From the Ground Up

By Natalie Born

If you are anything like I am, you don’t see yourself as naturally innovative. Despite that factor, I can still remember the call to innovate that came during the 2008 financial crisis, and my company found itself in the middle of layoffs.

Actually, the whole world found itself in the middle of layoffs, and most organizations were reeling—trying to stay afloat. The management team was pulling people into rooms and letting them know that they would be receiving a severance package. Good friends and former coworkers were packing up their desks, and as a mid-level manager, I felt helpless. Our CEO brought us together and gave us this mandate: “We need to create two new innovative products every year.”

Wow, I thought, we are still reeling from the losses. How are we going to do this? In hindsight, the CEO’s direction was brilliant.

When times get tough, people typically look at the problem. Most of the time, we can’t inherently fix the problem. Good luck single-handedly fixing the economy. But what can we do? We can create a vision for a future that doesn’t exist. This is a core principle of innovation, with or without a crisis. We must give people a vision beyond their current circumstances.

Our vision, mission, values and goals become the bedrock or fundamental principles on which we build where our company is going and how we will know when we get there.

Anything you build should be on the foundation of your vision, mission, values and goals. These are your true north. It’s not surprising to realize that most people working in an organization cannot articulate their company’s vision, mission, values or goals.

WHAT MAKES A VISION?

A vision is a picture of the future that is clear enough in its description that others have an idea of where to go and big enough to inspire others to want to go there. A good vision statement should propel us to think 15 to 20 years into the future. It should feel aspirational; we know we will have to work hard to achieve it. Your vision creates the future that you want.

Let’s take an example from history. On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy spoke to Congress, asking for money for the space program. He said, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.”¹ That is a clear, compelling and captivating vision.

Around that same time, another man had a well-defined and enthralling vision as well. On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. presented a speech that rocked the nation. It’s a speech we still reference today. He called the gathering that day at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC “the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.”² His “I Have a Dream” speech was a clear call for equality for all people from the United States government as King described his vision for an integrated and equal America.

That is a clear vision statement. It projects out into the future, and it is something we can all rally around. Vision statements are powerful when they are:

• Well-written
• Clear
• Memorable
• Concise

A vision is a set of shared beliefs that help us to achieve our goals no matter how impossible they may seem. A vision describes the future that we want to create. Those that read the vision should be inspired to run with it. Your vision should ignite innovation and action in the hearts and minds of those who read it. It should move the team from transactional to transformational.

WHAT MAKES A MISSION?

If your vision galvanizes your team to plan for the future, your mission explains what’s taking place today. It answers questions: What do we do? and Whom do we serve? It sets and impacts the organization’s culture deeply. Mission statements are powerful when they:

• Push the team toward a common goal.
• Empower the team to act.
• Explain what we do and for whom we do it.

Mission statements can evolve over time to take you closer to your vision. When people are off mission, they create silos, establish turf and fight for what is best for their team over what is best for the organization. When you establish a clear mission, it helps boats to all row in the same direction.

TED’s mission statement, “Spread ideas, foster community and create impact,” is pithy and simple. It is this simplicity that makes it clear to understand if you are winning. Nike’s mission statement is also clear: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. (*If you have a body, you are an athlete.)”

As you can see, vision and mission are essential to igniting and inspiring your team’s forward momentum. These items are your true north, and when you are not around, they tell your team the “what” and “where” of their work.

WHAT MAKES STRONG VALUES?

Over time, leaders understand the impact and power of values. Values are the DNA or culture of the organization. If we truly live our values, we will hire and fire by them because values drive performance. Our values become the agreement dictating how we will behave and how our culture will function. Values are actionable. They are things we can do. People can also recognize when we are not living the values.

I once worked for an organization where one of its values was candor. So what did that mean for the way we operated? It meant that we didn’t need to beat around the bush when giving feedback. We could be open and honest with our concerns no matter with whom we were speaking. We could cut through the formalities and get to the point. It is actually a beautiful thing in a fast-paced, innovative environment.

Values matter because values make or break organizations. Ensuring you have a value fit saves you time, energy, and effort. Organizations become toxic when they hire people who are misaligned with their values.

LIVING THE VALUES

It is possible for someone to have real and raw talent, but not live the organization’s expressed values. I had one employee who was merged into my team when I entered into a new role; we will call him Sam. He was incredibly talented, and it was always impressive to see the final product of his work. However, it almost always came late. Sam would frequently miss meetings that he was supposed to lead, and I would be left there, looking at the rest of the team, with no answers.

Over time, not exercising any discipline toward Sam became an issue. Other leaders on my team were looking at me thinking, We show up on time. We turn our work in on time. Why does Sam get a pass? They were right. Why was everyone else doing the right thing, yet Sam was getting the same reward (his job) for doing the wrong thing?

After extending multiple opportunities for Sam to improve, I let go of one of the most talented team members I had. Why? Because he constantly disregarded our values. It didn’t matter that his talent was off the charts. We said we valued accountability and dependability, and he was not pulling his weight in these areas.

I hated to walk him to the door that day, but the team and I had suffered long enough. When you have someone who’s misaligned with your values, the whole team suffers, and your company suffers too. So, know what you value, hire what you value and fire when someone is misaligned with those values.

SETTING COMPANY GOALS

The more employees you hire, the harder it is to keep everyone on the same page. To really begin setting goals, it’s important to look at where you want the company to be in three to five years. Once you feel clear on that, start to walk backward and figure out what you will need to do annually and then quarterly to reach that three- or five-year goal.

