Restoring Nobility to the Workplace
This is the last of the five-part; “What is Fusion?” series. Our clients have often said, “We didn’t know you guys do that!” Here’s our take on Strategic Planning — to let our clients and friends see past our well-known communication specialties and experience a deeper look at Holistic Management.
Restoring Nobility to the Workplace
What is Fusion?
Part Five of Five
“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.”
– Daniel Burnham
Chicago Architect
(1846 – 1912)
Does Purpose have dimension? Size? Comparative Scale?
In our mind, Yes.
It’s one thing to decide that one’s life purpose is to sing – quite another to sing lead tenor in the Tabernacle Choir. Or Vienna. Or New York.
What about to feed one’s self? To feed another? One’s family? What about creating a strain of hearty wheat that extends harvests sufficiently to feed millions?
We suggest that Purpose can possess both magnitude and altitude. It can be both big and lofty. Or not…
Brings to mind Noble Purpose.
Hard to have this conversation with the “Jersey Shore” mindset. Perhaps the reason it’s so difficult to find motivated people today is that many conversations (at least in the public sphere…) have turned from greatness to the gritty realities of what and where to cut… People seem less interested in summiting Everest than in climbing their local social or political mountain.
A perfect example is the fall from greatness of strategic planning. We are saddened to witness the devolution of planning – from an opportunity to discuss changing the world to merely improving our profit plan. Perhaps the reason people are so involved with engineering their own careers today, is that the corporation seems so bent on plotting its own ascendance or simply “so bent.” It’s easy to become sad and discouraged by focusing on the obvious bad in the world. We prefer to focus instead on discovering the hidden good. We’ve noticed that everyone dreams of – and hopes for – a lofty purpose (even while staying focused on keeping the family fed). We believe that a key part of leadership is putting people back in touch with their own basic nobility and of their deep aspiration for more than mere survival.
Nobility is an attitude… which can turn a strategic planning retreat from an exercise in profit enhancement (or loss apportionment) into a quest. It’s what turns the planning discipline from something barely tolerable into something we hunger after and reach for – a Cornerstone of Corporate Culture. Your job is to find the embers of creativity in your corporation and fan them into the bright flames which can forge nobility and greatness.
Hey, maybe this is just “those zany people at Fusion” speaking, but we believe that life and work can become once again noble AND practical, that greatness is within reach. One approach: treat strategic planning as something that begins with a noble purpose rather than merely searching for ways to increase income. Amounts, equations and calculations are all about the “how’s, when’s and who’s.” When you finish with that, it’s just yawn, “What’s for dinner?” – it’s all body and mind stuff. A Noble Purpose however, elevates the discussion from “How” to “What and Why?” and involves the heart and spirit… mobilizing the whole being – probably why we think holistics is worth pursuing.
No one gets excited thinking only about mere survival. But everyone has a hero inside just waiting to be called to service at the Round Table. Little plans are mere survival. Great plans remind us of – and rekindle – our noble purpose.
Applications
1. For Yourself: It’s hard to get excited about putting food on the table, especially if it’s just for yourself. Maybe you need to imagine something loftier. What about serving in a soup kitchen — or starting one?
2. At Home: For you mothers, fathers, mates and partners: that band-aid, bowl of soup, advice on homework or picking up at the playground may not feel noble, but it might be; in their eyes.
3. At Work: It’s not just about the numbers. No business is. Every business is founded on serving a need. Decades – or even centuries – of success can obscure that fact and leave everyone merely surviving while serving the balance sheet. Unfortunately, such companies are on a downward trend – whether they know it or not. Imagining better is the first step to putting the organization back in the service of a noble purpose yielding great results!
Make no little plans! Restore a noble purpose to the strategic planning exercise and achieve great results while earning substantial profits for all concerned.
When you’re ready, we’d love to help.
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