What brings you joy in your business?
I asked this question during a series of presentations to business leaders.
Most of the responses included something around human connection, helping others reach their fullest potential, or helping customers realize value.
One person said, "Bringing revenue to the company."
First, the Business Has to Make Money
When I first joined Intel, The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt was REQUIRED reading.
What is the goal of any business?
No matter how philanthropic we may want to be, when it comes right down to it, the GOAL of any business is to MAKE MONEY.
If you don't make money, there is literally NO JOY in business. You're staring down the barrel of headcount reductions, eliminating bonuses, demotions, or worse.
But once that financial threshold is met, especially for individual employees, the next thing that brings true joy is MATTERING.
As in:
Someone—my team, my customers, my organization—relies on ME as an individual human being to complete specific tasks or fulfill a specific role. And if I PERSONALLY were not there, they would miss me.
Even if my role has redundancy, I am part of a team that has an impact.
I matter.
The Joy Matrix: Money + Mattering
I coined this the "Joy Matrix" in business:
JOY = MONEY + MATTERING
Which also equals the RESULTS everyone is looking for in business.
Money keeps the business viable. Mattering gives the people within it purpose, connection, and fulfillment.
Both are essential.
Business Doesn't Have the Luxury of Sitting Still
How often are we afforded the luxury of "sitting still" in business?
As in, what we're doing today will carry us into the future, and we don't have to change at all?
Typically, that's a pretty clear path straight to the bottom.
At minimum—even if the people in the business don't want to change and they have a good thing going—macroeconomic shifts and competition are out there.
Something will have to change at some point.
And wouldn't it be preferable to proactively determine what needs to change and DO something about it, rather than sit back and wait for something to be done TO you, from which you may never recover?
(And yes, that was a redundant question.)
Change Requires Execution
So, if:
JOY = RESULTS = MONEY + MATTERING
I'd argue that CHANGE is a critical component of achieving and sustaining those results.
And change typically requires executing something temporary to achieve a desired outcome.
We call that a project.
Whether it's implementing a new system, launching a product, improving a process, expanding into a new market, or fundamentally changing how people work, someone has to turn the idea into reality.
Which brings us to the critical connection:
The ability to execute projects is directly proportional to our ability to achieve the results that bring joy in business.
That's the thinking behind Executagility®, the execution methodology I developed to help organizations turn priorities into finished outcomes.
So, Do We Want to Execute Well—or Leave It Up to Chance?
Every business faces change.
Some changes are forced upon us. Others we choose to pursue.
But identifying the need for change is only the beginning.
The real question is whether we have the ability to execute that change successfully.
Because the goal isn't simply to start projects.
It's to FINISH them—and realize the results we set out to achieve.
Do we want to execute WELL, or leave it up to chance?
The choice is yours.
