better definition for the S in SMART should be Success.  
   	The process of drawing a picture of success normally involves high
level, executive decision makers and some type of deeply held profitability
goal. At first read, a goal such as, "We will increase our profitability by
10 percent over last year by December 31st this year appears to have the
attributes of specificity. In most instances, in doing, delivering,
distilling and defining goals and expectations, instinct will lead people to
move on to the M in SMART at this point.  
   	It is, however, important to recognize that S is still Specific.  S
is also Success. Finally, from a multi-sensory perspective, S is also
Sensual."
    	In drawing the picture of success it is important to ask questions
such as, "What does it look like? What does it feel like? Who is there?" and
"What does it sound like?" These questions are necessary to get people to
mentally visualize success being theirs.  
     	In the course of breaking down a profitability goal into a vision of
success, one might find that the CEO has a picture of success that includes
a bonus check, a new Porsche or a tuition payment to an Ivy League school
being paid.
     	You might find a CFO who visualizes a bond issue being paid off,
better cash flow or an IPO as a real possibility.  A human resources
director might imagine a new dental plan, childcare center or increased
compensation as a result of meeting the goal. Chief operating officers often
look at profitability goals in terms of capital expenditures or new
processes and programs.  
    	Each person in a position of power has his or her own picture of
success.  Often, the same specific goal is visualized in a very different
way for each individual.  
    	Not everybody in the process of SMART-ing strategic or operational
goals has the same skill set in communicating or visualizing success.
Personalities come into play. There may be a loudmouth in the group. There
may be a mouse in the group. There may be any number of different
personalities in the group which, as a result of additional needs that they
may have in effectively communicating or cooperating with each other, may
inhibit the possibility of defining a picture of success that looks real to
each of them. 
   	But, without getting clear on each participants' picture of success,
there is a likelihood that success may be achieved without happiness. This
rears its ugly head in the form of a misallocation of human and material
resources or an internal power struggle over getting wants met without
getting the goal accomplished.
   	I once worked with a company that had a very well defined set of 13
objectives which defined the mission of the company.  Everyone in the
company had little laminated cards that they carried with them at all times.
Everybody could recite, verbatim, the 13 objectives.  Everybody was
culturally on-board with meeting these objectives.
   	The problem that I faced here was that, in drawing the Picture of
Success with them, we discovered that objective #8 had already been met.
Nobody knew it because, although everybody knew what the goal was,
everybody also had a different perspective on what it actually looked like when
success showed up.  So they had continued to assign both human and material
resources in order to meet a target which had been achieved at least six
months before we actually discovered their success.

