I recently was part of a workshop held by a large international organisation to look at their identity, in other words “who they are”, not just a marketing “brand”. In this, one of the first things the facilitator did was ask everyone to give two or three single words to express what they were hoping to get from the process. The most commonly given word ? Clarity.
Clarity must come before action.
If you are not clear on what you offer and why, then are you just building a faster horse (for this reference, see this blog) ?
If you are not clear on where you are going, then, to paraphrase Lewis Carroll, will all roads take you there ?
Most importantly, if you are not clear on who you are and what business you are in, then stop… get clarity on that first before you do anything else.
A few months ago, I was inspired to blog on what you would say if you were to keep your definition of “what business are you in” to 140 characters or less, Twitter style. In that blog, I gave a few answers, but, although the answer may vary by client, my current thinking for McCallum Solutions, which will always be a work in progress is :
“I help clients improve their business through gaining clarity on identity and direction, then gaining focus and guiding action” (126 characters).
I’ve repeatedly referenced the “what business are you in ?” question, but here is the blog in question.
