In the last episode, we talked about vision, journey, culture, and results. Every organization—For-Profit, not-for-profit, large or small—has these four elements. They have a vision, they have a journey, they have a culture, and a result. In this episode, we're gonna dig deep into vision. We'll talk about what is a vision? Why does it matter? Why do you always start with vision? How is vision different from a purpose or a mission statement? And I think you're gonna find that vision is really the most important place to start.

Make Work Not Suck is our podcast that talks about exactly that: our process—vision, journey, culture, and results. We present real-world business solutions that make the difference. Our goal is to make work not suck. Hosted by Ryan Hodges and co-host Daniel Steere. Join us each episode and make work not suck. Welcome to the Make Work Not Suck podcast.

All right, Ryan. Last time we unpacked the fact that every organization in all time throughout human history of all sizes has four things: vision, journey, culture, and results. Today we're gonna unpack vision. So, cool word, everyone loves vision. What does that mean within the context of this paradigm?

All right. So vision. Vision also relates to belief. What do we believe the organization's trying to do? You know, and we all know the mission statement, the vision statement, mission, vision, values—all those things. That's what we believe we're trying to do. The reason why you start with vision is that’s the compass heading. What are you trying to do? We want to be, you know, we want to impact the world by doing X. Okay? We want to, you know, we believe our culture is these five, six core values. And it's everything you believe that you are trying to be or aspire to be. That's why it's called vision. It's that foresight of where you want to be, but not where you are. That’s a different one.

So, what's the difference between vision, purpose, calling, mission? I'm pretty sure as a consultant I just make up a different word so that I can charge clients for consulting engagement to be like, "Oh, well, you’ve got a mission, but you don’t have a vision, an objective," right? You know, I just feel like that’s one of the tricks of the trade is you just kind of keep changing the names to describe the same thing.

So are these all the same things, or is there actually a difference there? There is a slight difference between them all. Because let's just go with like mission, vision, values, right? That's the stereotypical ones. The vision is where you are headed. The mission is the belief of how you do it. And then your core values are how you believe we should behave to do it. You know, we are going to have radical candor. Okay? And so, you know, whether you actually have radical candor or not is a different topic. But we believe to do where we want to go, we need radical candor. We believe our mission is to do this thing, you know, help purpose-driven companies, right? And then, of course, you've also got a KPI on the other side of like, what’s your counter? How do you know you’ve achieved there? Or how do you know you’re ticking up? And so the reality is you need all of those and whatever you call 'em, it’s just the semantic of words.

At the end of the day, you need to have what is the purpose or calling or what is the destination you believe you're working towards? What is the high-level belief in the experience you're trying to create? You know, the mission, if you will, the culture, the core values, and then how you’re gonna measure that—not from a financial standpoint, that’s a result. We’re talking about the impact, like lives impacted, you know, that counter.

Okay, so I had a client once and I got into a little bit of an argument. I’m really coming across like a bad coach and consultant 'cause all my stories are me arguing with people. But I got into a discussion with one of my clients because I said, "I don’t think you guys have a very clear vision." And he's like, "I strongly disagree. Our vision is to be a $500 million company." What would you say to that?

That’s not a vision. Why not? That’s a result. It’s very clearly defined. We want to be a $500 million company. Yeah. But in this, that’s the old paradigm, is who you gonna talk about work sucking, who gets up in the morning and goes, "I am excited to make that guy $500 million." That is why I’m on this planet. That guy being the owner, founder, CEO, shareholders, investors. Yeah. Who gets excited about wanting to help somebody else be a $500 million company? None of the people in that company that I was working with, no, I’m sure the culture sucked. And I’m sure work sucked for everyone because there was nothing they were working towards.

The vision is what helps align people, what they are working towards. Like one company we had, it was to impact the lives of children. We were a software company. Well, a software company. We were in childcare software. But we believed what we were doing was impacting the lives of the child by starting their educational journey. Huh. Okay. Our mission was to start the educational journey. What impact the lives of children educational journey. We had our core values and our measurement was lives impacted through our software. Did you guys make any money?

A lot of it. Oh, okay. So this wasn’t like a charity or anything? No. Okay. No. That’s funny though. As you’re talking through that, you didn’t mention anything about profits. No. No profits. No. Don’t get me wrong. Profits are very important. There are several phrases: no margin, no mission; no money, no mission; no profit, no mission. Right? No profit, no mission. You still have to turn a profit. And even a for-profit organization still has to turn a profit. It just doesn’t get paid out in dividends. It gets reinvested back in the organization. You still have to turn a profit, but that’s what fuels the mission.