   	Some people can easily articulate their
sensual relationship with their picture of success.
Let them speak their picture for the group!  Some
people are better at writing it down. Let them write
it down and have someone else read it out loud.
Some people need to be more visual in their
presentation. Let them draw their picture.
Regardless of what medium is best for each
individual, ALL of their perspectives need to be
identified and discussed in the process.
   	In each organizational case entire
decision-making groups should work on drawing
their pictures of success in a day long session
with no phones, messages or interruptions of any
kind.  Each participant agrees to enter into the
session with the specific goal of drawing their
picture of success, even if that means giving up
some control or literally having to draw visual
pictures of their sense of success on the butcher
paper lining the walls of the room. Although the
process of getting through the S can take several
hours, after each participant sensually describes what success means to him
or her and to their situation, you are ready to move onto the M as in
"measurable."
   	Measurable is basically defined as having a unit of measure. However
unfortunate it may seem, primarily because of new ERP (Enterprise Resource
Planning) programs, many people make the process of measuring success
entirely too difficult. Success is not always measured in calculated,
crunched or statistically validated numbers or ratios.
   	If success is having a new Porsche then you simply measure Porsches.
If success, by virtue of the previously determined picture is having a new
childcare center, then measure childcare centers. 
	Whatever it is that you choose to measure, it must simply be in units of
quantitative or qualitative value that was visualized in the previously
defined S-step.
   	There is an abundance of data available to decision-makers. Much of
it may, intrinsically, not give anyone an answer as to whether a specific
goal has been met. It is important in defining the measurable elements of
success that one stick to information about what needs to happen in order to
ensure success so as not to experience data dementia.  Sometimes the data
can hide the true nature of the results.  
   	Process is important every step of the way. At a company in Texas we
were going through the process of defining a Picture of Success. At the
conclusion of a very long discussion on measurability, I asked the CEO
whether we were now clear on what elements defined success and what we
would measure in order to ensure we knew where we stood.  He indicated that
we had come to an agreement on what units of measure would be used to
define success as it related to each of the Key Success Indicators but that he
would only accede success when the CFO came into his office and did a jig on
his desk. So we decided to measure jigs. 
    	As suggested, sometimes we experience success without happiness.
In those cases, it means that the right measures were not used to determine a
successful outcome. The numbers are easy -- success is not.
   	Agreeing upon anything, much less success in an organizational
environment, is difficult at best.  But it is not impossible and it is
totally necessary.  Getting to the A -- Agreed Upon -- in the process of
SMART-ing the strategic and operational goals of an organization is all
about getting the answer to the question, Whose goal is it?
   	The answer should be "Mine!" for everybody in the group. Properly
getting to the A in this process can be the determining factor in actually
getting to overall success.  Ownership in the goal can be the answer to
eliminating the many and varied personal agendas that exist as a result of
our  history, education, culture or general baggage that we carry around
with us.
     	Realistic -- the R in SMART -- basically says that it has already
happened or that we agree that it can happen.  Sometimes success has already
been achieved, and we simply don't know it.  Especially where new technology
is being employed, it sometimes is impossible to achieve or know about
success because the technology simply didn't exist.
    	I once worked with a very large, diversified company in Pennsylvania
where one of their product lines required the processing of meat into a form
that could be sold to consumers under a brand name. 
   	In order to meet the company's profitability and productivity goals,
it required that the main plant process a minimum of 400,000 pounds of meat
per day. The Chief Operating Officer, during the Agreed Upon part of drawing
the Picture of Success exclaimed, "That's impossible! We have NEVER been
able to produce 400,000 pounds per day. The machines aren't even capable of
being calibrated at those speeds and we don't have the resources to staff a
line that could produce that much."
   	To which the CEO replied, "It's not impossible. This plant produced
over 400,000 pounds of meat on three separate days in the past six months.
Now all we had to do was to repeat that success.  But, without understanding
that it was not impossible, that it had actually happened before and that the goal
was realistic the barriers to action would have remained in place."
   	     I have always liked the question that Joel Barker, the well-known
futurist, asks in his series on Discovering the Future: "What is impossible today
that, were it possible, would radically change the way you do your work
tomorrow?"
   	Getting to the R in SMART often has to be the result of agreeing
that something that has never been tried before can be done simply because
it has never been tried before and we are going to do it.  
   	Whether it has happened before or we simply agree that it can
happen, everyone involved in the process of SMART-ing the goals must do a
reality check. Sometimes we don't know that we have a real possibility of
success because we have failed to sensually define the proper elements
or we have failed to determine the proper units of measure.  Sometimes
we simply give in to someone else's goal and cannot answer the question
Whose goal is it?  By saying, "MINE!" 
	Sometimes, we simply don't have a basic, usable mechanism for
tracking our success on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
    	Trackability --  the T in SMART -- says that we have a system for
tracking our success. This system is not about MIS, SAP, ERP or any other
computer-based application.  The system that tracks success is a simple
report about those things that are important in defining success as the
picture of success.  Any data that is available that does not relate to "key
success indicators" agreed upon in the process 
of defining the S and the M in this process is simply that -- data.  
    	A good sanity check in determining whether success has been 
achieve will involve a trackable, systematic and periodic report that includes all
of the key success indicators discovered in getting to the S  in SMART. It
will include a statement about the agreed upon units of measure determined
as you got to the M in SMART.  It will include assignments of responsibility
and accountability discussed in getting to the A in SMART. And, the
trackable system will have to relate a plan of action to an actual
achievement.  This will be based upon action taken over time to a statement
of variances and a determination of additional action necessary to assign
key personnel in order to achieve the picture of success. I call this
trackable system a KIS (Key Indicators of Success) Report and it may have
reporting categories that look something like the report in figure 1 on page
5.
	Success is a process. Success is a product of a methodology that
begins with organizational self-analysis and depends on individuals envisioning
a SMART picture which is turned into desired and sustainable results.   Drawing
the picture of success is the best process for personal and organizational
change.  And our pictures answer both questions: 
Where do we want to be now?  Where do you want to go?

    	Are you willing to draw your own picture of success?

SMART

SPECIFIC  		Quantity, Quality and Time.
			Defines in a "sensual" way,
 			the Picture of Success.

MEASURABLE	                Has a unit of measure.
			Assigns a means for scoring 
			each element of success.

AGREED UPON	                Allows for each accountable
			and responsible member of the team to answer 
			the question"  Who's goal is it?" 
			with one word...MINE!

REALISTIC		It has already happened
 			before or we agree that it can.

TRACKABLE		We have a system in place 
			to track our success and
			guide us in making decisions
 			upon variances to plan.