Any successful company can be summed up by its core visionary statements, which are words and actions that transition over from paper to a business ethos. This is the driving force that makes the business who it is. Apple isn’t a laptop or a smartwatch — it’s a better way to work and play, an extension of our need to stay connected and busy. Take away the technology, destroy all the blueprints and corrupt all the code, and you still have an idea which is stronger than the technology alone.

I mean, you’ll also have a HUGE amount of corporate debt and a lot of back peddling, but the brand itself could survive. The mindset that is Apple, one of innovation and transformation, could continue. 

Such an idea is the golden fleece of any business. It means that stripped of the core product offering, you still have something of immense value to give. It means surviving the inevitable changes the world throws at you; because, who knows, today’s smartphone might be tomorrow’s landline. 

So how exactly do you foster that desire to click in others, not just on a buy button but with the values of your business itself? How do you transition into something more than just a product or service offering and instead into a transformative business model with real brand devotees?

Start simple

Oh.

Very likely, you’ve already laid out some goals and visionary strategies for your business. They’re very big, very vague words on pieces of paper that sum up what you expect people to adhere to in your company. Nicely done — you’ll need those later. Apple has them too. 

Where these processes often fall down is that they fail to integrate with the actual everyday workings of your business. The intention is there, but the follow-through is lacking, eventually leading to a less-than-desirable outcome. 

The key to changing your team’s mindset is to use small microdoses. Start by being agile, thinking with mechanical processes that will help your team. Working with taskboards or timebox modelling ensures key steps are made towards your project’s success. Think in terms of the small steps to improve you can implement and then download them into your way of thinking. This doesn’t mean you have to forgo unique thinking, but it means systemising your big grand vision with little steps on how you do things along the way.

There are a lot of software tools that can help with the systemisation, such as Harvest, Monday or Trello.

Work behind glass walls

Microplanning works best when its structure is transparent to the entire team. This transparency should also shine through to those you work with and those who invest in your business. Because in today’s society, there’s very little that isn’t picked up and committed on. 

Defining each person’s role, responsibilities and expectations (or the ‘way we do things’) is key to avoiding trouble. Not only is it easier for people to fix any problems that crop up, but it also increases the desire to take personal responsibility. When the goals are clear and people feel valued, it increases the ability to implement feedback, ensure success, and keep those lofty overarching goals visibly achievable.

Make the glass bendy

Rules can be bent. They can also (sometimes) be broken.

A transformative mindset, one that draws a straight line between the beginning (a) and desired outcome (b) must be prepared to adapt. No plan is perfect, and no line truly rigid.

The tricky key is knowing when to bend or snap entirely. No written rule explains away every scenario for every business. However, if the barrier is so great that you’re finding deadlines are being missed and team members are turning their heads in disgust, perhaps it’s time to rethink the problem. Does the barrier need to exist to reach the desired objective? Would it be more in keeping with the values of your business to step away at this point and find another, less problematic solution?

Imagine a doorway

At the risk of flogging a dead metaphor, the concept of a wall implies something insurmountable. You can bend it, break it, peer through it, dissolve it into thin air, but it’s still a nasty old thing that’s placed in front of your path. 

So don’t think of it as a wall. Think of it as a door.

A door takes you where you want to go. It’s there to be opened, and it enjoys doing so.

This is perhaps the most important step because creating a door requires the belief of everyone involved. If you have one, it means that people believe in your story. They acknowledge that the task is worth doing for the greater good of the business. It might take months or even years to build to a point where this idea becomes visible to everyone else, but when it does, it feels genuine. The processes put in place to deliver on the company mission fit, and every part works in harmony. 

You’ve just ensured value beyond mere material deliverables. Go you.

Why do we care about this?

As software developers, we work with companies to bring about a unique solution to their internal processes and exterior, customer-facing image. We also become (for a limited time or perhaps longer) part of your team, implementing processes that reflect how you work now and would like to work in the future. 

Designing systems that ensure better success is what we do. In order to do that, we need to understand what that success looks like to you and where, on a daily basis, your team and your customers come to interact with you

If you’d like to discuss more, send us a message. We can arrange a time to discuss your strategy and get all starry-eyed about your ultimate vision for your business. 

Small steps first, though.