Thanks for your comments. “Serve the Vision!” sounds almost Orwellian. LOL.

I had a few hours on a plane today to work on my next post in this case study. The post above and the next one on Vision are likely to be the hardest.

I already *think* I know what my traffic strategy will be, but know it’s worth the discipline to do things in the right order.

Interestingly, this site is now getting over 3x the amount of traffic it was getting when I started the case study. So, it is true, where you focus is where you will get results.

Doug

A very interesting read. I apreciate the content very much. I couldnt agree with you more; “In order to be successful, every business needs to make sure that their tasks are serving the right projects, which are serving the right strategies, which are *all* serving the vision.”

Too often one can lose vision on many tasks that come across our plate. Very well said. Serve the vision! Nice slogan
Keep up the great work!

David

You know, that was bugging me a bit too. You see, it works for me because I know what I mean, but in communicating it to others, the words are extremely critical.

“Influence” is indeed a better word. The other word that just occurred to me is “Impact.”

Of course, tasks are important. They are the ‘action’ piece of the puzzle. Strategies without tasks, or vision without tasks, or projects without tasks, are pretty much useless. So, as you say, assigning tasks a low level of importance is misleading.

The more I think about it, I like the word “impact” if only because “influence” is something I almost automatically associate with people. If something has influence, I tend to think that means that it affects a lot of people.

In any case, Case, you have provided some great food for thought and I appreciate your comments.

Nice piece of work here!
Great thinking and what’s even better: great preparation.
It once more underlines the adage: “Prepare or Repair”. The real profits are in the preparation and that’s exactly what you’re doing here.

However….

I DO have some difficulty understanding your Y-axis as being ‘Importance’. From an operational point of view, and most of us are involved in that, I find it difficult to comprehend that tasks are not as important as visions and strategies.

I DO understand that missing one (or maybe a few) task will not jeopardize the whole venture, but missing them IS a flaw in the system. After all, they automatically evolve from the upper layers.

>Tasks are important, but only if they are the right tasks.

See? You say it yourself. And I can easily repeat that same sentence for vision, strategies and projects.

No, for me it’s not the importance that represents the Y-axis.
It’s more something like ‘Influence’, the impact that the layer has on the overall approach.

That may seem like a small change, but for me and my team members in daily task operations, it’s a motivator to have every task and project to be as important as any vision or strategy.

I would say ‘Influence’.
But ah, that’s just my 2 cts.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for your comments.

Have a great evening!

Doug

I appreciate your leadership and the thoughtful manner in which you conduct business.

This is so important: “In order to be successful, every business needs to make sure that their tasks are serving the right projects, which are serving the right strategies, which are *all* serving the vision.”

Thanks for sharing.

Patrick Pretty