Action and Impact

As the start of a new year–and a new decade–is upon us, we turn our attention to actions that have impact. Over the last month, we’ve been exploring the interrelated concepts of recognition, intentionality, action, and impact. We provided some definitions for these terms:

Recognition: seeing things as they really are.

Intentionality: focused attention on a desired outcome.

Our definitions of action and impact are:

Action: organized activity to reach a desired outcome.

Impact: a significant or major effect.

Of course, each of these words has multiple definitions, but we’re talking thematically about how to bring about personal change or change to our business or organization. Remember our model?

Recognition and intentionality lead to action and impact. (Or, Recognition + Intentionality –> Action + Impact, for short)

In other words, seeing things as they really are combined with focused attention on a desired outcome leads to organized activity to reach that outcome and have a significant or major effect on me, my organization, or both.

Actions that impact

“Genius is in the idea. Impact, however, comes from action.” – Simon Sinek

Change requires doing. Whether personal change or organizational change, all the assessment, planning, and desire in the world come to nothing if they are not followed-up with action.

Conversely, action without assessment, planning, and desire is just activity and busy-ness without purpose, focus, and, ultimately, without impact. Moreover, undirected action leads to confusion, waste, and frustration.

But, if you harness the power recognition and intentionality, if you take the time to assess your needs and your desires, often one or more plans of action naturally emerge. It’s then, in the execution of those plans of action, that we have real impact—our lives change and so do our businesses.

What we’re talking about, really, is strategic planning. But before we get into that, let’s acknowledge the complexity of what we’re talking about in the real world.

From model to reality

So, a model, by definition, is a simplified representation of the real thing, the scaled-down version. A model airplane is a scaled-down version of a real airplane—a simplified version of a complex machine, smaller and easy to build so that a child can make one and display it in their bedroom.

One reason that models are important is that they simplify complex things and ideas so that they easier to understand.

The same is true with our model: Recognition + Intentionality –> Action + Impact

Our model is an easy-to-understand representation of a concept that is often much more complicated to execute in the real world.

After all, if making personal changes was so easy, we wouldn’t break our New Year’s resolutions as often as we do! The same is true of making organizational change.

No matter the scale or complexity of the change that you’re trying to make, however, the model holds true. It is, like every good model, scalable.

Perhaps the change you’re trying to make is personal, like trying to achieve more balance between your professional and personal lives or dealing with stress and conflict more effectively.

Or, perhaps you’re trying to make a change in your organization, like growth or cost reduction or implementing a new employee compensation model or enterprise software system.

All of these changes involve some sort of initial, “as-is” assessment, whether that’s a personality profile, process map, compensation analysis, or qualitative interviews with each of your employees. That’s the recognition part of our model.

These changes also involve identifying your desires or your desired outcomes for your organization. This can come in the form of a “finding your why?” brainstorming exercise or creating a mission, vision, and values statement for yourself or your organization. That’s the intentionality part of our model.

But, before we can jump to back to action and impact, we need to address the “leads to” part of our model:

The strategic plan

“Leads to” isn’t magic, it’s strategic planning.

Once you’ve assessed your needs and desired outcomes, you need to plan a course of action. In some rare cases, an obvious plan of action emerges from your initial assessments and your path to action is clear.

More often, more than one plan of action emerges, and it comes down to choosing the one that will best get you and your organization to your desired outcomes fastest in a way that fits you and your business the best.

It’s the heart of strategic planning: combining your needs and your desired outcomes with who you are and where you want to go into a plan that is inspirational and executable. In other words:

Easy, right?

Well, no, it’s not easy. But strategic planning is very important. As we indicated, above, action without a strategic plan is often just wasted activity and busy-ness. It’s like shooting an arrow without bothering to aim the bow at a target.

Often, action without a strategic plan is action without impact. Worse, lack of strategic planning can lead to actions that have a negative impact on you and your organization.

Why are we emphasizing this now?

Syte, then and now

When Erin started Syte Consulting Group, businesses and business leaders were turning to technology in order to gain efficiencies and get an edge in their industries. This was particularly true in the ERP space in the late 90s and early 2000s, and Syte was at the forefront of that movement in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

It became clear to Erin that the businesses who were most successful at selecting, implementing, and leveraging the power of enterprise software were the ones who possessed similar qualities, what Erin called “the intangibles.” They included things like a strategic vision communicated from the top, shared values and accountability at all levels of the organization, the right people in the right seats, and a leadership team that cared about people and that exhibited openness and curiosity.

Fast forward to now, a few days into a new decade.

While technology is still a way to gain efficiencies in business, the intangibles that Erin noticed as software implementation success factors a few decades ago, are now widely recognized as the most impactful differentiators in successful businesses now.

Things like mission, vision, and values statements, strategic plans, process maps, personality profiles, comp analyses, and qualitative interviews aren’t just “nice-to-haves,” they are necessary ingredients to actions that have greater positive impact, both personally and in our organizations.

As a result, Syte has shifted from being a leading consultant in the Enterprise Software space to providing a wide range of strategic support, HR, business process, leadership coaching, as well as technological consulting services. We plan to be at the forefront of the consulting space in this next decade and beyond.

In other words:

We have experience helping leaders and organizations grow. We can help you recognize areas of change, clarify your intentionality, and create and execute a plan of action that has a greater positive impact on you and your organization.

Contact us to start the conversation that helps you and your business prepare for your most impactful decade yet.

Photo by Linus Nylund on Unsplash