Unterwegs Zur...Create an Actionable Roadmap to Get from Here to There

“Unterwegs zur.” Laying out a roadmap for your business to go from here to there.

As I walked in this morning, I saw a large horse fly resting on the sidewalk. Huge, not particularly attractive: it couldn’t possibly fly. When She (sic!), God that is, created flying creatures, people asked what had She been thinking to design the horse fly or the bumblebee. After all we know that God has a grand design and all creation fits into the plan according to Her design. In truth, however, God’s design of bumblebees and horse flies has come under question for centuries. As in: what was She thinking? Or, nothing designed that way can fly. Yet, we know that both creatures do fly and do so well. What works so easily for God does not work as well for humans when it comes to successful planning on how to get to there from here.

Getting from here-to-there is always on everybody’s minds; and, getting from here-to- there is always already a clearly visible destination. For business owners, however, the truth is that often we get lost on the way. [And, no! I really do not just mean driving directions]. I’m thinking more along the lines of the transformation the U.S. now faces as the Tea Party tries to hold the nation hostage and take its citizens back to the 1787-9 period; or, a lot more simple to solve, how to transform a business into a customer-centered, customer-based business. The challenges are so immense as to risk hyperbole. The missteps made happen so frequently and predictably that there must be a better way. 

We no longer can afford missteps in today’s hyper-competitive, always-on, flat world. No, what we need is a way to assure breakthrough performance and to assure creation of a roadmap that outlines our best chance to arrive at the destination, the desired end-state. And, it really is quite simple to effect best-planning and execution of these crucial transformations. The keys are diagnostics, facilitation and coaching. Plans, lucid, readable and comprehensible roadmaps are important, nay vital to success: whether it is a “simple” exercise, such as taking your family of five to [you fill-in-the-blanks] for a mini-summer vacation, or (more) complex such as planning for your 24-year-old daughter’s dream wedding, or compound-complex as in establishing your firm’s new customer centered and customer focused strategy. (Thinking of plans as a type of sentence construction may be a helpful metaphor).

Distractions, unanticipated events, setbacks, life: all these “things” happen and so our best-laid plans somehow end up producing horse flies rather than hummingbirds. The problem, for many of us, unfortunately, is that our horse flies don’t fly. Our “success” at planning, unfortunately, does not translate into successful implementation and operational effectiveness.

And, so what. What now? How can your B2B CRM & CEM strategy be implemented successfully, without a hitch? How do we plan for life to happen and keep on the path. As I began to write this paragraph these two phrases surfaced: “Seek first to understand.” “Start with the end in mind.” And, yes, both pieces of advice are apropos of this discussion. Do they give a way to find planning and implementation success? I think they do. And, I think they do because they un-conceal what has been hidden or that which may distract.

What is needed is diagnostics, facilitation, and coaching. The process will clearly define three critical areas:

1. Where you are starting from: the point of departure or your “Current State”

2. Where you intend to end up: your destination or “Desired End-State."

3. The stuff that has to be done, accomplished, solved, etc. so that you can, in fact, get from here to there: “the bridging tasks”.  

Unterwegs zur… 

Call or write me and I can help guide you in the creation of your roadmap, so that your attempts to get on the way will actually allow you to arrive, safely and with a minimum of (always-present or at least potentially-so) discomfort.

(Please: stop to see us and say hello at: http://www.crmcompass.com)