I was reading another post by Michael Hyatt this morning, and it struck a cord with what we do at Dialect and why I wanted to start the company.  Michael was asked a simple question in an interview: “Which is most important – mission, core values, or vision?”

Michael answered that they are all equally important and interconnected.  They are distinguishable but inseparable.  You can read the post here.

Then the comments came rolling in.  One comment on Michael’s post says that he has heard that values are defined first.  Another person was more animated about the need for values to come first.

In my experience, leaders start from many places.  We’ve done work with companies were the leader sees purpose as being the glue for everything else.  In other situations, we’ve had leaders emphasize shared values and the strategy.  In other situations we’ve seen leaders who start with strategy and return later to what it will look like when they get there (vision) and what beliefs and behaviors will be necessary to accomplish it (values).

What do you start with at your company?

Danny Ludeman, CEO of Wells Fargo Advisors, recently spoke at Webster University as part of its Success to Significance Speaker Series.  He spent part of his time talking about lessons learned during the A.G. Edwards: Wachovia Securities merger including several surprises that even a CEO as experienced as he was not prepared for.

We’ll share just a few them for your consideration.  First, he talked about never underestimating the human impact of an acquisition or merger.  He noted that the economics of the transaction were fairly simple.  It was the effect on people that one should never underestimate.

Secondly, he felt that his team focused too much on the similariites of cultures.  For example, both were customer-centric cultures.  But the ways in which they expressed customer service were quite different.  They underestimated the impact of those differences on their efforts to integrate the organizations.

One final observation of Ludeman’s that he spoke of as a both a business and a life lesson:  the importance of differentiating between wants and needs.  The concrete example he used from the A.G. Edwards:Wachovia Securities merger was the legacy A.G. Edwards employees’  ”need” to be part of an organization with a reputation for integrity and customer service.  As a result, they expressed their “want” to retain the A.G. Edwards name.  Their “want”  was a barrier to seeing other ways to meet their legitimate need.

As you think about mergers and acquisitions you have experienced, which of these lessons resonate with you?

I first used introNetworks software when I attended the TED Conference (Technology, Entertainment and Design).  The software allowed me to choose attributes that best describe me and then view the attributes of more than 1,000 people at the conference. Being part of this smart network allowed me to quickly recognize people, gave me ideas for conversation starters, and help me find people with common interests.

I hope that if you participated in the webinar today you found the conversation helpful.  If you missed it, you can listen to it here.  I think there is great potential to promote organizational sync with a resource like introNetworks.  Anything leaders can do to facilitate different ways to connect like minded people is helpful in promoting sync.

Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin:  Are You Indispensable?, proposes that there are three teams in every workplace: management, labor, and a new team — linchpins.

Linchpins, Godin suggests, “invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos. They figure out what to do when there’s no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.”

Godin challenges us to “make an indispensable contribution to something you care about.”  We think that’s a great challenge.

• What do you care about in your organization?  Are you excited about the direction your organization is headed?  Are you building a culture that engages your customers?
• Do you understand your personal strengths well enough to know where you can make a unique contribution?
• Have you connected your strengths to the challenges and opportunities your organization faces?

Let us know where you see this happening.  Tell us about the Linchpins in your workplace!

But what is sync?  Simply put, in organizational terms, it is departments and people using their strengths and understanding their roles, effectively working toward shared goals.

It’s the orchestra performance when each musician plays the right note with the right timbre at the right time and for the right duration.

It’s the basketball team making the extra pass at the last second as a teammate breaks for the basket behind the perfect screen because the team understands their own strengths, weaknesses, and roles and they understand the same about their opponent.

Pick your own favorite metaphor, but we all know when it’s happening.  And we all know when it’s not.  When an organization is out of sync, it can exhibit its dysfunction in different ways.  For example:

Why do we work hard to create brand promises that our organizations aren’t ready to live up to?  (Think about the last time you promised something and your gut told you, “We can’t deliver on that yet!”)

Why is it that most organizations have core values, yet the behavior of employees and of the organization often don’t match the claimed values?  (Think Enron.)

Why do the processes of some organizations not match the claims made to consumers or customers?  (Think of the “help” desk who keeps you on hold for 25 minutes with the oft-repeated recording of “… you’re a valued customer.”)

And the list goes on.

These are some of the topics that we’ve been discussing with organizational leaders, and we thought we should create another type of forum for these conversations and observations to take place.  We hope you will bring your insights into how you promote sync in your organization and also share what your challenges are as you travel the path to higher levels of sync.