Built to Last

Define Your Core Values and Purpose: Start by identifying what truly matters to you or your organization. What principles do you stand for, and what is your ultimate purpose beyond making money? This could involve brainstorming sessions, reflecting on moments of pride and achievement, and considering the legacy you want to leave.

Communicate Your Core Ideology: Once you have a clear understanding of your core ideology, make sure it's communicated effectively throughout your organization or personal life. This could mean incorporating it into your mission statement, discussing it in meetings, or even displaying it prominently in your workspace.

Align Decisions with Your Core Ideology: Before making any significant decision, ask yourself if it aligns with your core values and purpose. This applies to everything from strategic business moves to daily personal choices. It ensures consistency and integrity in all you do.

Evaluate and Adapt Without Losing Sight of Your Core Ideology: Regularly assess how well you're living up to your core ideology. Be open to making changes in your approach or strategies, but always ensure that these adaptations don't compromise your fundamental values and purpose.

A tech startup focuses on innovation and user privacy as its core values. Despite market pressure to monetize user data, the company decides against it to stay true to its core ideology, eventually gaining a loyal customer base that values privacy.

An individual identifies personal growth and helping others as their core values. They choose a career in social work, despite the potential for higher earnings in other fields, and volunteer regularly, ensuring their career and personal actions align with their core ideology.

Identify Your BHAG: Start by brainstorming with your team or on your own. Think about where you want to see yourself or your company in the next 10 to 25 years. Make sure your goal is ambitious enough that it scares and excites you at the same time.

Make It Clear and Compelling: Once you have your BHAG, refine it to ensure it's understandable and motivating. It should be a clear call to action that everyone in your team or you personally can rally behind.

Create a Roadmap: Break down your BHAG into smaller, manageable milestones. This makes the journey less daunting and provides clear direction. Celebrate small wins along the way to keep motivation high.

Communicate and Embed Your BHAG: Share your BHAG with everyone involved. Make it a part of daily conversations, meetings, and decision-making processes. The more it's talked about, the more ingrained it will become in your or your team's actions.

Review and Adapt: Regularly review your progress towards your BHAG. Be open to adapting your approach based on what is and isn't working. Flexibility can be key to overcoming unforeseen challenges.

A small tech startup sets a BHAG to become the leading provider of AI solutions for healthcare within 20 years, revolutionizing patient care and treatment outcomes.

An individual in a mid-level management position sets a personal BHAG to become the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, focusing on sustainable and ethical business practices.

Embrace Complexity in Decision-Making: When faced with a decision that seems to force a choice between two desirable outcomes, challenge yourself to think creatively about how you might achieve both. For instance, if you're deciding between investing in employee training (to improve service quality) and cutting costs to keep prices competitive, consider ways to do both, such as implementing more efficient, cost-effective training methods.

Foster a Culture of 'AND' in Your Team or Organization: Encourage team members to bring forward solutions that address multiple goals simultaneously. This could involve setting up brainstorming sessions where the explicit goal is to find 'AND' solutions, not just compromises. Recognize and reward those who come up with innovative ideas that serve dual purposes.

Apply the 'AND' Philosophy to Personal Goals and Decisions: In your personal life, when you find yourself torn between two important goals (like saving money versus enjoying life now), look for ways to achieve both. This might mean finding budget-friendly ways to enjoy life or setting up a savings plan that still allows for small indulgences.

A company decides to implement a remote working policy, addressing the need for cost reduction (by decreasing office space) AND enhancing employee satisfaction and work-life balance.

A grocery store chain introduces a line of affordable, locally-sourced organic products, tackling the demand for low-cost groceries AND the growing consumer interest in sustainability and supporting local farmers.

Identify Your Core Values: Start by clearly defining the core values and ideologies that are at the heart of your personal or professional life. These should be principles that you are unwilling to compromise on, regardless of the circumstances.

Set Progressive Goals: While keeping your core values in mind, set ambitious yet achievable goals that push you or your organization forward. These goals should challenge you to grow and adapt without compromising your foundational beliefs.

Regularly Review and Adapt: Make it a habit to periodically review both your core values and your progress goals. This ensures that your core remains relevant and that your goals continue to align with your evolving context and capabilities.

Encourage Open Dialogue: Foster an environment where feedback and new ideas are welcomed and valued. This will help stimulate progress by incorporating diverse perspectives and potentially innovative solutions.

Celebrate Milestones: Recognize and celebrate when you or your organization achieves a goal or makes significant progress. This reinforces the importance of both preserving the core and stimulating progress.

A technology company maintains its core value of 'innovation' by dedicating resources to research and development, while also adapting its product line to meet emerging market demands, ensuring they remain relevant and competitive.

A non-profit organization committed to 'community empowerment' might preserve this core ideology by consistently focusing on community-driven projects, but stimulate progress by adopting new fundraising strategies or technologies to increase their impact.

Identify Your Core Ideology: Start by clearly defining your organization's core values and purpose. This isn't just about what you do, but why you do it. Think of it as the guiding star for all decisions and actions within the company.

Conduct an Alignment Audit: Regularly review your business processes, policies, culture, and products to ensure they are in harmony with your core ideology. Look for discrepancies where actions and strategies may diverge from your foundational principles.

Implement Alignment Strategies: Once discrepancies are identified, take corrective action. This could involve adjusting policies, redefining roles, or even changing aspects of your organizational culture to ensure everything is pulling in the same direction.

Communicate Clearly and Often: Make sure everyone in the organization understands the core ideology and how their work contributes to the strategic goals. Regular communication helps reinforce the importance of alignment and keeps everyone focused on the collective mission.

Measure and Adjust: Establish metrics to gauge the effectiveness of your alignment efforts. Use these insights to make informed adjustments, ensuring continuous improvement and adaptation to new challenges or opportunities.

A tech startup realizes its rapid growth is leading to a dilution of its founding principles. To realign, it initiates 'core values workshops' for all employees, focusing on how each department can better embody these values in their daily work.

A retail chain discovers that its customer service policies are not in line with its core value of 'putting the customer first.' It overhauls its return policy to be more customer-friendly and trains staff extensively on customer engagement techniques, aligning actions with ideology.