Aspiration + Inspiration + Perspiration = Success

I remember us - a former team - spending a half day discussing the outcomes of an organization-wide engagement survey and working through the actions for our team.  We were keen and motivated, all-hands on deck, and left the session feeling good and smiling infectiously.  

A few days later I asked our manager about our next steps.  I hardly remember what he said, or what he said when I wondered again a couple of weeks later.  I suspected he faced some organizational hurdles vis-a-vis our action plan, which he simply couldn't articulate and, worse, which he couldn't do anything about.  As it were, our spirited engagement conversation gradually unraveled and faded.

Too many times people can get caught up in aspiration and inspiration, and frankly never take their strategy work any further.  We call this common mistake "Dreams that never come true."  

So says AG Laflley, former Chairman and CEO of Procter & Gambler, and I've seen this phenomenon way too much in organizations.

In the Filipino culture apparently it's a common thing, and there is a phrase I learned that meant something like:  It's easy to set fire to a small cluster of shrubs or grass, but it never gets going as it dies soon.

It ought to be:  Aspiration + Inspiration + Perspiration = Exhilaration of Success.