By Beth Baker
We’re pleased to bring you a guest blog post from Beth Baker, a Skillsoft Learning Consultant
I love maps. I have always loved maps. It is like a one page overview of where I have been and all the paths available to get me where I want to go. As long as I know where I am starting and what my destination needs to be, I can choose any number of options to get there. I can even reroute myself midway if necessary.
I may lay out a specific “actionable” path with designated rest stops precisely every 156 miles or I might just decide I need to head west and rely on nothing but a compass. It is just a personal preference. The important thing is that I know where I started and where I need to finish.
Do you know where you started? What about your destination? How about your team? Do they know the desired destination for your organization? If not, how will they know which direction to head when you aren’t navigating for them?
My first job out of college was working for a CLO at a major telecommunication firm in the southeast. It was a very tumultuous time at the company; we were just coming through an acquisition involving very different cultures, and the T&D function was being centralized. One of the first things the CLO did was to go on a road show all over the country, with the express purpose of involving everyone in creating the vision for the new organization. In every city, the employees were asked to create a vision of what they thought this new group could accomplish. What they created was far greater than what was thought possible at the upper levels. When the comprehensive vision was decided, there was immediate buy-in because it was created together. Even though the specific steps and action items were to come later, every employee had an idea of where we were headed and could begin to make decisions (great and small) with the destination in mind.
As Lewis Carol said, “If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
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