How It’s Lived

One Tuesday morning Jim and I talked again about how articulating a compelling vision and coming up with a catchy rallying call were not enough.

“This is where the rubber meets the road,” Jim said. “How is your vision lived on a daily basis? There is no doubt in my mind that once you identify your vision, you have to start living it immediately and behaving consistently with the intention of that vision.”

“That’s so true,” I said. “As soon as I realized I had been ignoring my children’s needs, I had to stop. I couldn’t say, ‘I’ll start being a better mother next week.’ It’s not easy, because sometimes it means making tough decisions. But I learned that the best thing for me, my children, my friends, and my coworkers was to live my values and to make choices based on them.”

“I wish I could do that with my weight issues,” Jim said. “Even though one of my values is health, I tend to have an ‘I’ll start next week’ attitude on that one. Then again, everyone gains a little weight when they get older.”

“What is your exercise program?” I asked.

“Exercise program?” Jim replied.

“Yes,” I chided. “We cannot achieve our vision unless we help ourselves and each other act on our good intentions by setting up processes and systems that are aligned with the vision and help us stay on track. I consider these ‘supporting structures.’

“What supporting structure do you have in place that supports your value of health? I know you eat healthy food, so that structure is in place. And I know you play golf any chance you can get. But I’m not sure what you do regularly for exercise.”

He sheepishly admitted that he had tried several different approaches to exercise but lost interest in them because they weren’t fun, or he was too busy, or it wasn’t convenient. I pointed out that these all sounded like excuses. He admitted that they were.

“Is health really a value?” I asked. “Or is it just an interest?”

He replied, “Yes, it’s a value, and I’m feeling bad that I’m not acting consistently with it.”

Then I had a great idea. “I’m not doing well in the exercise department, either. Maybe we could set up a structure that would help both of us. Instead of talking over coffee on Tuesday mornings, how about if we walked together?”

As a result of that conversation, we set up a structure that supported our value of health, and we held each other accountable. Our Tuesday morning routine shifted once again as we continued our conversations during a brisk forty-five-minute walk.

• • •

During one of our walks Jim commented, “Our walks have made a big difference to me. I can see how supporting structures have helped me be accountable to my vision at the personal level. I assume they’re important at the team level and organizational level, too.”

“That’s certainly true for teams,” I replied. “I learned the importance of supporting structures from Marsha. Once the accounting department had a shared vision, everyone was quite excited. Some things improved naturally on their own, like the relationship between the accountants and the agents. But I remember—back when you and I were discussing creative tension—how Marsha was ignoring some problems that weren’t resolving on their own, and it was beginning to affect morale. We had no way to hold someone accountable when they weren’t behaving consistently with the vision. It certainly was beginning to create tension on the team.”

“What happened?” Jim asked with curiosity.

“There was an uncomfortable team meeting where people started talking about their frustrations. Marsha realized that ignoring the behavior of those who act inconsistently with the vision threatens the trust and commitment of the rest of the team. She set up a supporting structure. She met with each of her direct reports to set written performance objectives with clear measures that included acting on the values as well as delivering results. She then met with each regularly to track performance and to provide whatever direction and support was needed. I remember thinking that one person, who was kind of a slacker in the department, would either quit or be fired, now that he was under the microscope. Instead, I was surprised to see him get refocused and become a productive member of the team.”

“I know she put some other structures in place also. Now I see how important it was for her to do that,” Jim remarked.

“Yes,” I replied. “She wanted us to be a high-performing team, where we shared leadership and responsibility for prioritizing projects, coordinating our efforts, and solving problems. The communication and decision-making processes we set up were supporting structures that helped us stay on track as a team.”

“Realizing that supporting structures are also important at an organizational level helps me understand what company-wide changes need to be made. I had waited a while after creating the vision to decide how to best move forward,” Jim noted.

“Some of our policies and procedures are antiquated and are making getting the job done harder instead of easier. We’re reexamining the agency’s policies and procedures to ensure they are aligned with our vision. Those were easy decisions to make.

“Now there are some bigger issues to tackle. For example, we found that our information practices are great. People really do have access to the information they need. On the other hand, people are being rewarded for individual contributions that don’t encourage a team approach. We’re creating a new reward and compensation plan that supports both individual and team contributions. I need to communicate to HR that it’s a priority. We’ve also decided to provide training in team skills instead of just blaming people for not being team players. Now that I see this is a supporting structure and not just soft-skills training, I need to reexamine the budget and make sure there is adequate funding.”

“Supporting structures help us set clear goals,” I observed.

“That’s why I’m so excited about it,” said Jim. “Now that we have an organizational vision, our goals have real meaning. Out of context, goals can seem random or too abstract to care much about. But when people see our goals as the building blocks for delivering on our vision, they become the milestones that let us know we’re on track. They’re the specific, measurable actions we take as we move forward toward making our vision a reality.”

• • •

We had learned some important steps on how to live a vision. I wrote them on a note card and gave it to Jim later that day:

• • •

One morning Jim and I were discussing the importance of living our vision moment by moment. As we walked briskly up a hill on a new route, Jim reflected, “You know, Ellie, our walks make a nice metaphor for what we’ve learned about making vision a reality.”

I glanced over at Jim, thinking he was probably onto something. But I was a little too out of breath to respond.

“Here’s what I mean,” he continued. “We know where we’re going. And we’ve planned the route. But the only thing that is really important is the step you’re taking right now. I mean that—literally. The step you are taking right now is the only thing there is. So how you take that step is really important. Are you present? Do you smell this fresh air? Do you hear the birds chirping? Do you feel the pavement under your feet? Are you living your vision right this moment?”

That stopped me short, because I actually had been thinking about making dinner, carpooling, and solving a work-related problem. I hadn’t been experiencing the present moment at all. I realized that he was absolutely right. I was struck by how much of my time I spent thinking about the future rather than consciously living my vision in the present.

The rest of our walk was truly amazing as we took in the beauty of the early morning.

A couple of hours later, I listened to Jim’s message and was deeply touched.