EPILOGUE
Turning Over the Hourglass
As the poet and dramatist T. S. Eliot said: “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” (Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot, New York: Harcourt, 1943) That thought certainly captures a basic truth about TTW. The process has an end that actually represents a beginning. For once we’ve completed the TTW process, we either start on a new issue or challenge or make plans in the future to reassess a previous issue.
And for the future, TTW’s relevance will be large. On a trip to the Harvard Innovation Center where some of the top young minds in the world explore innovative, cutting-edge approaches to entrepreneurial start-ups, an executive in residence, a long-time user of TTW, noted how relevant and important the TTW process would be in the center.
“Could you imagine a young entrepreneur working through an idea without asking questions such as, What do we know? What is most important? What conclusions can we make? What might the implications be? All thinking—whether far out and daring or near in and conservative—has to be framed within a process that provides discipline and direction—a process that works.
Her observations suggest another value that TTW will provide in the years ahead—a common language and uniform approach that will serve to bridge generational differences. In their book The 2020 Workplace, Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd (New York: Harper Business, 2010) describe a workplace with five very culturally and attitudinally different generations of people working side by side: Traditionalists (born before 1946); Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964); Generation X (born between 1965 and 1976); Millennials (born between 1977 and 1997); and Generation 2020 (born after 1997). TTW serves to orient everyone’s thinking to a fact-based, structured process with a common language regardless of generation.
As companies in the future look for ways to enhance their performance, TTW offers great value. Within a corporate strategic planning process, the value of TTW may even be greater than the typical strategic plan itself. In their article “Tired of Strategic Planning” (McKinsey Quarterly, June 2002), Eric D. Beinhocker and Sara Kaplan indicate that their research shows that many companies get little value from their annual strategic planning process. One mismatch is the effort required and results achieved from the annual strategy review. The review “frequently amounts to little more than a stage on which business unit leaders present warmed over updates of last year’s presentations, take a few risks in broaching new ideas, and strive above all to avoid embarrassment.” What the process should be doing is preparing executives to face uncertainties and think creatively about the company’s vision and direction. Learning how to think strategically is most important, which is what TTW is all about. TTW provides a flexible yet structured approach that leads to better strategic options.
In his book Simply Effective, Ron Ashkenas (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2009) says there is no perfect strategy or strategic plan. But TTW provides a greater sense of confidence in the choices to be made.
On a personal level, our book shows Emma’s use of TTW for career planning. We’ve also compiled a list of the top 20 personal TTW applications based on our observations and experiences:
1. Buying a house
2. Landscaping your new home
3. Remodeling your house
4. Planning a wedding
5. Starting a family
6. Starting a career/job search
7. Starting a business/organization/club
8. Moving to a different city, state, or even country
9. Coaching a sports team
10. Identifying the right college for a child
11. Buying the right car
12. Losing weight/changing your looks
13. Running in a marathon
14. Building a sports organization
15. Improving your golf game
16. Writing a book
17. Investing for the future
18. Planning a dream vacation
19. Planning for retirement
20. Selling a house
Finally, as we have shown with several illustrations in this book, the TTW process works as well with nonprofits as it does with businesses. Our training sessions for volunteer workers with nonprofits always have an impact on the individuals as well as the organization. The following is a transformational story of how one church used the TTW process to bring a rebirth to its parish.
Father Joe, a farsighted priest who leads a New England parish, wanted to explore ways to ensure its future vibrancy. At the suggestion of one of his parishioners, he decided to use TTW, and he started by reaching out to a variety of people in his congregation who had the skills or interests that would add value to the planning process. This planning group began with an internal and external analysis, looking at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. “We shared the history of the parish, and conducted a thorough analysis of our organization and of the changing world around us,” says Father Joe. “We looked at our town and nation, our archdiocese and the larger church. We identified areas of growth and concern. This process involved a good deal of research, discussion, questioning, and clarifying, and took a little over a year.”
With its situation assessment completed, the group identified its key issues. Starting from a list of 15, it landed on 7, which included what demographic groups—elders and youngsters; active members, and the disenfranchised—how to make members more active; how to identify families in crisis; how to establish a new model of the church that relied on an increased role for the laity (a less pastor-centric model), and how to identify ways to increase the financial support necessary for future growth.
“There was a lot of interest, and even a little concern as we talked about the pastoral care issue, what some called a new model of the church,” says Father Joe. “It may sound kind of hackneyed, but this is not the church that most of us grew up in. This is a whole different moment. Those in leadership were aware, but the issue was how to make the larger parish community aware. How do we move people beyond, “Oh, I go to church,” to, “I am the church”?
The empowerment of the laity was a big aha moment for there is a shortage of ordained priests throughout the country and in this parish in particular. Father Joe once had several priests on staff; now he had only one, even though his congregation was growing. The planning group realized that a transition was necessary from a top-down, pastor-centered church to a congregation collaborative model where leadership was shared and managed by volunteers.
The planning group set up seven teams, one for each priority. Each team drafted a team charter that identified its scope and objectives, and in particular what members would focus on in the immediate future and what they would accomplish over the next three years.
The church soon began taking action in response to the priorities. The parish instituted a monthly ROC (rely on Christ) mass to solidify and enhance its connection with teens and young adults. It began holding regular workshops on depression and anxiety, and it set up a career transition ministry to help the unemployed find new jobs. The parish also established a new system to take in donations. The financial stability team had sought to blunt the impact of weekly fluctuations in revenue. If the New England weather was very bad—or very good—or if there had been an outbreak of colds or flu, fewer people attended mass on Sunday. “They encouraged parishioners to give on a monthly basis, rather than contributing at Sunday mass,” says Father Joe. “At their suggestion, we also initiated online giving.”
The innovations and changes continue. “If human change is difficult, imagine change within a 2,000-year institution that has prided itself on ‘we’ve always done it this way,’” says Father Joe. “The strategic thinking process taps into the energy of the community and the many gifts of our members to help enable significant change.”