The idea of viewing a group of people-- be it a family, a military unit or a commercial organization- working together towards a common end as a single body is nothing new.
The concept can be seen not just in literature tracing back by centuries, if not millennia, the idea has found its way into common speech as well.
It’s not unusual to hear leaders in organizations say things like, “Our company is a body which is made of different parts, just as the human body is made of its constituent parts. Only, in our company the parts that make the whole are those who work here.”
An organization is a world that functions smoothly if all parts contribute to the whole
Sometimes, such sentiments when expressed by leaders may sound a little pompous. But there’s no doubt that the parallel that’s being drawn is meaningful. For just as the human body couldn’t be said to be completely healthy unless all the parts are healthy, an organization couldn’t function optimally unless every part in it- each and every change agent who forms a part of it- is a healthy contributor to the organization.
Now, the question is how could you make sure that change agents contribute to the best of their ability towards the progress of the organization?
Aspects of motivation
Two aspects drive the performance of a change agent: one is the motivation factor and the other is the support system- resources and time- that are available in the pursuit of a goal. The latter is a managerial aspect that deserves a blog post of its own. What’s relevant for the purpose of this post is the former- the motivation factor.
So, what can motivate a change agent to give his or her best performance?
There are two tiers to the answer to this question. And both of them has this one word: Vision.
Let’s start with the first tier- True Personal Vision
True Personal Vision
True Personal Vision is the unique vision that exists in your own self. This powerful vision is a glimpse of the future, no, more than that, it’s a blue print of your future trajectory both as a professional and an individual. Equally important is the fact that it helps you device a meaningful goal for the organization to move towards.
In other words, the organization now functions according to a vision.
Change agents typically are motivated more when the company they work for has a vision that it pursues. This vision should not be mistaken for the financial goals that any organization inevitably follows.
To get a better understand the meaning of vision, let’s look at a couple of hypothetical examples.
1)A technology company that manufactures mobile phones and laptops has for its vision making technology as simple as possible. This is an exciting proposition for a workforce to work towards- providing them with challenges and a meaningful goal to work towards.
2)An agriculture company that has eliminating the use of chemical fertilizers and other farming products as its vision. Here also, the vision provides a string motivational aspect- to work for a cleaner, greener future.
Compelling Shared Vision
The second element that motivates employees is a shared purpose that they themselves have envisioned. This is called Compelling Shared Vision and should be in sync with the leader’s True Personal Vision which guides the organization.
To use one of our above examples, creating an organic alternative to the synthetic sheets that are used in certain farms to provide shade to fruit bearing trees could be a particular vision that is pursued by one of the silos or containers in the organization.
A Compelling Shared Vision is born from among the members in the team and is not imposed from the outside. The change agents are then naturally motivated to see their vision realized.
Temenos Vision Lab or TVL is a unique session developed by Temenos+Agility that helps change agents discover their True Personal Vision and teams their Compelling Shared Vision. Using proprietary methods, some of the best transformation coaches in business help guide you to your vision in TVL. Developed based on 25 years of business consultancy experience, TVL provides a friendly and secure environment to discover your vision, with expert help at hand.
The idea is to create holistically healthy organizations in which every part contributes meaningfully to the whole.
