Bill Gates was once asked about the difference between computer hardware and software. He said, "The real power of the computer is not the hardware because no matter how big the computer it is it can't do anything without the operating system. The real power of the computer is the software."

The same is true for individuals or for departments. No matter how enthusiastic or personable the individual is or how much the authority the group has, they will be largely unsuccessful without a clear and effective operating system. The purpose of this "software" is to ensure that the individuals' daily activities are leading toward their predetermined picture of success. Before moving into action on any project, I encourage you to write your own software for this project. By doing this first, you will greatly increase the effectiveness of your daily actions.

MISSION

The first step is to identify why your role as an individual or group exists. What is your purpose? In order to do this you must identify your customer. Specifically, who are you serving? Once this is clarified you can more easily figure out your purpose. There are two ways to do this. You can answer either of these questions:

1. What specific value do I (or we) bring to these customers?
2. How would these customers be worse off without me (or us)?

Rather than marching into action, figure out why your role exists in the first place. So often employees will waste valuable time in meetings and discussions over issues that have nothing to do with bringing the specific, unique value that their customers are looking for.

STANDARDS

Standards refer to your values and beliefs. What standards will your group act in accordance with each day? This is a very important question because without pre-determined standards that are fulfilled on a daily basis there can be no consistent level of performance. One day your customer will receive one standard of performance and the next day they will receive something much different. Decide what your standards of excellence are as a group. Write them down. Challenge each other. Are you really living up to these standards? Don't just read them and then act out of alignment with them. If the members of your group consistently do not live up to one of the standards, then ask the group if this really is a standard. If it isn't, then take it off the list. If it is, then address it immediately.

VISION

Your vision is the desired end result if you successfully fulfill your mission. The question to answer is:

If I (or we) successfully achieve the purpose of this role, what will success look like for our customers?

These may be internal or external customers. Vince Lombardi once said that the key to being a successful coach was knowing what success looked like before you got there. His point was if you didn't what you were trying to achieve, then you might get there without realizing it and then continue to change the outcomes. This is exactly what happens when managers fall prey to the "flavor of the month" mentality. They get their group to a high level of effectiveness, and then, because they didn't know what their desired end result was, they start to make adjustments that make the group less effective. Remember that, as author and consultant Alan Weiss says so well, the output is more important than the input. The whole point of doing an activity is to ultimately achieve the picture of success. Your role is not to do some activity, but rather to achieve the desired end result. Therefore, it is very important that you identify what that desired end result looks like in great detail.

STRATEGIES

Strategies are guidelines that channel all of your activities, meetings and decisions along the same path toward achieving your vision. Here are some famous strategies:

Wal-Mart decided to be the lowest cost provider in the retail industry. Once this strategy was decided on, they geared all of their efforts toward efficiency and reducing operating costs. They then passed on these lower costs to their customers. In the end, they made a fortune by selling in phenomenal volume.

The Walt Disney Company decides they are not in the filmmaking business, but rather in the entertainment business. The vision of success was to put a smile on the face of every family member. With this new strategy, all of their efforts were geared toward providing entertainment. Suddenly their business exploded with the expansion into television, theme parks, books, live action films and so on.

In my business, the strategy that guides all of my activities is tailoring my input to each client in order to drive their desired results. Therefore, there are no set programs or fee structures. Every project is taken on a case by case basis whether it is with an individual or a group.

What strategies do you want guiding your group's activities, meetings and decisions toward achieving your vision?

GOALS

Goals are specific, measurable indicators of whether or not you are making progress toward achieving your vision. While mission and vision statements can be intangible, there needs to be very specific and measurable indicators of whether or not you are making the type of progress that you want to make. The questions to answer in order to derive your goals are:

1. What results will indicate we are making progress toward achieving our vision?
2. By what deadline do we want to have achieved each of these results?

These goals could be set for financial topics, types of customers, number of customers, marketing approaches and a wide variety of other areas. The time frame could be for a day, week, month, quarter, year, three years, five years or any other period. The key is to review your goals after each predetermined time frame. What were your results? What do these results tell you in terms of what is working and what is not working? What lessons did you learn by going after this goal within this time frame? How can you apply these lessons to achieve better results in the next time frame?

TACTICS

Tactics are the specific actions that individuals or groups will take to achieve their goals. Once you have determined the goals that will indicate whether or not you are moving toward your vision, then answer this question for each goal:

What specific actions will we take in order to maximize the chances of achieving this goal?

As you can see, writing this "software" requires a significant amount of time, discipline and effort. However, investing this time at the beginning will greatly enhance the effectiveness of your "hardware" which is made up of you and the other members of your group.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Once the tactics have been established, the next step is to identify roles and responsibilities. The question to answer is for each tactic is:

1. Who is primarily responsible for the implementation of this tactic?
2. Who will be supporting this individual?
3. What specific actions will each of these individuals take in order to successfully implement this tactic?

Again, this is very important to write into the "software." Oftentimes, groups will get all the way up to this point and assume that their preparation work is done. Then six months later they realize that no one has taken responsibility for that tactic, or if some one may have been assigned to it, but they have not done anything. Clarifying roles and responsibilities and action plans for each tactic is tremendously important. Remember, the purpose of this "software" is not to be able to post it on the wall. The purpose is so that the activities of the individuals are in alignment with one another and are leading toward the achievement of the predetermined vision of success.

RESOURCES

Resources are all of the people, processes, experiences, lessons learned, money, facilities, suppliers and so on that are available to use toward fulfilling your mission and achieving your vision. For each of your tactics, identify what resources are available that could be applied toward successfully implementing it. Again, I encourage you to do this before you move into action. There may be a process that was developed by another group that you could use right now rather than having to start from scratch. Identify what you have at your disposal in order to effectively implement this tactic. The question to answer is:

What resources are available to me to successfully implement this tactic?

Make your list and then carefully the most useful resources available to you.

You have now written a successful "software" program. Now is the time to turn on the "hardware" and move into action. Good luck!

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