STAYING ON THE PATH __________________ Uncovering Your Purpose, Creating Your Vision, And Bringing It To Life. ~ A Process Roadmap ~ If you manage any land at all, whether it be a single garden bed or thousands of acres of rangeland, you are likely no stranger to idea overwhelm. It happens to all of us,…
The SPF works from the broad patterns to the specific, actionable details.
If the topic of conversation is, for example, the future direction of an organization, or something more specific like a campaign to achieve a certain outcome, often people begin on the strategic and tactical level - i.e. people start with ideas for how they want the newsletter to look before they have discussed the reason for sending it in the first place.
What is more effective is to begin by talking more at the pattern level. However, simple telling a group “lets not talk tactics and strategy yet, let's bring the conversation higher than that” will most likely lead to confusion, upset and hurt feelings. By laying out a visual map and describing each step, individual team members can grasp both where they are in the process and what level of detail is appropriate for that step.
Click on the orange notepad icons for examples of each step. Note the progression from broad pattern to actionable detail!
The MISSION: is what you are doing/going to do to get realize your vision.
ex) Feeding hungry people in Santa Barbara is our mission.
The OBJECTIVE: is shorter term.
ex) To raise a million dollars and build our first kitchen by so and so date.
— ONLY AFTER WE KNOW THE OBJECTIVES (AND GOALS, MISSION, VISION) IS DISCUSSING STRATEGY EFFECTIVE —
The STRATEGY: How do we raise a million dollars?
The TACTICS: are the things you need to do your strategies:
GPS: Goal - Priorities - Strategies
The GPS is a tool used to refine the goals you've developed in your Goals Set To Now. Specifically, the GPS takes your one year goal (for business, finances, relationships, spirit, physical health, or whatever type of goal you've developed) and provides a format to set priority and select strategies for achieving your 1 year goal.
The GPS is the primary input into the 4-1-1 (next step) - which is the daily/weekly planning tool for acting in order of priority day in and day out.
Google Docs GPS Template
Using your Minimum Holistic Goal and the Quality of Life Statement you developed during that process, the GSTN process is a way to back-cast (like forecast, but backwards) your way from a future SOMEDAY to the present moment TODAY.
A typical progression will involved choosing a particular area of life (business, finances, relationships, spirit, community, physical health etc) and setting a SOMEDAY GOAL (think ~ 20 years out if that helps give context). This should tie in with your desired Quality of Life.
Use the Focusing Question to guide your visioning: What is the ONE thing I can do, such that by doing it, will make everything else easier or unnecessary?
Once your SOMEDAY GOAL has taken shape, repeat the process for 5 years and 1 year from the present moment. You can augment the focusing question to help niche things down a bit: What is the ONE thing I can do by (DATE - either 5 years or 1 year out), such that by doing it, will my goal of [insert SOMEDAY goal here] easier or unnecessary?
Once your 1 year goals are clarified they can be used to seed your GPS (next step).
The 411 is the tool we use to stay aligned with our priority list throughout the weeks, months, quarters and year. It is the point of daily contact with all of the work you have done thus far (Purpose, MHG, GSTN, GPS).
Google Doc Sample & Template 411
Most of the 411 can be filled in by directly reference your GPS for a specific goal. The month and week sections will shift dynamically as you continue to ask the Focusing Question ("What is the ONE thing I can do, such that by doing it, will make everything else easier or unnecessary for [highest priority goal from GPS]?").