If you do any work on developing vision, mission…or purpose, it would be a good idea to pick up a copy of It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For by Roy M. Spence, Jr.  I first ran across Spence when I read Mavericks at Work and GSD&M, the Austin based marketing and advertising company he serves as chairman and CEO, was highlighted more than once as an example.

I asked for a review copy when I noticed the subtitle: Why Every Extraordinary Business is Driven By Purpose.  Believe me, I was not disappointed.  This is a great read and packed with lots of ideas, principles and practices you can use right away.

There are several very important features with this book.  First, it opens with three very important chapters on distinguishing purpose from mission or vision, how to discover your purpose and how to articulate your purpose.  I loved the fact that all three of these chapters were very practical and included tips and exercises designed to make it happen.

Second, going far beyond discovering and articulating purpose, in Part II and III Spence wrestles with building an organization that makes a difference and becoming a leader of great purpose.  One of the coolest things about these sections of the book is that they’re heavily seasoned with stories from some of the most dynamic purpose-driven corporations (including Walmart, AARP, Whole Foods, Southwest Airlines, and Charles Schwab).  You’ll come away with many, many stories that will inspire you to think differently about the task at hand.

Finally, Part IV provides a detailed examination on the subject of bringing purpose to life in the marketplace.  Covering corporations (Walmart, BMW, etc.), membership organizations (AARP), nonprofit organizations (American Red Cross), higher education (Texas A&M), and sports (PGA), the case studies in this section provides extensive detail of the strategies (marketing, human resources, business objectives, etc.) that brought purpose to life.

While Roy Spence is clearly a brilliant and very successful marketer, It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For is not a book about marketing or advertising.  In fact, in one of my favorite quotes from Part IV he writes that ”the more an organization understands its purpose, the more it can create products, services, and experiences that will create a strong brand in the marketplace.  Truth be told, advertising is very far downstream in the process of building truly great brands (p. 156).”

This book is about discovering and learning to articulate purpose.  It’s about building an purpose-based organization.  It’s about becoming a purpose-based leader.  Sounds like the kind of thing all of us could use more of.  This is a great book and I’ll be recommending it to many of my consulting clients.

Can’t speak for you, but I love the way Granger is communicating their new vision. Watch this video for a hint:

Our Story from Granger Community Church on Vimeo.

If you’ve been along for the journey here at StrategyCentral, you’ve heard the phrase “life-change” many times.  It’s the thing we exist to deliver…and that’s true whether your organization is a church or a non-profit.  Our organizations are in business to do more than make products or create experiences or operate programs.  We exist to do something that will ultimately change lives!

Yesterday I saw a Tweet from my friend Will Mancini (@willmancini) and it got my attention.  His Tweet read: “Ikea out-articulates the church. Isn’t “Life Changes Available” a better golden tomorrow than the nebulous “life change” we talk?”

I have to say, the addition of the word “available” presented such an intriguing twist on the well-worn phrase “life-change” that I had to check into what IKEA is doing.  Life Changes Available is a great tag line, but it’s more than a tag line.  It is a great story.

At the same time, it is a great illustration of the kind of thinking that can create an appealing and memorable invitation designed to catch the attention of our customers.

Back to Will’s Tweet.  He was making the point that our frequent reference to life-change is colorless.  It’s vague.  Who really knows what it means.  I guess we know what it means.  But when we use that phrase in a marketing piece or in a message, doesn’t it slip right by our intended audience?

Example: “Small groups are important here at ___________ Community Church because we believe that life change happens best around a coffee table.”

What?

The Takeaway:  The addition of the word “available” takes the phrase “life-change” from camouflaged fuzziness to an appealingly clear offer.  It shifts the phrase from the body of the marketing piece to the headline.

For me, it now fits in the same category as another tag line I’ve used for years: “Feel like a face in the crowd?”  That line perfectly fits the sensation that many people have when they’re walking into a large crowd week after week and no one knows them.  No one knows their struggle.  No one knows their loneliness.

Can you see how “Life Changes Available” will catch people’s attention?  It sure caught mine.

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I had a jaw drop moment while reading Bill Taylor’s most recent HBR blog post, Brand Is Culture, Culture Is Brand.  Although the article is about brands and organizational culture, the story he told about the way USAA employees learn to meet the needs of their customers was very compelling and I realized right away that you’d want to hear about this.

His article highlights USAA (the insurance and financial-services firm that only does business with active or retired members of the U.S. military and their families) and their intense drive to meet the needs of their customer.  They do that by building a culture that seeks to understand the life that our military and their families live.

This is where the article brought me to a jaw-drop moment.  USAA employees are known for their empathy.  They develop that empathy through a series of immersion activities.  For example, when they’re about to start training USAA team members:

• “Get a ‘deployment letter’ like the ones real soldiers get: ‘Report to the personnel processing-facility’ tomorrow, the letter reads, and get your affairs in order beforehand.’”
• “Eat MREs (meals ready to eat) on many occasions during their training, to get a ‘taste’ for the life of a soldier”
• “Walk around in 65-pound backpacks.”
• “Read actual letters from soldiers in the field to their families back home.”

All of this is part of a strategy that “USAA calls it ‘Surround Sound’ — immerse employees in the real life and emotional needs of customers.”  One consultant said, “There is nobody on this earth who understands their customer better than USAA.”

Wow!  Isn’t what we all do worth that kind of immersion?  Wouldn’t we all like to be known as the organization that understands their customers better than anyone else!

What would it have to look like for our teams to really understand our customers in this way?

