Vision with Rhythm
When I was about 10 my father brought me home my first drum one summer afternoon. It was a used snare drum but I was as excited as if it were Christmas morning – drums were my fantasy musical instrument. I took it up to my bedroom and set it up on its stand and played the first song that came to my head – Henry Mancini’s Theme From Peter Gunn. After playing two verses, flawlessly, I ran excitedly downstairs to the kitchen and asked my mother what she thought of my first drum solo and whether she could tell what the song was (of course she could tell that it was brilliantly interpreted Mancini).
Well, she did not have a clue and she did all she could not to act like it was just a bunch of unbearable noise. Now, if you were to read a newly published book, Made to Stick, you would find out that this phenomenon I experienced painfully at the tender age of 10 is not so uncommon. Within one portion of the book is described a research experiment where an individual taps out a song, similar to my drum solo, to another individual who has to guess what the song is. The music tapper predicts that the other will be able to guess about half of the songs, but, in fact, the correct interpretation of the tapped out songs averages a bit over 2%.
Now what on God’s good earth does this all have to do with developing good strategy? Well, when I was playing Peter Gunn I could hear it perfectly in my head, which matched quite well the rap of the drum stick on the head of the drum. It was all in brilliant synchrony in my head, my perception. But, it was not beautiful to anyone else because they could not hear what was in my head. If you switch from auditory mode to visual mode then we encounter the same problem in the executive suite when it comes to business vision.
Executives often have great vision for what they want their organizations’ to achieve – it is intensely, ultra clear to them. But, when they beat out their vision on the proverbial drum it is not clear to others at all what the song is. So, people have to guess. And according to the statistics they get it right somewhere a little north of 2% of the time - so much for strategic planning.
The moral of the story? No matter how clear your vision is to you (because the song is playing in hi-def in your head - like wearing good Bose headphones) it probably sounds like the noise of my used snare drum to others. That means you have to do much more to communicate the vision than you think. Take the headphones off and turn up the stereo – loud so everyone can hear well. Moving off the mixed metaphors, it means that the vision has to be articulated in detail, with clearly defined tactics, put down in writing and maybe in picture, and repeatedly communicated and reinforced. Then everyone will be marching to the same tune.