Ideal vs. Intentional

Here’s a critical mindset shift that will improve every aspect of your organization’s strategy, change resiliency, and organizational effectiveness.

Shift your focus from ideal to intentional.

Dreaming about possibilities for the future is important, joyful, and necessary.

It’s good to explore what our organization can do for the people we serve and can be for the people who power our organization.

But when we convert those dreams into an expectation that we will create an “ideal” organization, we set ourselves – and our teams – up for failure.

Ideal says:
→ We should be ___________.
→ We can’t be successful until ____________.
→ We have to do ________________ because that’s what the best organizations do.
→ We have to grow by [some unreasonable percentage] this year.

Ideal describes an unattainable end state without any guidance about how to get there.

Even if an “ideal” version of our organization existed, it may be literal decades away, which means we probably won’t be here to see it come to fruition.

What’s more effective?

Being intentional.

Focusing on being intentional means:
→ Making smart choices about what we will and won’t do.
→ Giving ourselves and our teams permission to focus on what we do best.
→ Choosing specific, limited experiments and investments so we can learn something useful.
→ Building a real strategy – one that involves choices and tradeoffs – instead of a laundry list of disjointed tactics.
→ Making meaningful progress without promising unsustainable results.

Building a culture of intention also supports:
→ More reasonable Board expectations
→ More empowerment and accountability among your executives and managers
→ Better communication, morale, and connection throughout the organization

This shift starts with a choice – yours.