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Re: On the Same Page

I'd like to bend your eye on the solution to a common complaint - "We've got to get on the same page!"

Where have you heard that one? Teams/ Boards/ Companies/ Not for Profits – all talk about it but it’s not all that clear how to get it together. Being on the page is a real accomplishment for an enterprise. And that’s what we at CSC are here to generate – proud accomplishments!

So what is this Page: what would it look like once we've created it?

The Page is the big picture plan going forward – and - the coordinated understanding of a team in real time today.

It's the vehicle that connects the purpose we’re here for to team action: we're not wandering around lost in the detail.

The Page has to be easy

• to take in
• to act on
• to check back on.

It is a system of coordination and communication that unites a team in the pursuit of stated aims.

Getting on the Page

Step one? Create it. How do you do that?

• Resolve as leader you are going to build it and make it stick. One of the great things we do as mentors is to move leaders beyond “that’s a good idea!” to “We are doing that – for sure!” Watch that first step! Followers test their scattered focus leaders – they watch (and don’t move) while boss goes from idea to idea. They only pay attention when the leader is persistent on a theme.
  
• Get the gang together and agree on its importance, its role and how we will live by it after building it. This should take about 5 minutes. You do need to take this step – but it’s still “show me” until you start to drive.
  
• Adopt an outcome horizon. When do you want what you’re aiming for to become fact? One year is best, longer becomes more visionary in feel. And state it as a date - “April 7, 2005”. This is the pivotal point your group is pointed at.
  
• Set the outcome you're looking for. “We will be internet order ready.” “Our office will be full service functional in Fort St. John.” The clearer you describe it, the more particulars you can attach to it, the more everyone will identify with it and the more likely you are to arrive there.
  
• Plot out the path that leads there. Include the confluent efforts of all groups. Many streams have to intersect to achieve results in today’s highly autonomous organizations. All will be carving time from the urgent call of the day-to-day but without that, there will be no future to worry about.
  
• Most important, detail and allocate the investment of time, money and talent that will deliver the goods. Saying, “yes” to the Page means saying, “no” to distractions and to some of the matters you're spending time on now. Your company’s future depends on you being there – the places you decide your next success is going to come from. Carving out the resources to ensure arrival will determine if you’ll make it.
  
• Make the covenant - the eye-to-eye team deal. "We're going to do this, aren't we!" Pull the conflict and the resistance to the forefront now rather than run on those submerged rocks later. If you don't know how to surface and move conflict to a great outcome, hire a pro.

Staying on the page

For most, there's an avalanche of opportunity out there. Entrepreneur's disease - chasing the latest fad or idea - is a real distraction. Not to mention that the roar of the day to day can block you from achieving this future direction.

Here's a team discipline suggested by Patrick Lencioni:

• A huddle to update every day
• A weekly tactical meeting, just to coordinate short range action
• A monthly strategic issues session to bake the big questions that pop up along the way
• A quarterly out of the office working time to check on the Page and make the inevitable course corrections together.

(See “Death by Meeting” - don't let this spoil it for you)

Seems like a lot - of time, of effort. Consider the costs you incur now by not being on the same Page. How do those wastes of time and money compare to these few hours of organized coordinated effort? There is no comparison.

Seeing the Value:

There's nothing like the power and satisfaction of a united team getting where it needs to go. SI Systems has grown as a power year over year because of its ability to choose where it is going and to follow this process to get there. When you look at the numbers produced by concerted accomplishment, you know that dealing with that complaint - "We've just got to get on the same page!" through a consistent coherent course of action like this is worth it.

We'd be glad to help you take that step.

Doug Bouey

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