Yes. Yeah. That’s not what drives the mission. That is not the mission. Yeah. I’ve said to clients, you need gas to go on a road trip, but that doesn’t mean the purpose of the trip is to go to every gas station along the road.

Correct? Right. Like, you’re not going to the gas station, you’re going to the Grand Canyon, or Niagara Falls, or Yosemite, or someplace gorgeous. Yes, you’re gonna have to stop at gas stations, but the purpose of your trip is not to hit as many gas stations as possible. Right. And I think a lot of people mistake vision for results because the results are easier to measure.

So I’m gonna hit a little bit of a rabbit trail here, and I think this is gonna help bridge the gap between owners and founders, executives, and the average employee manager. Okay? So most founders start a business because they believe in something. They believe their way is better. They believe that they have a process. They have something that is of value to someone else, and they want to do good with it. Now, that owner is trying to better themselves. Maybe they came from a bad background. Maybe they were poor as they grew up. Maybe, you know, maybe they’re very passionate about an organization. And a lot of times you’ll hear founders go, like, "That one right there, we wanna hit that $500 million mark or 10 million, you know, whatever the target is," whatever the number. But that’s because that founder is looking—is that a means to an end? If I hit that mark, then I am taking care of my family and I’m creating wealth for my family, paying for college. You know, maybe it wasn’t something I had growing up, but I can provide that for my kids. Or, I’m very passionate about this foundation. I was actually talking to a guy the other day, and his passion was to make money in his organization so he could build dog shelters because there are too many dogs being, uh, too many strays and, and put down. Yeah, exactly.

Wow. To build dog shelters. But that’s awesome. But he wanted to hit this multimillion-dollar target. And when you go, what are you trying? I need the million dollars. I need it. I need it, sounds like he’s greedy. Sure. So when you take out the fact that most business owners aren’t greedy—I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s sure there’s fine field out there, but most of them are not greedy. They’re trying—it’s a resource. They’re seeing it as a tool that revenue is a tool to meet a mission. No money, no mission. And again, the guy with the dogs is a perfect example, but, you know, and whatever that is. But most visionaries don’t want, don’t think about that. They don’t think about the vision, or they think about the vision, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t think about sharing that vision because they don’t understand like, oh, people don’t care about that. I just need them to work, et cetera. Right? But when you can define that vision and people understand what they’re getting up to work for, like, hey, if I help this company become profitable, I actually help build dog shelters. Or if I help this company, you know, become the company that we’re trying to be, I’m actually going to build schools in Africa, or whatever that is, people get behind it.

So you’re saying that vision is the rallying cry. Yes. That’s what people get excited about. Yes. That’s what people align to. So that’s really what’s in it for them is the bigger impact and the bigger difference. And sometimes that’s a message to founders and owners to not just think about the result that’s going to help them personally, but what impact that’s going to have.

Exactly. And when you get that message out there—again, let’s talk about money—when you get that vision out there, all of a sudden people come to work with excitement, because they believe in it. And then they put their best efforts into it, and you get greater results. And that’s when it’s like, okay, I’m driving to the Grand Canyon. I need to hit a gas station now and then, but it’s because I’m going to see the Grand Canyon. That’s why people are going to be excited about it. And then the financial results come as a byproduct of the excitement, the people working towards it, you know, achieving what you’re going after, and the alignment.

And, you know, the cool thing about this is you’re really hitting on something that I think a lot of people just don’t get. Like the purpose of a business, or the purpose of a mission, or vision is not just to get the money. That’s the outcome. The result of getting the money is you get to fund more of the vision. It’s not just about getting the money. It’s about making that impact. It’s about having that vision, and that's what gets people fired up. It’s what makes work not suck. It’s what makes people want to come to work every day.

That’s right.

Alright, so we’ll recap. Vision is the compass heading of where you want to go. Vision is what gets people excited. It’s what drives everything. And results are just a byproduct of the alignment towards that vision.

Exactly. That’s a good summary.

Alright. Thanks for listening, everyone. This has been another episode of Make Work Not Suck. Tune in next time as we dive into the journey of the organization.