“The difference between a Designer and Developer … is the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing it.”
- Scott Hanselman
Close your eyes at the end of this sentence and visualize the word PLAN.
How did that go for you?
Chances are you experienced a touch of anxiety, maybe visualized a sterile room, with white boards everywhere and IBM like men in suits sitting around. If you think in music it was a movie track from the early 80’s say Chariots of Fire. This is the kind of association most of us make with the word “PLAN”.
Now, to try something different, close your eyes again and think of the word DESIGN.
The thoughts of brilliant colors, funky architecture and new and exciting concepts most likely filled your mind. The music is upbeat and modern like The Exterminator Beat from the Wanted Soundtrack or maybe some smooth jazz like Nemesis by Aaron Parks. The artistic mind associates with the word design, and its fun to dream in color.
So the question I have to ask, is that if you’re starting, building or running a small or medium sized company wouldn’t you want your future to be colourful, fun and successful?
If the answer is yes, then continue reading, because this a strategy you don’t want to miss.
In my last post I pushed you to look at your organization and ask the hard questions. Questions like:
What customers should I fire?
What 20% of employees are doing 80% of the valuable work?
Are you dealing with partners or vendors?
Are you trying to please everyone?
Do you understand your cash flow?
Have you peeked under the kimono lately? (Don`t do this one in public)
The answers to these questions are the foundation for the strategic design process. This foundation is critical to eliminating the 3 ring binder paper weight that most strategic plans become. The big question is, however, what to do about it?
I like design, I like color and I like making something simple enough so that everyone can participate in both the design, and more importantly, the execution of results!
To understand the difference between design and planning I’ll compare the 3 major starting points of each:
Planning:
Vision
Mission
Values
Design:
Purpose
A Story
Multiple Points of View
In today’s world, with ground breaking marketing and networking technology (are you on Twitter yet), a necessity to stay in front of the competition, opportunity to be truly global from your lap top and product and service offerings being judged more by the user experience than by the price of the ad, wouldn’t you rather be a designer of the future? Ask these questions:
What do we stand for as an organization?
What does good really look like in five years?
Who cares and who matters about our existence?
What do they have to say?
What themes show up that we can count on to build our future?
What are we going to do about it?
The STRiDE One-Page Design process puts Purpose, the Success Story and a concept called KAPOV front and center to make your design experience one filled with creativity, fun, color and amazing results!
If you’re new to designing your organizational future check out our one-pager, you’ll like it. If you’re already a seasoned planner in the organization, try a design approach and open the gates for the future!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I came across your blog, i think your blog is interesting, keep us posting.
Hey Tattoos – thanks for the positive feedback. Anything specific you’d like to see me write about? I’m a big fan of small business strategy and true win-win business development. Also a big fan of great ink! Talk to you soon. Chris
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