Step 3 will take alot of time and intestinal fortitude.  You had a goal and a vision when you started in your business.  Many companies lose site of what they originally set out to do when they begin to grow or look for outside funding.

As part of implementing or re-introducing a mutual benefit strategy at your organization, you must get honest feedback from your employees, vendors and customers.  It is not recommended that you conduct your own roundtable discussions (a lite form of a focus group).  You should seek out someone that has done this type of work before, and hire them.

At the same time you are doing the roundtable discussions, it is important that  you do an analysis of your current business processes.  Once again, it is not recommended that you do this yourself.  You will document how you feel it should be, not how it is actually done.  Trust me, you will not be able to document the actual process; what you will get is a perceived process.

As you are going through these exercises, it’s important that you begin to compare what you are hearing in the roundtable discussions to what is showing up on your process maps.  You must look and listen for “sub-optomized” goals.  These are goals that only benefit one group without benefiting the whole company.  Also, look for employees that are not being proactive or accountable.

Now that you have your vision, you’ve begun to spread it throughout your company, and you’ve identified where there may be variations or deviations  to your vision, it’s time to get started with the real work!

Look for the next blog to show you how to make your vision a reality in your business!