So it’s Friday evening just before 9pm and we are out hunting for food. By we, I mean 7 of us, 3 who are legal but only one that can drive a car. By hunting I mean – finding a restaurant. Alas we found it, and we could taste the food in our imaginations. Then suddenly – as if we were on a low budget Hollywood set for a disappointing horror movie – the power went out and a unanimous “halliehaa” escaped the mouth of each person present. Then silence for a moment or two. Then the realisation that this power outage will last for at least 2 hours – so you are presented with three choices. One, stay and wait. Two, find another place. Or three, go home. We chose Two, but that wasn’t such a good idea, as this blackout was one of those natural – or intentional – disasters that would be remembered by everyone forever. It is classified as those events that 10 years from now one would ask, where were you on 1 Feb 2008, and every person would give you a detailed description…

Then we chose Three.

This opened a whole new can of worms though. It’s dark, it’s weekend, and it’s month end. I’m the driver and responsible for 6 other lives. There is no red, yellow or green to think for me. I’m a good driver – but who says everybody else is? And this made me think. Everybody on the road is driving towards an end destination. We have that in common (whether the robots are working or not). But the point is, all of our end destinations are at different point X’s. I know at the next robot I have to make a left turn. But the cars around me wouldn’t know that if I don’t indicate. And because I don’t have help with the big question: should I go, or give the other dude a chance - I can’t make that turn unless I know what everybody else is up to.

The same in business. If you have a vision and you don’t share it and don’t check if everybody that need to understands that vision actually does – you aint going to get there. Or you may, but each person who doesn’t understand it will just become a stumbling block. For every person standing with you at the cross-road you must have some kind of signal saying, this is where I want to go and the time is now. Remember that everybody has their own point X, whether you are in one organisation or not.

Moral of the story, running a business (or yourself) is like driving during a power outage. You’ll have your own headlights but you can’t really see the road if there are no other drivers on the road (teamwork – nobody ever got anywhere without some help). Everybody is going in different directions, but you need to know where you are going (have a vision – have some goals). Once in a while some bloke will come along with their brights on, blinding you in the process, and probable get you to curse, swerve or break a nerve (deviate from your plan). But ultimately, you won’t get to your X if you don’t get in the car and start driving!

By Jeanne Fredericks