If you google quotes or Maxim to motivate you on any transformational journey, they will fall into two camps:
1. Any journey cannot be meaningful and purposeful without a clear destination
2. It is not the destination that matters – but the experience of the journey.
There was a time when organisations focused on creating visions - the more compelling and measurable the better and designed to draw people inextricably towards it. Then nothing really changed, somehow the vision - often articulated in size, market share, or best in class - was leaving employees cold. Jim Collins in his exploration of what makes companies great identified the criticality of a “unifying thread” which describes what your organisation is there to do. He advocates simple and repeatable, a hedgehog, doing the one thing he does best, as a pose to a fox adopting new schemes each day. Simon Sinex points to and expands upon the idea of a purpose, not what you do, or how you do it, but why you exist. So, the literature review would suggest a shift from the destination, to purpose and the journey you take. The reality, the evidence we see is equally clear.
1. Be its purpose, identity, or values – people inside an organisation need to connect to something that motivates them to take and be a part of it.
2. Although a destination is always useful the way in which we travel, support, and challenge each other, unite behind the inevitable rocks and barriers we encounter is more powerful.
The reason this appears to build connection and engagement may be that it resonates with our own personal quests in life. It’s impossible to predict, or sometimes even hard plan the next five years but we do have the ability to decide our own rules of the road. An aim to live our best life, becoming the best version of ourselves has parallels in our organisational journeys.
Creating an organisation that aspires to be its own best version should succeed and inspire. The planned destination may not always pan out, but it may be further, better and people will love the view.
