The Straight Line to Business Success
Did you know that we humans can’t walk in a straight line without visual cues to keep us focused on our path? Not only are we unable to walk straight, we actually walk in circles if we can’t clearly see where we’re going.
We also drive our businesses in circles if we don’t have strong focal points like clearly defined missions, goals, and guidelines.
I learned this odd fact about humans walking in circles when listening to an NPR piece that covered a research paper on the topic written by Jan Souman, Ilja Frissen, Manish Sreenivasa, and Marc Ernst.
According to the paper:
We tested the ability of humans to walk on a straight course through unfamiliar terrain in two different environments: a large forest area and the Sahara desert. Walking trajectories of several hours were captured via global positioning system, showing that participants repeatedly walked in circles when they could not see the sun. Conversely, when the sun was visible, participants sometimes veered from a straight course but did not walk in circles. We tested various explanations for this walking behavior by assessing the ability of people to maintain a fixed course while blindfolded. Under these conditions, participants walked in often surprisingly small circles (diameter < 20 m), though rarely in a systematic direction. These results rule out a general explanation in terms of biomechanical asymmetries or other general biases. Instead, they suggest that veering from a straight course is the result of accumulating noise in the sensorimotor system, which, without an external directional reference to recalibrate the subjective straight ahead, may cause people to walk in circles.
It’s easy to see the parallels in our business environments. Without a clear vision of where we’re going, it’s easy for “accumulating noise in the sensorimotor system” (I love that phrase) to send us off course. In the business world, we’re constantly bombarded by internal and external demands for short-term change. Those demands are often driven by overly narrow data analysis (such as daily or even hourly comps), emotional reactions, gut feel, wild ideas, competitive shifts, and more.
So what do we do about it?
We can’t stop the noise, but we can provide ourselves with some solid focal points and guidelines to keep us on a straight path toward ultimate success.
Clarify your “why” with a meaningful, compelling, and easy-to-remember mission statement
This doesn’t necessarily have to be a mission statement. It could be a purpose statement, a vision statement, etc. The main point is we all need some sort of clear North Star we can use to point our efforts in the same direction.
I’ve often personally had negative reactions to even the idea of mission statements because so often they are overly wordy and meaningless to everyone in the company who wasn’t in the room when they were developed (which is generally almost everybody). A particularly bad example would be something like: “We are committed to achieving new standards of excellence by providing superior human capital management services and maximizing the potential of all stakeholders – clients, candidates and employees – through the delivery of the most reliable, responsive, flexible, and cost-effective services possible.” Too wordy. Too many buzz phrases. Not enough inspiration. Not enough meaning to most people in the company or its customers.
All too often, mission statements like the previous example are created in a boardroom, printed on posters hung all over the company and almost immediately ignored. And then the business runs in circles.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. A carefully created mission statement can be the focal point that drives all business decisions and keeps the entire company moving in a straight line to success.
Consider the following excellent examples and how they might guide your decisions:
Amazon: “Our vision is to be earth’s most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”
Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. *If you have a body, you’re an athlete.”
Google: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”
Ritz-Carlton (they call theirs a “credo”: “The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission.
We pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for our guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambiance.
The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.”Develop measurable goals that lead toward the mission
Just creating goals is not enough. The goals have to also be aligned with the mission and serve as milestones along that straight walk to success. It’s entirely possible to create a specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely goal that doesn’t progress us toward our mission. I suppose you could argue that “relevant” should be the attribute that aligns us with the mission, and it should be, but I’ve seen “relevance” twisted to individual agendas too often to rely on it without comment.
So the goal has to lead us toward the mission. For example, a Ritz-Carlton hotel manager might have a goal that says “Improve lobby ambience scores on guest satisfaction scorecard from 83 to 85 by December 31.” That would be something that specifically aligns with the mission and tells the manager how well he’s walking the straight line to success.Implement brand and service guidelines to establish boundaries
Brand guidelines are also critical to help us understand what boundaries we can work within on our straight line to success. I think of them almost as swim lanes. We might not swim perfectly straight, but as long as we stay in our lanes we’ll have the latitude to deal flexibly with changing conditions while continuing to head toward our North Star.
Consider Ritz-Carlton’s 12 service values:
I build strong relationships and create Ritz-Carlton guests for life.
I am always responsive to the expressed and unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.
I am empowered to create unique, memorable and personal experiences for our guests.
I understand my role in achieving the Key Success Factors, embracing Community Footprints and creating The Ritz-Carlton Mystique.
I continuously seek opportunities to innovate and improve The Ritz-Carlton experience.
I own and immediately resolve guest problems.
I create a work environment of teamwork and lateral service so that the needs of our guests and each other are met.
I have the opportunity to continuously learn and grow.
I am involved in the planning of the work that affects me.
I am proud of my professional appearance, language and behavior.
I protect the privacy and security of our guests, my fellow employees and the company’s confidential information and assets.
I am responsible for uncompromising levels of cleanliness and creating a safe and accident-free environment.
Of course, the entire process is not as simple to implement as it is to write about. And there’s a lot more to do to truly build and execute a strategy successfully. But I’ve found over the years that dedicating considerable thought to providing clear, compelling direction for all employees to follow a relatively straight line can help prevent destructive business circles and keep us on the straight line to business success.
