About Purpose is about your purpose.
Aim: Identify and articulate your purpose.
Arm: Shape yourself around your purpose.
Act: Achieve your purpose.
Aim, Arm, Act
©2004, Bob Ryan
The Aim, Arm, Act© cycle takes place quite naturally in our everyday lives. Your spouse reminds you it’s your turn to do the grocery shopping. Without even being aware of it, you begin the cycle.
Aim: You know you want to get groceries for the whole week, plus, you want to be sure you have the party supplies for your child’s party on Saturday. Of course, you’re aware of the $100 weekly budget. Arm: You take a quick look through the cupboards and icebox, jot down a few notes, and grab the coupons stuck up on the refrigerator with a magnet. Make sure you have the checkbook, and then head out to the store. Act: Once there, you grab a cart and make your way through the list, keeping your eyes peeled for bargains. Saving the ice cream for last so it doesn’t melt, you patiently wait in the checkout line until you pay and head for home with the goods. Mission accomplished. And…: Long about Friday night, your child tells you two more kids are coming to the party, so you may have to drive back to the grocery store and buy another carton of ice cream, starting another Aim, Arm, Act© cycle.
When you think about it, this is an oft-recurring cycle in almost everything we do. Sometimes it’s very conscious, sometimes we do it without any thought at all. The cycle is very structured and formalized in some situations, and impromptu and casual in others.
Corporate Aim: “Our mission is to be ABC to XYZ”
Department Aim: “We will do EFG to create resources to be ABC”
Marketing Aim: “We will seek out and identify with XYZ so that we can be ABC to them”
Position Description Aim: “The LMN assistant builds and supports the LMN team so that it can equip the ABC technicians in delivering quality service to XYZ.
Whether simple and casual, or sophisticated and formal, the words used to express your purpose are important. Companies spend a great deal of time on their mission statements and usually craft them very carefully. I believe it is just as important to craft lower level aims. Try to imagine a series of nested purpose statements all flowing from the corporate aim. Each level or function references the one above it. An easy way to accomplish this is with “so that” statements.
There is a clear line from the corporate mission all the way through every level, every position, every activity. Identify that line clearly in words. Each and every person in the organization should understand his/her aim and how it supports the corporate aim
Once the aim is clear, then, and only then, can you prepare yourself for action.
Arm
Preparing to Act
The most obvious path here is to identify the resources you need to accomplish your aim. What information, which people, how much money, material, space, and time will you need? It is important to look at other areas, too. What frame of mind or attitude needs to be in place and in whom? Are there marketplace, social, political or familial forces gathered against your purpose that you will need to counter? If so, how will you plan and structure your approach to deal with them? (A useful tool to use in these instances is a force field analysis.)
Less obvious, though, is the step of stripping away anything that impedes progress toward your goal. What are you doing now that keeps you from your aim? Are you diverting money, staff, or equipment in such a way that your main purpose is being compromised? Are you spending time and energy on pursuits that distract your from your purpose? Are there meetings or paperwork that ties up your staff or your software resources?
One caveat here: if your plans involve other people, make sure you have “armed” them as well. Very few things we do in this world are truly independent anymore. We are almost always dependent on others’ contributions. Be sure they are on-board. That means they need to understand and own the aim to the extent needed, and they must be fully prepared for their role.
Now commit the plan to writing. We all do this for high level planning, but researchers have shown that even jotting down a plan for how we’re going to spend our day improves execution. Countless hours are wasted in meetings that don’t follow a written agenda. The misunderstandings that are avoided when plans are in writing more than make up for the time you might spend writing them. Make sure your plans include milestones or checkpoints that will indicate whether you are on track to accomplishing your aim.
Act
Follow Through
If you have invested well in the Aim and Arm steps, the Act step will go smoothly and efficiently. But the fact remains – you still have to act. To borrow Nike’s phrase, “Just do it.” Plans get put on shelves and ignored or forgotten. With the Aim, Arm, Act© process, you are more likely to follow through simply because you were so clear about your aim, and your plans so clearly support your purpose.
The milestones or check points in the plan will help you now that you are in the Act stage. The more feedback, the easier it is to stay on track.
And…
Evaluation
Your aim is not complete unless and until you have compared the outcome to the original aim. Not only ask, “Did we accomplish what we set out to do?” Also ask how the completion of the goal leads into a new Aim, Arm, Act© cycle. Now that you are here, what are you going to do with the results? Clearly, planning is an iterative process, repeating itself as you leapfrog into the future.
Adopt Aim, Arm, Act© into your everyday planning. Teach it to your staff and model its use in everything you do. Watch my new website at www.AboutPurpose.com for the introduction of my Aim, Arm, Act© planning tools.