Hope is not a strategy, but it is essential

Hey,

I hope you are safe and well, and looking forward to the week ahead.

The final touches are being done to the Workshop Mastery book. I'm super excited about this one. It should be live this week. I'll share details in next week's newsletter.

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Hope Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work.

Hope is not a strategy, but it is essential

I know, through my own leadership and consulting work, that hope is not a strategy. But, it is essential.

A strategy has a clear, bright, exciting and compelling picture of the future (hope), but is also has a clear understanding of the current reality (where we are now). With these two things you can then build a plan to bridge the gap.

In other words; this is our ambitious story of the future, here is where we are and this is how we're going to get there.

When you have all three you have a strategy; a picture of the future, a current reality check and a plan (note: the plan doesn't have to have all of the answers, in fact, it likely won't - but the people in the business will find the answers).

But the hope part of this is essential.

The painted picture gives people a compelling, exciting and interesting future that is better than the one today - it is hope written down. It is a hopeful picture; there are too many variables to control an exact outcome but it gives people hope of a better future.

This is needed whether you're launching a new startup or trying to change a lagging Enterprise organisation.

In a sense you're answering the questions every employee has:

Where are we going? And why should I get enthused by it? And is it better than today?

Hope is not a strategy on it's own, but it is required.

Not just fake hope and wishes, but hope that turns into belief.

Hope soon turns to belief when leaders do what they say they will

When leaders start owning the high bar of behaviours, investing in solving the real systemic problems and nurturing capable people, employees see hope becoming a reality.

When leaders start treating people like people and caring, employees see this. When they start making solid, accurate and good decisions, people see how the painted picture is coming alive. When leaders start creating a culture where experimentation and creativity are central, people can see how they play a significant role is working out "how" to make the picture of the future a reality.

When people start seeing positive movement towards the painted picture, hope turns into belief.

We all need hope:

Hope our business succeeds.
Hope our careers grow.
Hope our workplace enriches everyone in it.
Hope our job isn't shipped off to someone cheaper.
Hope our leaders do the right thing for the business (and us).
Hope that we have competent people in charge who know what they're doing.

When we see this hope (the vision of a compelling future) become real, visible, obvious and tangible - we start to believe. And belief is even more powerful than hope. Belief brings momentum. It brings a doubling down on things that work. It brings passion for what we're doing. It galvanises people towards this brighter future.

Hope is essential. Hope gives us a vision of how things could be better. But hope without a solid understanding of the current reality and a plan to move forward, is a wish.

We start with hope (with a plan), then we start to believe when we see leaders, managers and everyone in the organisation moving with clarity. alignment and action towards the painted picture.

It's no longer hope, we can see things happening. We can start to believe.

Hope is not a strategy but it is an essential component of a good strategy.

If you're strategy doesn't have a compelling, interesting and hopeful picture of the future, how will people connect to it?

How will people see themselves growing as they deliver it? How will people see their experience at work improving? How will people know when to believe you?

How will you garner energy, attention, enthusiasm and right action, if what you're heading towards isn't a hopeful, positive and ambitious future that people can connect to?

Hope is not the answer alone, but it is an essential part of a good strategy. Many leaders focus on markets, facts, data and analysis when building a strategy. This is needed, but data doesn't tell a story on its own. Turn that data into something people can connect to. Tell a story. A story of hope. A story that can become belief -through action on the right things.

A good strategy helps people find clarity and alignment - and something compelling to connect to.

Strategy helps people understand why they are working, what they are doing and how things are going to be better. And hope is a part of that. Then do what is needed to show people that hope can indeed be turned into belief. In other words, bring your compelling story of the future to life.

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
Buying a copy of Take a Day Off
Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work

It means a lot. Thank you.

Until next time. Have a great week.

Rob..