Chapter Two: Declare an Impossible Future-Capture People's Imagination
Situation: How do you transform a climate of profound resignation into a climate of inspiration? What do you do with big aspirations, small resources? How do you shift from "running the business" to "creating the business?" Let us be your thinking partner here.
I am sitting in the main salon of Richard Severance's forty-five foot boat, "Wind Dancer," located in a marina on the Gulf coast near Houston, Texas. The charismatic "Severance," as he calls himself, is the President of Conoco North American Downstream. In my mind he would be played by Tommy Lee Jones in the movie version of "Big Oil," except unlike Tommy, Severance has only one arm and bears a hook, which he is so adept with he can cut a hang nail with a clippers.
"Hargrove," he says looking at the spot on my Bobby Jones sport shirt from the remains of a lunch of crawfish soup, "you're an insult to good clothes." After engaging in some good-humored repartee in return, the conversation settles down into a discussion about the kind of leadership it takes to "source" a powerful future for an organization. "Severance," I say, "in the ordinary course of events, there are two kinds of leaders, those who take a stand for a vision of an Impossible Future and make things happen to bring it to pass, and those who take a stand for a predictable future and are thereby swept along by history. Which kind of leader are you going to be?"
He protests, "Now just hold it right there? What's the point of going for a future that is impossible, when by definition, it's never going to happen?"
"Just a minute now," I say, "if you look at history, whether in politics, business, or science, all great accomplishments-the building of the Panama Canal, the invention of the telephone, the first Ford Model T factory, the invasion of Normandy, the creation of the Salk vaccine or putting a man on the moon-started looking impossible. The problem with most managers is that they tend to get lost in a sea of predictability."
"Well there's a good reason for that," he explains, "we have to meet our earnings forecasts for Wall Street."
"I think there is another reason why this happens that is just as important," I countered, "most organizations have what I call a 'winning strategy.' Your winning strategy is the source of your success, but at a certain point, it becomes the source of your limitations."
"Okay, I think I see what you mean," he said. "Would you say that our winning strategy has not been to create entrepreneurial opportunities, but rather to polish up our existing assets like the brass fittings on this boat?"
"That's a good way of putting it." I added, "That winning strategy, will never take you to an Impossible Future, only to a probably future. Nor will it test the mettle of your organization. It's like a box that, once inside the box, you can't think, speak, or take action outside the box.
"How do you break out of the box?" he asked.
"Setting high goals is a way to expand beyond your winning strategy, because these goals cannot be realized within it."
Severance talked about bringing this up at his next team meeting with his direct reports and mentioned that every month they have a three-day pow-wow. I said, "That's a lot of time to spend together as a group. Just what do you create at those meetings?" Severances eyes opened wide in response as if coming to a moment of true insight, "We don't create anything at those meetings; we run the business."
"Perhaps the distinction that you and your team need to get in order to source an Impossible Future and shed your winning strategy is that there is a difference between 'creating the business' (CTB) and 'running the business,' (CTB) which in your case is getting up every day and 'buying, boiling and selling oil' and turning in a reasonable profit." I continued, "It's fine to do that, but let me ask you: Is that all there is? Have you asked yourself what is really possible rather than just probable? Have you dared to dream about an Impossible Future that would lead you out of the desert of 'buying, boiling, and selling oil' into a gusher of opportunity?"
In the coming months, Severance and his group created an Impossible Future consisting of some BHAGS (big hairy outrageous goals), an accelerated leadership development program, a business incubator for innovative business concepts, a Six Sigma quality program, and an organizational renewal process. The whole program proved to be a smashing success.
Teachable Point of View: Leaders create an Impossible Future; administrators maintain the status quo.
Being a Sourceful Leader. To be the "source" of something is to be the originator. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Sam Walton are the source of their respective organizations. In the same sense, creating an Impossible Future for an already established organization just doesn't happen, it takes leadership. Being at "source" involves being there for the whole journey to the Impossible Future and operating with a viewpoint of one hundred percent accountability for the bumps that you will encounter along the way.
Creating an Impossible Future. Leaders create the context that shapes, limits, and defines their organization. By declaring an Impossible Future, you create a context that breaks the grip of resignation and creates opportunities for people to grow, as people stretch their mind and skills in the pursuit of high goals. This stands in contrast to declaring a predictable future (last year sales and earnings plus five percent), which creates a context where people resign themselves to limited opportunity and focus on doing the same thing better. In such a context, nothing really matters very much.
Shedding Your Organization Winning Strategy. In order to create an Impossible Future, leaders often need to shed their organizational winning strategy. Your winning strategy is what has allowed your company to be successful in the past, whether it's selling cars with fins in glitzy show rooms, marketing phone terminals with wires, or selling cheap hamburgers. At the same time, your winning strategy can become the source of your limitations, causing you to set predictable goals or to not recognize opportunities hidden in plain view. For example, selling cars on the Internet, creating a mobile phone revolution, replacing that hamburger with a chain that offers fast, low-cal, delicious Asian food.
Template for Action
1. Ask your team if they feel they are pursuing a future that is inspiring, empowering and energizing. At your next team meeting, pull out your organization's goals and ask people if the goals represent an Impossible Future or predictable future. Also ask if these goals really energize the organization or, "yawn," allow it to fall gently to sleep.
2. Define an Impossible Future based on exciting new possibilities, not just goals. Creating an Impossible Future should start with imagining new possibilities for your organization that then become the basis of goal setting. Ask yourself, "What would be an Impossible Future in the area of business concept innovation? In the area of production? Your supply chain? People and culture?
3. Set some high goals that raise the bar for your entire organization and stretch people's minds and skills. Create one to five BHAGS (big, hairy, outrageous goals) that help move the possibilities you have declared from just that to a reality. I like setting high goals for an organization, not only because it creates a context that pushes people to achieve what is really possible rather than predictable, but also they often become the cauldron for human transformation.
4. Distinguish your organization winning strategy. Ask yourself or your group: What is our organization winning strategy? How is it the source of our success? How does it limit us? What impact does it have on the goals we set, the plans we make, the actions we take? What can we do to break the grip and excel beyond it?