What politicians could learn from good businesses.
It wasn’t until this election was called that I started thinking about the way we do things at Involvement as being a kind of manifesto.
I think this is mainly because the word has lost its power to thrill or motivate.
The times are long gone when manifesto carried a sense of excitement, a rallying cry for lasting change and improvement. Revolution, even.
These days it’s much more likely to be loaded with a sense of deep weariness: Here they come again. The latest barrowloads of empty slogans and half promises.
However, I’m reclaiming the manifesto as a ‘good thing’, because at Involvement we have experienced a genuine revolution that has transformed us for the long term.
Before this, our sole concern was the monthly sale targets. Our slogan could have been ‘Make more money this month’.
Our 2024 manifesto comes not on a banner (or in 100 closely typed pages), but in the shape of a pyramid. And we didn’t put it together last week. It’s features at the start of our Values Handbook, it has evolved over a decade and continues to mature month by month.
If we were in the management consultancy business and you asked us how to make your organisation more successful and sustainable, the planning pyramid is the first thing we’d show you …….and then we’d charge you a fortune for it.
The pyramid sets out how we run our business and it’s worked well for us.
The purpose and values of your business are the foundations. The layers above them connect long with medium with short-term business planning with the day-to-day. And they bind everyone’s personal goals intimately to these plans and operations.
We talk a lot around here about the drumbeat, the cadence, the rhythm of everyday life in Involvement. This background music is directed by the planning pyramid. Its notes are the constant planning and reviewing, the coaching, the check-ins, the huddles. You need to believe in their deep value to the health of the business and to your personal growth. You lose the beat, you risk becoming lost in doubt and confusion. Can you hear this in your organisation? When you’re not around does the beat continue?
In their best moments, governments give off a sense of this rhythm too. A sense that they are working as a highly and intelligently motivated team towards a vision.
What are people saying on the doorstep?
Stretching my election metaphor just one step further, what do our people say if you ask them directly their opinion of the planning pyramid malarkey?
Well, the feedback I get from the Involvement community is: Yes, I’m clear on where we are going. I like being regularly updated. I can see the business is re-investing in things like warehouse space and manufacturing, and this gives me a lot of confidence and reassurance for the future. I like being in a continual (rather than annual) review process because it removes doubt and worry. I always understand how, if I do my job well, I’m going to help us deliver our plans and be a part of the success story.
Our printed ‘manifesto’ The Book of Involvement, which tells our transformation story in detail, can be ordered for free from here.
That, I promise, is the end of the broadcast.
