1: Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about.
Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations. On Friday, I share something we are doing at PCI in our quest to earn a spot on Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For.
During our 2022 kickoff meeting, I shared with all our associates our 2022 theme for PCI: New Frontiers, which was inspired by President Kennedy’s July 1962 speech in which he challenged the nation to send an astronaut to the Moon.
“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade, not because it is easy, but because it is hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills. Because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”
2: Building on the metaphor of going to the Moon, I conveyed to our associates that we now have a rocket ship to take us on our journey into this new frontier: The Oral History Project. Over the past three years, we’ve signed more than $100 million in contracts for this new offering, where we capture stories from college alumni and association members of how their institution impacted their life. To date, we’ve collected 897,638 stories.
In 1962, JFK challenged the nation to put a man on the Moon by the end of that decade. Today, in 2022, I challenged our team at PCI to collect more than 50 million stories by the end of this decade on our way to becoming the world’s preeminent storytelling organization.
That is a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG). It requires us to capture more than five times as many stories daily as today.
3: Leadership is about moving from one place to another. Movement also suggests a destination. As leaders, vision is a crucial tool to inspire ourselves and our teams as it provides a destination and a direction to journey toward.
“What is important about a vision is the sense of meaning attributed to it by the individuals and groups in an organization. This meaning drives people’s thinking, decisions, and behavior, and it ultimately impacts bottom-line results,” reads the Stagen module on Meaning.
“Creating a vision can be likened to painting a picture or telling a story. The leader narrates how the organization will turn out if everyone works together to write the chapters that lie between the present and the desired future state. The members of a group with a shared vision become inspired and energized as they contribute to the unfolding ‘story of us’.”
More next week!
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Reflection: What’s my Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal?
Action: Journal about how my BHAG inspires me. How it stretches me.
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