Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

With apologies to Annie, what the heck is the big deal with "Tomorrow?"

Teacher, teacher! I know!  Call on me!  "Tomorrow is the day of promise.  It's the future.  It's when all those things we are wishing for will come true!"

Uh, time out.  There's the problem.  "Wishing."

Far too often, strategic plans or major projects are built on the equivalent of 'wishes.'  Leaders say they want something to happen.  They say it loud, they say it strong, they say it often.  And somehow, they think that is enough to make the wishes come true. It isn't.

Let me tell you one of my favorite "I can't believe he did that" stories.  You'll soon understand why I can't tell you the name of the executive involved or his company.  But I will tell you that it went through Chapter 11....

It was a year of challenge.  The stores weren't meeting their numbers.  But the CEO had the answer.  He scheduled, on short notice, a managers' meeting.  He brought all the store managers together for a three day session.  We're talking a few hundred people, so this was not an inexpensive operation.

On the first day of the three-day session, the CEO opened the meeting with a video.  It was a very well-done video, full of nice imagery and music, to pump up the audience.  And it did.  The managers stood and applauded.  The stage was set.  The CEO strode to the front of the room and in his loud, ex-Marine voice, announced:  "I need you to sell more."  And then he repeated the same phrase several more times, sometimes the exact words, sometimes varying them slightly. Because, of course, if you repeat something often enough, it will happen.  Uh, or not.

Over the next three days, the meeting followed this pattern.  Some "pump you up" activity would occur and then the CEO (or one of his designates) would get up in front of the crowd and say (yep): "I need you to sell more" (or something just like it).

After three days, everyone went back home and the CEO sat back, just waiting for the new, bigger numbers to start rolling in.  Ha.

I love this story because it is so clear, and such an extreme example (almost to the point of farce) of the problem evidenced at many companies.  

You can't just tell people what to do.  You have to teach them.  Show them.  Make sure they understand clearly what is expected of them, in ways they can monitor and measure.  Give them the right tools.  Make sure they have the right incentives.  Help them to understand the clues along the way that let them know they're going in the right direction, or not.

And that's the big deal about "Tomorrow."  It's not the ability to wish or hope for something to happen that makes tomorrow so important. It's what you do.  You know your goals.  You know what you want to accomplish.  That's the easy part.  What do you do?  What are you going to do to reach your goals?  What are you going to do to succeed?  What are you going to do differently to make the right things happen?

When you think about tomorrow, make sure you're thinking about it the right way:  "What am I going to do, tomorrow, different from today, to reach my true goals."  A wish may be "a dream your heart makes."  It's hard work, however, to make that dream come true.