How does "clarity of intention" or lack of (by management and others)
affect and influence organizations , their goals, their personnel,
their success or their failure?
Marigold,
Are you referring to the "clarity of intention" relating to "inner
focus", or are you more concerned with "business focus" (like a
mission statement, but less cliche)?
"Clarity of intention" appears mostly on spiritual and occult websites
- while I'm sure the sprititual focus of the management team does
affect the organization as a whole, I'm not sure that's what you're
after.
Or are you referring to clarity as a component of communication, i.e.
intentions clearly communicated within various organizational
communication methodologies, such as verbal requests and assignments,
project definitions, memos, etc.?
Hello Marigold,
Thank you for your question.
Let me start off by quoting Brian at
http://www.slc-gno.org/Monday_Messages/Mar_18th.htm
"Sometimes we are so ‘distracted’ by our tasks that we feel the need
to get started - now!! Doing something - anything is better that being
thoughtful
and appearing to do nothing. (...)
In a recent study from the February Harvard Business Review over 40%
of those in charge fell into this category -- well intentioned,
energetic, but unfocused. In comparison, purposeful managers were less
that 10%. Focused managers were attentive to specific goals and
solutions, they had clarity of intention, used (and needed) strong
willpower, and picked their goals -- and battles -- carefully."
And Starhawk's from
http://www.ucc.uconn.edu/~ser00003/quotes.html
"It challenges the structure of power itself and resists all forms of
domination and all systems of control. It undermines the legitimacy of
the institutions of control by embodying freedom, direct democracy,
solidarity, and respect for diversity in our organisations and our
actions. And it starts with clarity of intention before we get around
to diversity of tactics. That is, before we decide what tactics to
adopt we need to know what we're trying to do."
Joe McMoneagle says:
http://www.megafoundation.org/Ubiquity/McMoneagle.html
"The true motivation that supports success in remote viewing or
psychic functioning in my opinion is clarity of "intention." If you
can be clear about what your eventual intention is meant to
accomplish, you will probably be more successful in a measurement over
time than not. There is considerable scientific data that seems to
support this contention as well."
I've been working together with management that expressed to very
different approaches, covering both ends of the spectrum. Let me take
upon your question from personal experience.
----
What if you need to find out what the customer wants?
If you get clear instructions, they might take the responsibility away
of finding out what the customer wants in the first place. You may
feel secure because you received a clear direction, but ultimately
that direction may lead into trouble.
----
What if you can't follow the clear instructions, e.g. because of
technical hurdles?
If the management gives lose directions, you still have the freedom to
ponder alternate options. This may lead to success in the long run.
----
What if there's a very unclear instruction, lacking clarity of
intention?
This might come off as "sloppiness" from management and decrease team
motivation.
----
What if the instructions are clear, but misdirected?
This might bring motivation to a low, either because you later find
out the intentions were wrong, or because you already got a feeling
they are, but you don't seem to have been given time to express your
doubts. In this case, a little less clear intention might have left
some doors open for debate.
In that regard sharing responsibilites and communicating "fuzzy" tasks
can help success.
----
If the intention is unclear, is debate always good?
If you're acting under a deadline pressure, some decisions need to be
made, and there's no time to shed light on everything thoroughly. From
my exprience however, not even the tightest deadline pragmatically
justifies decisions that are in the spirit of "we need to get this job
done, I'm the boss, end of discussion".
Also, the more often it comes to this, the less responsible the team
will feel in implementing management decisions. "I'm not doing this
because I believe in it" can subconsciously lead to "I want this to
fail and will not do my very best, because I want to show management
it was a hasty decision".
----
Does clarity of intention increase respect for management?
Respect for management, as everyone might agree, helps to motivate the
organization. But there's a side-issue. Suppose the boss is not very
technical, is it good if he's handing out clear technical directions?
No, as that may result in the team taking this as "crossing the line"
of responsibilities, and they see respect for them and their value in
the company decreased. It might backfire because the implementors of
the clear decision will now take the original intent word-by-word,
leading the project into technical trouble not fore-seen by
management.
----
What about doubts about clarity of intention that are expressed to the
customer?
This is a very critical issue. The customer should take the whole team
as one, and unclear directions, or debate on the project shared with
the customer, can lead to disrespect. If there's a kick-off meeting to
a project, it's much better for everyone of the team to express very
clear directions. But it's important the intentions of the customer
are clear.
----
But what about if we try to show a clear direction, when the customer
intention is unclear?
Oftentimes, we jump to technical conclusions that are not justified by
the client's intent. This is what causes many more misunderstandings
in the long run, and lead to utter frustrations on both sides. There
is never a better time to get intentions clear than in a kick-off
meeting to the project, no matter how direct and personal you have to
be.
----
What if the customer has clear intentions, but you cannot justify them
technically?
I've seen this happen over and over. The intention should never be to
give all energy going in directions that are doomed to fail. The
customer's intention therefore should not be to clearly communicate
misunderstood business parameters; the customer should cleary identify
(with the help of the team) actual goals.
Seen from high above, this is of course mostly:
- making money
But if you focus just a bit more, you can see:
- customer support
- making it easy for the end-client to buy products
- staying competive in product scope and price
- offering high-quality service
But if you focus too much, you're suddenly left with:
- jumping on the latest technology
- impressing competitors
So the intentions here should be clear, but clearly not misfocussed!
----
What do we really intend? What do we really want to achieve?
More often than not, personal motivations -- career, money -- shadow
project goals. Regarding that, we should remind ourselves to stay as
truthful as possible, but to not enlighten other parties about
personal issues, as this might become a dangerous act.
However, what if the customer has very personal issues to be solved?
Maybe this project is merely meant to discredit a customer's
co-worker? These things happen, and here it becomes very important to
know who will pay the bill in the end, and how to make sure all
possible parties get away with a respectful position. It's of no use
to help in personal political issues, unless you risk this being the
last project paid by the customer company at whole.
I hope this was of help to you. Thanks for using Google Answers!
Missy-ga, yes business focus is what I mean. Thank you
Larre-ga, YES I am especially interested in clarity of intention as a
component of communication and how it affects goals being achieved (or
not) and the working relationships between those who work in the
organization. Thank you
Hello Marigold,
thanks for clarifying your question to Missy and Larre.
Please tell me if you need a clarification, or further elaboration on
details of my answer.
Thanks.
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