For the past few weeks, I’ve talked about three lenses that go into my “magic kaleidoscope.”  Today, we’re diving in to putting it to use.

For me, the three lenses in the kaleidoscope help diagnose underlying causes…and help me shift onto a more productive pathway.  Today’s diagnostic situation deals with the feeling of spinning your wheels.  Expending massive amounts of energy…and going nowhere..

We have the best ideas in the business.  And we’ve got a great team.  But nothing’s happening.

And even still, I enjoyed working with that company.  The CEO had a new idea every minute.  Huge ideas.  $10 million ideas.  We had great people.  And in six months, the company ran out of steady cash flow.  In 12 months, the company closed operations and filed for bankruptcy.

There were great ideas, and they showed up all the time.  No issues with the Lens of Vector and Direction.  We talked to everyone about everything.  No issues with the Lens of Communications and Visibility.  And everyone was beyond busy.  No issues with the Lens of Thrust and Momentum.

In truth, the issues were “all the above.”

Every week there was a new idea, a new Vector, a new Direction.  “What about the deal we were working on last week?  We’re 90% of the way there.  The investors have agreed to $10 million cash and a $50 million line of credit.”  Didn’t matter.  There was a better idea, a better deal just around the corner.  The issue wasn’t that we weren’t pursuing a good Vector and Direction.  The issue was that we were pursuing EVERY Vector and Direction.  And that’s still a Vector and Direction issue.

Thrust and Momentum issues surfaced because of fuel issues, from my perspective.  The issue wasn’t that we didn’t have people devoted to the cause.  The issue was that everyone was in afterburners 24×7.  Even a plane in full afterburners comes crashing down at some point after the fuel runs out.

Communications and Visibility was also an issue.  It felt like nobody really knew what other departments were doing.  And, when a couple of folks would have those discussions, someone always felt left out.  The organization did not have honest, open Communications and Visibility within and throughout the company.  We had veiled, secretive Communications, and blurry Visibility at best.  And from a “gauges and dials” perspective, we never did have any real indicators of progress.  How could we?  We were reinventing the company two to three times a month.

If you feel like you’ve put together a great team with great ideas, and you’re not seeing the results you thought that would bring, ask yourself these questions.

• What is the goal, really?
• How is what we’re doing right now helping us get to where we say we want to be?
• How is what we’re doing today consistent with or different from what we did yesterday?

What is the goal, really?

The more I reflect on my experience with that organization, the more I’m not sure any two people in the organization would give you the same answer to that question.  I know what my goal was.  And I can paint a clear picture of how the things our group was working on supported and enabled the broader vision of transforming the distressed merchandise market.  Based on results, though, the goal of the majority owners was bankruptcy.  In that year, there were several multi-million dollar offers that the owners passed on because those offers didn’t include this provision or that provision.  Ultimately, the owners were more committed to bankruptcy than to flexibility in a deal that didn’t fit their agenda 100%.

Based on the results you have thus far – including the opportunities you’ve avoided or rejected – what is your goal, really?

How is what we’re doing right now helping us get to where we say we want to be?

Did you spot the key words in that question?  The question isn’t about where we want to be.  It’s about where we say we want to be.  In my experience, those aren’t always the same thing.  The organization I was a part of that filed bankruptcy said it wanted to transform the distressed merchandise industry.  We attracted multiple multi-million-dollar opportunities to do just that.  And if what we really wanted aligned with what we said they wanted, we would have negotiated one of those opportunities.  Instead, we spent lots of time, effort, money and other resources pursuing things that added no value whatsoever toward what we said they wanted.  And we did them because those activities were in alignment with what we really wanted.

Have the guts to ask this question.  Add an extra helping of guts and answer it honestly.

How is what we’re doing today consistent with or different from what we did yesterday?

Fine-tuning adjustments are a good thing.  It’s evidence that you’re paying attention to the Lens of Communications and Visibility, and tweaking Thrust and Momentum and Vector and Direction accordingly.  And wholesale changes aren’t a bad thing.  They just have different costs and benefits than fine-tuning adjustments.  On a day-to-day basis, which are you engaged in?

Tuning Out Disjointed Actions

When my business partner and I engaged in a startup venture, we had 10,000 things to do, and a shoestring budget to do it on.  We quickly found ourselves feeling like we were being tossed around like ping pong balls.  What we were doing today felt completely unrelated to what we were doing yesterday.  It was all “for the good of the company.”  However, it was so disjointed and inconsistent that the results were detrimental to the company, not helpful.

In reality, we were the ones doing the tossing.  It wasn’t happening to us by some mysterious outside uncontrollable force.  We were doing it to ourselves.  And we chose to change that.  We carved out swim lanes to focus on – product development, marketing and advertising, patents and legal, investors and financing, etc.  Once we did that, we created consistency across days…weeks…and months.  And, in a few short months, we had a working prototype product.