I am mostly interested in personal and team productivity and effectiveness.
Too many people try to make this complicated when it’s far better to keep it simple.
For example …
Mission, Vision, Purpose, Strategies, Tactics, Initiatives, Executions, Objectives, Goals, Targets, Metrics, KPIs, Results and so on. Lots of terminology for related (and sometimes the same) things. I suspect I could easily find thousands of experts who try to explain the nuanced difference between a strategy versus a tactic. Or a goal versus an objective.
These terms are often differentiated with some being defined as a ‘what’ and others defined as a ‘how’. But, laughably, if you have read many of these you’ll no doubt see that even experts get a little lost. They might, for example, define the mission as a ‘what’ (a goal of some type) and in the next sentence explain that the mission is ‘how’ they will achieve their vision. Seriously.
In reality, there are only 4 ideas. So let’s keep it simple.
- The belief that a better world can exist and you have a sense of what that better world might look like (what I choose to call the ‘vision’)
- What you, personally, intend to contribute toward that vision (what I choose to call the ‘objective’ but others commonly refer to it as ‘mission’ or ‘purpose’). The point is, it’s a tangible deliverable that should increase the likelihood of the vision becoming a reality.
- The series of steps that you’ll undertake to deliver on your objective (what I choose to call the ‘strategy’. Others refer to ‘process’ or ‘tactics’.)
- A method for assuring you’re staying on track. These are one or more objectively measurable waypoints (what I choose to call ‘key results’ but many others refer to as ‘kpi’ or ‘metrics’.)
These are the phrases I use – Vision, Objective, Strategy, and Key Results. But feel free to choose to use something that feels right to you. Maybe you like ‘tactics’ instead of ‘strategies’. Just recognize that they are both describing the same idea – the steps that you’re taking in pursuit of your objective.
I keep it simple – one word or phrase for each idea, used consistently.
But, you might ask, shouldn’t we use different terminology if they happen at a top corporate level versus a departmental level? Aren’t ‘strategies’ at the top? And ‘tactics’ below that? Shouldn’t we treat them differently? Short answer – absolutely not.
And the reason is simple. Organizations don’t have visions. Or objectives. People do.
And these four concepts exist for each person. At every level.
Sure, a department manager’s objective supports the divisional executive’s higher-level objective. And that divisional manager’s objective supports some higher objective. And so-on. That’s the nature of delegation. Just recognize that visions, objectives, strategies, and key results are personal. They exist at every level. They are broad and open-ended for someone at the top of the organization. And they become more specific and focused as they cascade down, from the top level, to others.
So teach these four simple ideas … from top to bottom of your organization … and you will have a solid foundation for creating an effective performance culture.
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