Transform Your Business by Connecting Others

This article focuses on The Healthy Company Framework’s Vision with Purposes and Know What You’re Doing. It concludes with how these aspects transform your business.

A story that has made its way through social media has to do with balloons, names, and finding the balloon with your name on it.

A teacher had their students blow up a balloon and write their name on it. In addition to the students’ names, there were other balloons with other names and balloons with no names. This added to the total number of balloons. The balloons were then placed in the hallway.

The students were then asked to go out and, within a few minutes, find the balloon with their name on it. With the exception of a student or two who happened upon theirs, most of the students were unable to find their balloon.

He then tried the game again. But instead of finding their own balloon, he told them to take the balloon with a classmate’s name on it to them, and to repeat this process until everyone had their balloon. This time everyone had their own balloon.

The balloons represented happiness. This story has the message:

We find happiness when we look out for the happiness of those around us.

I argue the same approach can be used in your business. The Healthy Company Framework and Company Connections is about equipping you with a framework that helps you keep the individuals at your company, including yourself, healthy and connected to the Vision you’re trying to achieve.

The Framework is how you create an environment at your company that allows individuals to thrive.

Let’s look at two areas of The Framework and how they transform your business:

• Vision with Purposes

• Know What You’re Doing

Vision with Purposes

Your company, likely, has a Vision. Vision (or mission) statements are commonplace. But few companies go to the degree of defining a Purpose for each of the departments that are required to make that happen.

For a generic example, suppose your Vision is, “To make the world a better place by providing top service to our chosen industry.”

Great! But what does making the world a better place look like? How does the accounting team contribute to this? What about HR? How does the IT department fit into the mix? Without Purposes, people are apt to act like the students who went after the balloons with their own names. Some of your employees may find their own. Others may be OK finding a balloon that’s close enough. Most people won’t find their own name.

What does this do to your company?

You try and run things by the book. Measurements mandate stricter and stricter policies. Morale declines. Before you know it, people are disengaged and start producing the bare minimum.

When this becomes the atmosphere at your company, you run into major problems such as loss of:

• Revenue

• Market share

• Customer satisfaction

• Tenure

Lower revenue leads to cuts in development and growth. You lose market share as customers grow further and further frustrated with the service they get because you’re losing your top tenured talent.

But what happens when people are connected?

Connecting people to the company’s Vision with Purposes for each role provides clarity. Clarity empowers people. You have policies to help navigate the black and white situations, but you need people to make challenging decisions in the gray parts of the day. When people understand, or are at least provided with Purpose, they can make informed decisions that propel your organization forward.

When this becomes the atmosphere of your company, you run into the benefit of increasing:

• Revenue

• Market share

• Customer satisfaction

• Tenure

Customers will spend more money with you because they enjoy their interactions with your company.

Your company’s reputation is helpful, but at the end of the day, people do with business with people!

This fuels market share because happier customers tell people when they’re happy. Because your employees are empowered, they stay with you as the employer of choice.

Know What You’re Doing

A lot of companies define “know what you’re doing” with something along the lines of, “know how to do your job and complete your tasks.” But this approach is much like the rules of the first game of the balloons. The students knew there was a balloon with their name on it. They knew it was in the hallway. They knew what to do. But they couldn’t do it in the allotted time. This is where competition beats you.

This heads down, blinders-on approach is 60% of the job. You do have to know what you’re doing (in this sense), but it’s only 60% of the total.

What’s the rest of it, then?

Expand your definition of “know what you’re doing” to a 20-60-20 approach that includes who give you work and who you give your work to.

To start, you must know where your work comes from. Who hands you work? Are they handing you work in the way that you need? Are you communicating with them? Do you know why they’re handing you work? This is the first 20%.

The last 20%, then, is knowing who you hand your work to. Who do you give it to? Are you communicating with them so that you’re setting them up for success? Have you communicated why you’re handing them work?

This is like the second try of finding the balloon with your name on it. The students needed to first know the names of their classmates. They needed to know this so they could give the person their balloon. But, even if they didn’t know the name of their classmate, they could ask their name.

The example of the balloons can be performed just as well with a group of total strangers. The strangers would all work together to get everyone a balloon with their name on it. And if you think about it, the employees you have working for you started out as just that: a collection of strangers.

A complete 20-60-20 way of thinking about how to Know What You’re Doing is a business method that will work for any company. And while it may sound simple, it is no less effective.

Sometimes, simple is best.

Transform your business

Set a clear Vision of what you want your company to do, who it’s for, and to what benefit. Don’t just say it once or write it down and forget it. Repeat it. Say it often. Make it part of your being and how you live. People notice.

Next, do the same for those that report directly to you with Purposes. Define why their work matters and how it supports the vision. Have them repeat this process for their employees. Do this until every role has a Purpose. This will empower your business and keep it connected far better and far stronger than any of your competition.

To Know What You’re Doing, ask questions that get people to remember: they all work together for the same company. Be curious about how they’re handing the “balloon” off to the people (departments) left and right of them as work flows through the building.

This creates a workforce that moves as a singular unit, cuts through the noise (the extra balloons designed to distract you), and best yet, moves in the same direction as your Vision.

The Healthy Company Framework is a complete, infinitely scalable business methodology that will transform your business. Whether you’re a business owner, leader, manager, or superstar, The Framework and Company Connections are here to help you with company-wide courses or one-on-one professional development.

Let us help you achieve your goals.

How do you transform your workplace to the beauty you want it to be? The Framework’s tools can help you.