"If you don't know where you're going, it doesn't matter which way you go."
- Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland
 
"Those people that find higher purpose to business than earning money are the ones making all the damn money." - Greg Glassman, Founder and CEO of CrossFit

I used to ask new hires if their prior company had a mission.  They almost all said yes.  When I asked, "Was it relevant in day-to-day life at the company?"  They would say no.  It was usually on a poster somewhere and too long, not memorable. Research backs the widespread lack of relevant, authentic company missions.  For example, a quantitative study by Christopher Bart points out, “The overall conclusion is that, in any sample of mission statements, the vast majority are not worth the paper they are written on and should not be taken with any degree of seriousness.”  

Mission statements were not part of MBA dogma when I was an student in the 90s.  Instead, Wharton taught about the overarching purpose of creating shareholder value.  We debated the perils of straying from the primacy of wealth-creation.  I was left wondering why the legendary Dilbert Mission Statement Generator (sadly no longer online) didn’t just repeatedly spit out the one-size-fits-all mission, “Make Money.” 

However, I've found purpose to be one of my absolute favorites in the leadership toolkit. Used wisely, it creates shareholder value and provides some benefit to society. 

You might think of mission as the ball.  Share price or market share or another more traditional method of 

Yesterday I heard that the head of product I hired didn't last the year.  Product innovation was one of the hardest things for me to scale.  One of the purposes of this blog is to clarify my mistakes so I can avoid them next time, so I thought I'd tackle this topic. Besides, I just read Eric Ries' "The Lean Startup," which also reminded me of how hard this is, and suggested an answer.

To continue the setup, I met an old friend who just closed his startup.  They spent one year, solved many technical hurdles building a cool app, but never got any real market traction.  The entrepreneur's decision pleased his VC, as most companies linger for much longer. The developers who built intensely all year, pleased not so much.

"In 1900, 3% of Americans practiced professions that were cognitively demanding. Today ... 35%." - James Flynn, Ted Talk

I like TED talks for the same reason I like business books.  Inhaling someone's passion and life's work is inspiring, and gets my ideas flowing.  TED talks work well while on a machine at the gym.

This talk gives is a brief history of our cognitive development.  The type of work that the (almost) majority of humans are working on all day has shifted radically in this century.  So the most fundamental ways we think have changed as well.  The opportunity to design new tools and arrangements to meet this challenge is staggering.  We're a completely different animals than we were three generations ago, and it is very disorienting.  Opportunity!  

“Your true strategy is not what's written on your strategic plan; but what's written on your weekly calendar.” - Verne Harnish

“Creative 53%   Teaching 28%  Other 19%  ... That, he explains, is a running tally of how he’s spending his time ... These aren’t ballpark guesstimates. Mr. Collins, who is 51, keeps a stopwatch with three separate timers in his pocket at all times, stopping and starting them as he switches activities.” - 2009 NYT piece on Jim Collins

It is week three of my blank-page life.  I’ve never had fewer places I have to be.  So what am I doing? One big theme has been how I manage time itself.  Having a clear, unobstructed calendar to shape has lent itself to experimenting with some time management ideas that I think would translate back to work.  So below is not only what I'm filling my weeks with, but how.

"Making Time" is the number one obstacle to learning.  I saw it again and again with people at M5 that just couldn't show up to do the work needed move their careers ahead.  But when something is really important - like a family member in the hospital - somehow we manage to keep everything going.  I often think of getting off the cardio-machine in the gym when it hurts, but I don't, because I already did the work of getting my butt on the thing.  There's a lot to be said for showing up where and when you want to, and it isn't always easy.   So, to try and make sure I'm controlling my time during this period of limitless distraction, I baked a pie chart.