Q: What do the following have in common?

• A management team leading the development of a revised business strategy
• Partners in a venture capital firm laying down the market thesis of their next fund
• A manager tasked to leverage existing products to bring new value to market
• An acquisition integration team responsible for bringing two companies together
• A salesperson and her services leader closing a multi-year contract with a new customer
• A department being asked to increase their value add to the business
• A CIO offering to create pilot software to validate a market opportunity

A: They all involve two or more individuals, in the same or different organizations, working together to arrive at some point in the future where they can agree that they 'did it'.

While a lot of great work goes on and we can all point to the successes of ourselves and others, the degree to which businesses accomplish exactly what they set out to achieve is nevertheless unsatisfactory to most, and can have a direct impact on the measure of personal and corporate success.

Unfortunately, while groups are out getting ‘it’ done, much of their conversation may include phrases such as

• It’s like herding cats
• Fire, Ready, Aim!
• She doesn't get it
• They're not on board
• There’s an elephant in the room!
• Where did that come from?

These are just some of the indicators that the joint action in which these people are involved is not based on like-mindedness and resolved differences of opinion - common purpose at an actionable level. These statements represent financial loss, lengthening lead-times, wasted personal time, frustration, and dissatisfaction.

One of the root causes may have been a process quality leak which occurred at the outset of the action. When a person thinks about any new activity, their thinking falls into areas such as:

• When I'm judging success, what will I point to in order to assess whether we achieved it or not?
• What side-effects could happen as a result of trying to achieve it, or of being successful?
• What issues and barriers do I foresee that will prevent us getting all the way there?
• What are my implicit assumptions about what is happening in the bigger picture on which my earlier thoughts were based?

All of these thoughts drive our own behavior, but we also assume that our view is shared by others. We may discuss some areas where we are aware of a clear difference of opinion, but we will often forsake the quality of this dialogue because of time constraints. For ease of communication with others, we may summarize the projected end result in a few crisp statements, leaving general phrases which are hard for others to disagree with:

• "We will integrate the acquired business to provide our customers with a more valuable solution set."
• "We will implement this new software to improve the business processes."
• "We will improve this department so it is fully aligned with the corporate vision."

However, when questioned more closely:

• 12 High-tech company staff revealed 204 material thoughts on the matter of their upcoming partnering strategy
• 14 members of an outsourced services supplier and their client identified142 individual opinions on the upgrade to their long term contract
• 7 members of a management team discovered 129 separate views on the new product development exercise they were commissioning

Every single thought drives the behavior of each person involved - yet many are never surfaced.

Clarity of Destination means having a comprehensive and explicit appreciation of all the ways in which those involved in achieving the required outcome and in judging their success may envision the end result and the journey which will get them there.

SchellingPoint provides the tools that enable any group to bring clarity and commitment to their shared objectives, and to remove the prime flaw in designing and taking effective action together - the unspoken.