Like many of us, I am a student of the language of ideas. How to say it in just the right way is the essence of great communication.  Without the right language it can never be more than directional.  For anything to be inspirational…language is an essential element.

Need an example?  Take a moment to read this manifesto.  It was developed by GWP as part of their pitch to secure the ING Direct account as they prepared to launch in the United States.  This kind of pitch must show that the branding company absolutely gets the core idea.  As you read it, listen for how it might apply to your organization:

We are new here.  There has never been a time like this before.  Our name is ING Direct.  Our mission is to help people take care of the wealth they make for themselves in ways that fit this new time.

We will be fair.  We will constantly learn.  We will change and adapt and dwell only in the present and in the future.

We will listen.  We will invent.  We will simplify.  We will never stop asking why, or why not.  We will create wealth for ourselves, too.  But we will do this by creating value.

We will tell the truth.  We will be for everyone, except those who are truly served by the old way (I love that line!)

Because we aren’t conquerors.  We are pioneers.  We are not here to destroy.  We are here to create.

We will never be finished.

We are not a bank.  We will never be a bank.  But we will be what a bank would be if it began tomorrow and asked simply, “What if we started over?” (I really love that line) (p. 77, The Orange Code)

I can’t speak for you.  I don’t know about your organization.  But I do know this…there is an aspirational element in this that’s at the heart of what needs to be rediscovered in many, many organizations.

“We will be what a ________ would be if it began tomorrow and asked simply, “What if we started over?”

By the way, this concept is related to the Andy Grove idea referred to here, here, and here.  And if you’re new to StrategyCentral…you can sign up to get my updates right here.

My friend Will Mancini wrote and interesting article in mid-December and challenged all of his readers to learn to drip vision.  He followed that post up with a challenge to drip vision every day.  Today Mac Lake, leadership guru/practitioner extraordinaire, entered the game with his own 5 visiondrip ideas…actually saw Mancini’s 5 and anted up 5 of his own.

I like the way this game is shaping up!  I’m in.  Here’s my 5:

1. This is more permanent, but I love the way crossroads in Corona, CA, has used a combination of faces and scripture in their worship center lobby to call out their vision for people everyday.  I know PlainJoe Studios played a role in the design.  Very cool…and always on.
2. Speaking of always on, I love the way Gateway Church in Austin, TX, has integrated their slogan “no perfect people allowed” into their website.  At the same time, the line “come as you are” appears prominently above the fold on the home page.
3. When you find a quote that really resonates with your vision, type it out, change the layout to landscape, and enlarge the font.  A little fold near the top allows you to hang it where everyone who visits your office can see it.
4. Point your leaders to online messages that drip your vision.  I love this Andy Stanley message that was done at LifeChurch.TV in 2009.  I’ve never heard a more insightful look at Acts 15.  Powerful.  Watch for Andy’s quote near the end of his message.  “We need local churches that have all the rungs on the ladder.  Because church is for everybody.”  Awesome…and right at the heart of what North Point is about.
5. Make it a daily practice to send an email or write a note that points out a way that the recipient is living out the vision.

Actually, I want to see Will and Mac’s 5 and raise them 1.  Here it is:  Use upfront time and casual conversation as opportunities to make heroes out of those who are living out the vision.  We all get to choose who will be the heroes in our organization.  Choose wisely.  And do it everyday.  Always on.

I love the spirit of this video.  I linked to it 3 years ago.  Still one of the most popular pages here at StrategyCentral.

How do you know your business is dying?  Or maybe really sick?  I don’t mean the business (although it could be that).  I really mean your location.  I was thinking about this today.  Are there signs that the business you’re in is winding down, on life support, or at least will require a major overhaul to survive?  I think there are definitely signs.

For example, I think one of the signs that your business is dying might be that you speak a language in the conduct of your business that needs a lexicon or an interpreter.  For example, if you’re speaking Latin that may be a sign that you’re toast.  ‘Course…you might be a Latin student, but the sign that you’re in a dying business would be that you think there’s some merit in continuing to speak a language that requires translation.  Or you think you’re "dumbing down" what you’re doing by speaking the language of the people.

Or how about this one: You’re meeting a need that no longer exists in the mind of the customer.  Not to say the need doesn’t exist.  Just that you’ve positioned your business to meet a need that has moved out of the mind of your potential customer.  You might even still have a loyal customer base, but if you’re positioned in a way that isn’t relevant to people you aren’t currently reaching…well, maybe you’re just not relevant.

Got other earmarks of a dying business?  What do you think? 

Got a vision statement?  Sure you do.  Happy with it?  Probably not.  Just a guess…but it may not even be your vision statement.  Might be a slightly doctored version of another organization’s statement.  Might not even be slightly doctored…might be word for word.  Truth be told?  Been there, done that.  Want to develop your own?  Here are the five rules of a contagious vision statement from Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement:

• The Junior High Rule: Can a 12-year-old boy who has not been to church understand it? (Clear)
• The One Breath Rule: Can it be stated in one breath? (Concise)
• The Resonance Rule: When people say it do they want to say it again? (Compelling)
• The Actionability Rule: Does it inspire action on the part of the participant? (Catalytic)
• The Bouquet Rule: Do the words communicate biblical truth arranged for the listener’s time and place? (Contextual)

When you run your vision statement through these 5 rules, how does it come out?  Weak?  Or strong?

Want more?  You can pick up your copy of Church Unique right here.

You may have already read the text of the commencement address that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford a couple years back.  It’s now available as a video from Stanford on iTunes.  You’ll see it on the top downloads.  Just 15 minutes long, but a great way to start the year.