I’m a ScaleUp coach, and for my 20+ years I’ve not only believed this, I’ve preached it. I’ve been wrong.
The best companies don’t cascade goals, they cascade meaning.
Why do companies Cascade Goals?
In Marcus Buckingham’s five-minute video, he shares three reasons why companies cascade goals and why it doesn’t work:
Goals are only valuable when they enable us to achieve something inside of us, we deem valuable. The only way goals can be useful, is, if we set them ourselves. When they come from within. Discover this truth Looking Into the Future for a Child With Autism.
If a GOAL is imposed on you, it’s an UNGOAL.
The best companies don’t cascade goals; the best companies cascade meaning.
Instead of cascading goals, we should cascade meaning and purpose.
Facebook and Chick-fil-A cascade meaning through:
Mark Zuckerberg recently announced, “I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.” He’s done this every 6 months for the past ten years.
If you love genuine human connection, Zuckerberg and Sandberg tell their people, you’ll find meaning at Facebook.
If you love the idea that the future is a work in progress, you’ll find meaning at Facebook.
If you love speed over beauty, you’ll find meaning at Facebook.
But, if you want beauty—carefully considered, precise, perfect beauty—then Facebook is not for you.
Chick-fil-A is the most profitable and fastest-growing quick-service restaurant company in the World!
What is so distinctly different about Chick-fil-A?
Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall in Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World, feel Chick-fil-A’a difference is Truett Cathy, its founder, a man who was just as relentless, as precise, and as deliberate at bringing his meaning to life as Facebook’s leaders have been.
It’s difficult to believe, but you need zero capital to become a Chick-fil-A operator. Cathy crafted an extraordinary franchise agreement to select franchisees not on the size of their capital but on their commitment to their community.
A Last Thought on Rituals
Whether conscious or unconscious you and your company follow rituals.
The things you do repeatedly communicate to your people what is meaningful to you. If I followed you around for a week, I’d see them. Example: in your meetings: What time do you show up? Are you five minutes early, or five minutes late? What are you wearing? Do you catch up with your team members about their personal lives or do you launch right into business? Who talks first? Do you allow your team members to speak, or do you cut them off? Does the meeting go long? Do you hold people back to finish things up?
What are your rituals communicating to your people?
Growth demands Strategic Discipline.
How can you build an enduring great organization?
You need disciplined people, engaged in disciplined thought, to take disciplined action, to produce superior results, making a distinctive impact in the world.
Discipline sustains momentum, over a long period of time, to lay the foundations for lasting endurance. It’s the framework for Good to Great:
Positioning Systems is obsessively driven to elevate your teams Discipline.
Creating Execution Excellence demands creating/defining, understanding, with creativity and DISCIPLINE your Flywheel.
Meeting Rhythms achieve a disciplined focus on performance metrics to drive growth.
Positioning Systems helps your business achieve these outcomes on the Four most Important Decisions your business faces:
DECISION |
RESULT/OUTCOME |
PEOPLE |
|
STRATEGY |
|
EXECUTION |
|
CASH |
We help your business Achieve Execution Excellence.
Positioning Systems helps mid-sized ($5M - $250M) business Scale-UP. We align your business to focus on Your One Thing! Contact dwick@positioningsystems.com to Scale Up your business! Take our Four Decisions Needs Assessment to discover how your business measures against other Scaled Up companies. We’ll contact you.
Next Blog: Nine Lies about Work – Lie #4 The Best People are Well Rounded
This is the easiest lie for me to agree with. Somehow, we believe this lie. We prevail it upon our children, those we supervise, even our friends. Improve your weaknesses. Dramatic evidence on why achieving well-roundness is a lie, next blog.