Do You Know Where You Are Going???

The story of Alice-in-Wonderland encountering the Cheshire Cat is so poignant to individuals and organizations today. The conversation goes as follows:

Alice:"Which road do I take?"
Cheshire Cat: "Where do you want to go?"
"I don't know Alice answered."
"Then said the Cat, it doesn't matter. If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." (Alice In Wonderland)

There are times when organizations are unclear about their direction and what they really, really want. Much like Alice-in-Wonderland, they may take multiple, unrelated roads that end up in a circular motion. It can impact their decision making, the customers and employees when confusion exists around company direction.

To insure you have a roadmap that will get you the result you want, here are some questions to ask:

-Do you have a clearly articulated, documented and communicated vision and mission?
-What are your three to five core values that guide the decision-making in the organization?
-What specifically do you want to accomplish over the next one, three or five years?
-How will you ensure that happens?
-How will you be accountable?

Once you have answered those questions successfully, how will you then communicate to the entire organization the direction of the company?

This doesn't have to be a complicated process and it should have some degree of fluidity. I worked with an organization that developed a "roadmap" for the business. After the first year, the company experienced an increase in both revenue and profit margin. It really does work!

As you think about your organization, what is its roadmap?