Think of it as a shift from valuing size to valuing significance.  “How much?” and “How big?” aren’t the right questions.  Instead we should be asking how we can create organizations and societies that mirror our deepest values.  ~Dov Seidman

Seidman says:

The flood of information, unprecedented transparency, increasing interconnectedness—and our global interdependence—are dramatically reshaping today’s world, the world of business, and our lives. We are in the Era of Behavior and the rules of the game have fundamentally changed. It is no longer what you do that matters most and sets you apart from others, but how you do what you do. Whats are commodities, easily duplicated or reverse-engineered. Sustainable advantage and enduring success for organizations and the people who work for them now lie in the realm of how, the new frontier of conduct.

The idea of behavior and leadership isn’t new, and Seidman would agree with that.  However, Seidman would say that behavior has taken a new priority, new importance, and a new mandate for organizations and individuals.  He believes that what will really set organizations apart is how they do what they do or stated another way, how they behave.  He suggests successful organizations will be those that out-behave their competition.

This past week I attempted to get several groups to create vision statements.  On their first try they all described “what” they were going to “do.”  With Seidman on my mind, I challenged them to think more about “how” the future would look different because of what they were proposing to do.  In other words, paint a compelling picture of the future.  It took some effort, but the changes were fairly dramatic.  Using vivid language, they were able to describe a future that truly expressed the values they were trying to emulate.

Organizationally, Seidman suggests that we shift our thinking from valuing size to valuing significance.  In some regards that almost sounds un-American.  We want to super-size everything!  And we’ve been taught to live by the mantra that you’re either growing or dying, bigger is better, etc.  Imagine for moment how your own organization might look different if the focus became significance as opposed to size.  How your organization might look different if it truly mirrored your deepest values; mirrored them so clearly that they were evident to anyone within the first few minutes of interacting with your organization.  Would that difference establish a degree of significance that would set you apart from all other organizations that do what you do?

Leaders: Is it time to shift from valuing size to valuing significance?