I have found that the way we want to be and become as an organization is shaped by two dimensions.
One area is quantitative goals. This includes things like our top-line revenue goals, profit goals, and measures of excellence in the form of key performance indicators (KPIs). If your company were a human body, think of these things like the objective goals of the brain.
The other area is qualitative goals. These include things like our reason for being, our core vision and values, and why what we do is actually important. If your company were a human body, think of these things like desires of the heart.
Here’s the thing. An integrated human being seeks to align their head with their heart. And this is an ongoing, dynamic process. Alignment is not a one-time event. It’s a constant dance. A person committed to integration adjusts their choices and relationships consciously when they notice a misalignment occurring. Living a life well-lived is all about playing that game.
The same applies to your business. It also has a collective brain and heart. An effective leader is one who can define the current and desired future reality in such a way that it galvanizes the organization’s brain and heart to close the gap—to make the current reality more like the desired future reality.
How to Integrate the Organizational Head and Heart
With Organizational Physics, you can quickly gather perspectives on what should be included in the head and heart of your organization through two survey modules. This is a structured way to gather feedback from your leadership team and other key influencers.
An organization’s “heart” is defined by its company core. The Company Core survey module includes nine questions that define your company’s qualitative objectives and its reason for being.
A company’s “head” is defined by its numerical targets and KPIs. The Targets & KPIs survey module identifies the right set of top-line numerical targets, as well as the key performance indicators that drive them.
Energize Your Culture System
Defining the organizational head and heart alone is not enough. Leaders must create environments that bring the organizational head and heart to life within their teams. This requires a concerted effort on your part to build and reinforce a powerful Culture System by aligning the team’s heads and hearts around the organization’s core values.
The first step is to define these quantitative and qualitative elements of your company clearly, in a way that allows you to share examples and stories and reinforce the kind of culture you want to build.
If you are ready, you can take these above tools for a free 30-day test drive by becoming a member of Organizational Physics. Just register here and follow the steps to get started defining your organization’s head and heart.