Rewriting the Future of Your Organization

The future you see coming goes a long way to determining performance. In good times, people see more good times coming, and don't try as hard. Circumstances take over, and people largely ride the wave of optimism. The only thing that doesn't change is change itself. The times are constantly changing and eventually the good times turn bad.

We tend to assume that what has been happening will continue to happen. Obviously, this future won't be exactly the same as the past - but it will be some version of the past dressed up as the future. We call this assumed future the ‘default future'.

This default future consists of our expectations, fears, hopes and predictions, all of which are ultimately based on our experience in the past. Incidents from the past live on as predictions, giving us our default future. For many people today, the default future is economic struggle, survival, and little opportunity to create.

In bad times, people see more bad times coming, and act accordingly. Performance often declines — innovation dries up and collaboration diminishes. All in the face of the best efforts of management to intervene.

It's the job of leaders to create new futures that inspire elevated performance. This role becomes particularly important in the bad times.

We call this process "rewriting the future." Do this well, and the result is a dramatic elevation in performance, regardless of the circumstances.

What CEOs can specifically do: Listening for the future of your organization

Malcolm Burns had been named CEO of New Zealand Steel; his mandate was to return the operation to profitability. He planned a series of process improvement initiatives and a round of downsizing to accomplish these objectives. While these approaches helped to reduce costs and improve business processes, they weren't enough to dramatically change the culture or move past all the tensions, pessimism, and conflict that permeated the workforce.

As Ian Sampson, then head of Human Resources for the plant, told us:
When you think about it, we were expecting the impossible from the employees. Headcount was going down, change was everywhere, and the business was built on shaky technical assumptions. It was widely known that we might close down entirely. And yet we needed people to become proactive, positive, energetic, and to dramatically change their relationships with each other.

After being exposed to a leadership development process based on The Three Laws of Performance, Burns met with the employees and boldly stated:
I think we've done a lot of good planning and efficiency work, but it won't get us to success. I've been sitting here, thinking about what will. It gives me a problem. I now know we need a future that excites us, and I'm not the kind of guy that can do that. I'm an operator. I love making things work, but I'm not a visionary. I can't come up with that future. I'm going to put together a process that'll allow everyone to collaborate on creating the future that we need. I do know this —I'll know it when I hear it.

Once we have it, if you work with me to make it real, you'll be my partner. If you don't, I'll fight you like an alley cat. In fact, I'll fight like an alley cat with anyone at headquarters who doubts our future, with any politicians whose actions and policies are damaging to our future, with customers and suppliers who are not supporting us for the future, and anyone else in the community whose words or deeds are likely to create problems for our future.

As the audience's reaction went from surprised to excited, many rising to their feet and applauding, he stood and shouted, ‘‘and if you don't think I am living up to these commitments, tell me!''

Their quiet, technical manager had become an outspoken, articulate, and even charismatic leader. For the next year, he did ‘‘fight like an alley cat'' with those who opposed the future that was created, and he partnered with those who supported the future. Burns had rewritten his own future; now he sought to rewrite the future of the company.

Two years later, when the collective and rewritten future was realized, the company had reduced its key benchmark costs by 15 to 20 percent, while increasing return on capital by 50 percent. All this had happened while the workforce was reduced by 25 percent in a positive, constructive, and cooperative manner.

Having fulfilled his mission, Burns chose to move on to his next career challenge. At 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning, six hundred employees gathered to say goodbye to the man who had not only kept the plant open but also allowed it to flourish. The company kept up the momentum, and today is branded as the world's only boutique steel producer.

During the farewell ceremony, after a prayer from the plant chaplain and blessings from the local Maori tribes, Burns presented the whole workforce with a steel wall sculpture made from product in the plant, in the shape of an alley cat. It is now hung with pride in a place in the conference room where all can see it and be reminded of its significance as they continue the company's transformation.

Malcolm Burns of New Zealand Steel was a remarkable leader because he allowed others to build a future that would inspire them. As that future developed, Burns became the walking embodiment of it. In contrast to leaders who create dependency, when Burns left New Zealand, the company was self-reliant and self-generative. The people in the company and community were authors of their own future.

Building companies and lives around futures

There are specific actions that leaders can take to construct a future that has the potential to dramatically elevate performance. These include:
- Articulate the default future — what is the past telling you and others will happen?
- Ask yourself and others: do we really want this default future?
- If not, begin to speculate with others on what future would inspire action from everyone, and address the concerns of everyone involved.
- As you find people who are not aligned with the future, ask, what is your counterproposal?
- Keep working until people align — when they say ‘‘this speaks for me!'' and they commit to it.

Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan are the authors of The Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life, part of the Warren Bennis series published by Jossey-Bass. Steve Zaffron is the CEO of the Vanto Group, a global consulting firm that designs and implements large-scale initiatives to elevate organizational performance. Zaffron has directed major corporate initiatives with more than three hundred organizations in twenty countries.Dave Logan is on the faculty at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and is a former associate dean. He is also senior partner of CultureSync, a management consulting firm and has written three books. Visit www.threelawsofperformance.com or email stevezaffron@gmail.com.