For example, if in three years, we want to be number one in our market, we have to ask:

Where are we now? To answer this question, it may be as simple as a SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats) or competitive analysis. This will even help us understand what is holding us back from getting where we want to go.

What metrics will we use to measure movement? This could be the number of users on our platform or a key revenue number we desire to hit.

What capabilities do we need to build or acquire to become number one? This question really helps us set clear goals. If we lack certain core capabilities, we may need to start there before we can build toward our plan.

VISIBILITY

When I help to implement a vision for a team, everyone receives a copy of it framed so that the vision will always be in front of them. When we have performance reviews or developmental conversations, the vision is always there to help lead us to our true north.

What if every team member had the vision displayed on their desk or in their office? You can’t carry the vision of the organization if you don’t know what it is. What if we put it front and center visually so that team members could use that vision to make key decisions? A decision framework is created to ensure that your leadership team and those who report to them can use critical thinking to make key decisions. This framework should look through the lens of the vision, mission, values and goals and act as rails when decisions are to be made.

Your decision framework should be aligned according to these four areas:

• Vision—What do we hope to achieve in the future?
• Mission—What is our purpose for existing, and what are we doing today?
• Values—What are our core principles, and what do we value as an organization?
• Goal—What are the big goals we are trying to achieve as a company?

So, when there was a call during the 2008 economic crisis to innovate, it was all about vision over circumstance. During this time, I learned the three core roles of the leader and the three core roles of the team.

THE ROLES OF THE LEADER

There are three main things that a leader should provide to their team: vision, resources, and clarity on how to adapt the goals to traverse the changing landscape.

1. A leader must set the vision. A vision functions as true north. It tells people where to aim their cannons and in which direction to plot their course. It’s easier to course correct when you assess the destination against the vision. A leader’s role is to set the course and the speed at which we are going to travel. The leader guides us to the destination by figuring out what sparks tenacity and motivation within the team.

A leader’s role is to get the team really excited about the journey by helping them lock onto the vision. While most team members show up motivated, it’s very easy to demotivate them by not properly understanding their skill sets and knowledge, by belittling them or by being a leader who tells people what to do without telling them why. There’s also something arguably more powerful than motivation, and that is inspiration. So, let’s inspire!

2. A leader must provide the resources. There’s nothing more demotivating than having a big vision but no resources to accomplish it. Most leaders are moving so fast that they forget to, as Dr. Stephen R. Covey says, “Begin with the end in mind.”³ Part of the role of a leader is to remove roadblocks preventing the execution of the vision. Resources are not always monetary; sometimes, they come in the form of time or attention. Time in the right rooms and attention from the right people achieve the goals. Several days or weeks of research could save you years of heartache.

Reaching into the unknown can be an exciting and empowering experience, but you must first ensure you’ve counted the costs and can provide the proper resources, so your team can begin the journey. A leader doesn’t have to do this alone. The team is there to help provide perspective and give feedback.

3. A leader must adapt the goals to the changing landscape. It’s not enough to create a vision and roll it out; we have to look at how the vision is responding to our current landscape. Creating clear and measurable goals will ensure that we are on the right path. Agility is a superpower today. Not only do we need to be agile with any goals and plans we make, but we also need to be flexible with a vision that can scale up or down with that plan. You and your team will be stronger by asking some hard questions before you get in too deep.

THE ROLE OF THE TEAM

A team member is signing up to do three main things in lockstep with the vision that is created: carry the vision, get creative with the resources and innovate by building what doesn’t exist.

1. Carry the vision. A team member must ensure that they understand the vision enough to implement it. It’s not enough to know the vision; they must contextualize it to their day-to day. A team member must carry the vision, reiterate the vision, and make decisions through the lens of the vision. As a team member, it’s crucial to keep the vision in front of us at all times. When making key decisions, we have to ask ourselves, Does this align with the vision?If not, then reconsider your stance or approach.
2. Get creative with the resources. While the leader’s role is to provide the resources and remove roadblocks, the team’s role is to understand the landscape, utilize the resources they have, and get really creative. Regardless of how much we plan, there’s no doubt that it’ll be necessary to get creative with the resources we have. A team member should be asking questions: How can I save time or money without sacrificing quality? How can we do more with less? How can we overdeliver under budget? When someone treats resources like their own money and is a good steward, leaders trust andwant to promote that person to handle more. Ask the hard questions, and find places to be scrappy without sacrificing quality.
3. Innovate by building what doesn’t exist. This is the hardest part. We need to set our teams up in such a way that they can try new things. Let’s help them fail quickly and cheaply, and in that, help them fail forward. 

We do that by introducing incremental—not big and bold—changes. We test and adjust constantly. When you have alignment around vision, mission, values, and goals, the way the team makes decisions should feel similar to that of the CEO and founder.

When I look back on some of the projects I was working on at 24 and 25 years old, I realize that our vision was so articulate that I had clarity in my decision-making ability. I understood my guardrails. I was grounded in what my leaders and the founders wanted and where we were headed. I can remember a few times when I really stepped in it and made a bad call, but most of the time, I was able to run. I had freedom within theframework. If the leader has to make all of the decisions all the time, that’s not leading. That’s micromanaging. The leader marks the spot on the map, and it’s the team’s job to navigate us there.

FOOTNOTES:
1. Brian Dunbar, “Excerpt from the ‘Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs’,” NASA, 11 Apr. 2017, https://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/jfk_speech_text.html.

2. “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Freedom. Equality. Justice,” ORTEC, 13 Jan. 2022, https://ortec.com/en-us/news-more/insights/remembering-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-freedom-equality-justice.
3. Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2020) 109.