Resource Management Innovations

One of my all-time ... most important reads:

Well just about any encounter you have or may have had with RMI typically centers on Vision. That being … ‘where am I going’? The blessing for me in this business (that is never lost) is that I have the profound privilege of working with individuals and organizations in defining their objectives … then building sustainable strategies to achieve them. The baseline in all of this is: Vision. Of course and unless ‘where am I going’ is accompanied by ‘how will I get there’ (Mission) … having a vision can be not much more than a burden. Left unrealised, lifelong.

In fact, a vision is often characterized as that tension between the ideal and the real that you and I experience every day. The frustration with ‘current state’ is only ever relieved with a sense of ‘desired state’ and the experience of having realized it.

Very few text (VERY few) have dedicated themselves to a vision test. Anyone who wrestles with this may consider it a gut-check … but only one author (I have found) helps us define our vision then putting it to the test. I have to state my bias for all things ‘John Maxwell’ … as he tends to have the affinity of saying what I happen to be thinking. So it is with Put Your Dream To The Test: 10 Questions to Help You See It and Seize It. I can’t tell you how this text has helped me … and subsequently my clients. So much so, I buy copies as gifts for my clients. (My neighborhood bookstore loves me.)



If you go back to some of my earlier writings (Listen to the Music) … you will learn (and maybe you have experienced this for yourself) that many of us were not encouraged to dream. In my case at least it was seen as a liability. When in fact I was bored stiff and tired of stringing the beads. My dreaming per se, was always considered a developmental handicap by those who simply could not hear the music.

Consider this, in his opening text Maxwell gives us his personal definition of a dream: “It is an inspiring picture of the future that energizes your mind, will and emotions, empowering you to do everything you can to achieve it’. A dream worth pursuing (Maxwell continues) is a picture and blueprint of a person’s purpose and potential. (Emphasis mine).

Do you have a sense of how overwhelming that tension can be … when someone tries to diminish or eliminate your ‘purpose and potential’? I can’t even begin to imagine how many Michelangelo’s have had the spirit in them extinguished before they even left elementary school. The ‘joy suckers’ (my favorite term for them) are those folks who haven’t pursued their dreams … which of course they feel gives them license to kill yours.



Maxwell nails it for me (page #5) when he writes … “My drive was unusual. I talked differently than my friends; I was hungrier for success than anyone I knew. That is the power of a compelling dream”. Maxwell will walk you through the mechanics of (beginning on pg #18) Believe In Your Vision For The Future Even When Others Don’t Understand You. Dreams have such enormous power … they were my refuge (pg #19) when annoyed.

John may as well be ghost writing my biography.

I always remember being able to ‘escape’ to my dream. It is the stuff of my earliest memories. Dreams have the ability to transport. How attractive is that rainbow when all about you is monochrome.
A key piece of counsel John allows is this (pg #25) “The accomplishment of a dream depends on the clarity of the vision. Both Vision and strategy are important, but there is a priority to them. Vision always comes first. Always. (Don’t miss this) … If you have a clear vision, you will eventually attract the right strategy. If you don’t have a clear vision, no strategy will save you”.

Meaning … you can’t possibly reach an objective that you haven’t defined.

Anyone who knows me knows that I just do not make recommendations. Be they hotels, restaurants or books. My experience is just not always a positive transfer to someone else. With John Maxwell I am happy to make an exception. John is in my office as well as my classroom and as often as not, my car. As I offered in our first Book Bytes … this Blog will not be a critical review … but a short list of all that is good and necessary as we seek to transition from Current to Desired State. There are very few ‘contributors’ out there … far too many are detractors. That isn’t me and that isn’t the purpose of this space.



As a corporate Sherpa we won’t waste valuable time on what doesn’t work. We don’t need more joy suckers and nay sayers. This world is drowning in data and starving for wisdom. John Maxwell provides, and in my experience has never disappointed. I can’t think of a single more valuable text that he provides here … in enabling vision casting and mission building. Putting Your Dreams To The Text … I have to recommend.

I have never met John … but I think my library has helped pay for his cottage! He owes me a coffee … I owe him my deepest gratitude.

Cheers;

Rick @ RMI
 

Posted By: Rick Kneeshaw 2010/07/17
Categories: Book ~ Bytes