“The secret of success is constancy of purpose.” Benjamin Disraeli

“Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business, and to provide jobs.” W. Edwards Deming

Whether it is called vision, ambition, BHAG, goal, whatever, I have little doubt that a compelling purpose is what separates excellent from good. The business planning models I come across lean heavily on the what and how. Goals are defined and resources are allocated to the actions necessary to achieve them. Nothing wrong with that! Execution in business, and probably life, is an absolute necessity for success. But it shouldn’t stop there.

I would propose that what Disraeli and Demings are reminding us is that we must also answer why? in our planning. If we just define what and how, we are dependent upon the traditional carrot and stick approach to make sure people perform as needed to attain the goals. Exceed the goals and get a carrot (although a small one in this economy). Miss your goals and get whacked with the stick!

When there is a shared sense of purpose, people commit to a course of action driven by intrinsic rewards. Doing work that matters and doing our part to move our enterprise toward that compelling purpose provides an internal reward easily exceeding the carrots. Chances are no one is going to remember you hit your numbers in the winter of 2012. They will remember what contributions you made toward the purpose of the organization.

Define the purpose boldly. Communicate it dynamically. Then pursue it…constantly.

While the research shows most would disagree with me, I think Mondays are great. Sure, it’s just an artificial marker on a calendar, but I always think of it as a fresh start. For many, it becomes just more of the same. I find that sad – not just for them, but for their organizations too.

I believe that an unfortunate effect of the difficult times the economic downturn brought, is the “just do your job” mentality that is prevalent. Each Monday brings another week to get by. Keep your head down, your nose clean, and hope you can make it to next Monday without being laid off. String enough of those weeks together, and you get the gold watch. Although with the price of gold, I am certain CFO’s found a cheaper alternative.

Like I said, sad.

There is an alternative. Labor could and should be about achieving your purpose. Only work that moves us toward our purpose is valued work; the rest is merely treading water. I remember Tom Peters saying at one of our company meetings, “on time..on budget…who cares?” I can hear audible gasps from my manager friends as they read that. His point was nobody remembers hitting a metric at the end of their career. They remember their contribution to purpose…theirs and others they led.

When you have your purpose defined, it leads you to work that matters. Hard work in pursuit of a greater good is energizing. When an organization has a clearly defined purpose, it aligns the hard work of all towards that common cause for the common good. Max DePree of Herman Miller said it best…the first question for a leader is who do we intend to be?, not what should we do?

The research I mentioned in the first paragraph says the average amount of time spent on real work on Mondays, is 3.7 hours out of an 8 hour day. That is a lot of treading water. With a commitment to purpose, we swim, even if at times, it is agains the current. One strategy keeps you afloat..safe and necessary at times. The purpose focused effort moves you closer to the finish line. Make a choice. It will change your Monday morning attitude.

I am privy to a fair amount of internal business communications that tout the commitment to lean operations, sourcing for best prices, cutting waste from processes, eliminating actual waste from product, etc.   They are all important areas to be managed.  For all the excitement generated internally, you might be surprised by the customer’s point of view.

Quite frankly, we couldn’t care less.  Perhaps we should, but we don’t.  We simply want the best product at the best price. We want a product that lives up to the promise the brand makes.

I had an interesting discussion with a friend in the grocery business last week.  I live in what is called the fruit belt of Michigan.  Yet, our local grocer sells California strawberries in the middle of Michigan berry season.  We are the blueberry capital of the world, yet the berries in the store are from Georgia.  When I asked my friend why, he stated that the shelf life of the local berries was not as good as the berries that had been genetically engineered for appearance, transit, and shelf life.  I suggested they had less taste and juice.  He repeated.  It is shelf life that is important.

Shelf life is important to the grocer.  It helps control their costs and reduces spoilage.  I get it.  I also understand the eye appeal of those beautiful red strawberries with no flaws.  Except one.  They don’t taste like strawberries.  Heck, they don’t taste at all.   Wonder why Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods does so well?  This is part of the answer.

From a positive experience, I am writing this while seated in an Aeron chair.   I have back issues and find it difficult to sit for any extended period.  The Aeron solved that problem. The Aeron wasn’t the lowest priced chair I looked at.  It was the one driven by customer need’s in its design.  Could they make it cheaper?  Sure, but it would risk failing to fulfill the brand promise of a solution to the desk worker’s productivity problem.  There is tremendous brand loyalty to Herman Miller because they deliver as promised.

The strawberries meet a brand promise as well.  Extended shelf life and less spoilage.  The problem is that the promise is to the grocer.  The promise of flavorful fresh berries for the consumer gets lost.  Thank goodness for local farm stands. We are not storing our berries on a shelf, we are eating them.

The bottom line to me is that we don’t care about your processes and what you do to get the product to us.  We only care that it fulfills our expectations. You should too.