By Tom Reilly
“Tom, what you’re really talking about is starting a movement in our company.”
I heard this in a seminar I conducted in Ireland for a Danish company. The person suggesting this saw the importance of making Value-Added Selling a company-wide philosophy. He viewed it as a movement in his organization.
Every movement begins with a dream, vision, or notion. These ideas are big and small. They change the world or the way a department does something. In most cases, movement makers do not have to work hard to come up with an idea. It boils in a seething cauldron of passion, finding relief only in its expression. Movement means action, and movement makers do not wait patiently for the idea to take off. They launch it. With clarity of purpose, movement makers start and sustain their movements.
Movements (a new direction, reorientation, or revolution) take root from the seed of an idea. Clarity of purpose is the what, why, where, who, when, and how of your passion. What is your big idea? What burns inside you? What do you believe in so passionately that you want to tell others about it? What transformational change do you envision for your organization? What shared purpose will you submit to your team? Why is this important? Why now? Who should be involved? Where do we begin?
These questions can help you start and sustain any movement. Our focus is how you can start and sustain a movement to transform your company into a Value-Added Organization. A Value-Added Organization is in the business of creating value for everyone with whom it is connected. Everyone gains: buyers, sellers, stockholders, employees, environment, partners, and community. With clarity of purpose, you must conceive and communicate your vision for this movement. Begin with these orienting questions and imagine what a value-added movement would mean to your organization:
- What would it mean if we adopted the value-added philosophy as our core operating philosophy?
- Can we compete based on our value?
- Why would we want to choose this path?
- What effect would this have on everyone involved?
- What prompted this vision or what is driving this movement?
- Why now?
With clarity of purpose, frame this message in a way that will resonate with others. What begins with clarity of purpose will sustain your movement as constancy of purpose. You will surround your team with this true north of your movement.