Three Levels of Flourishing
How to harmonize your vision, goals, and actions
So there are three stonemasons working on a medieval cathedral. A visitor comes and asks each one what he’s doing. The first says he’s cutting a stone to shape. The second says he’s building a great cathedral. The third says he’s working for the glory of God.
In order to make progress toward anything worthwhile, there are three components we must bring into alignment. First, we need a vision, a high-level objective. This is the ultimate aim that typically recedes as we approach, only allowing us to occasionally touch but never grasp it. Then there’s the intermediate goal. This is tangible and usually accompanied by a sense of well-being. And the third component is action. This is the thing you are doing right now to achieve your goal and move toward your vision.
A stonemason cuts the stone the best he can to build the cathedral that glorifies God.
Though this alignment does not happen naturally, it is a relatively straightforward task. It starts with determining your vision or high-level objective. Kay says that “high-level objectives are typically loose and unquantifiable - though this does not mean it is not evident whether or not they are being achieved.” These might sound like flourishing, fulfilment, harmony, a fine operation, improving communication, excellent customer experience, etc.
The vision then gets broken down into achievable goals. So you could take a loose objective, such as having a fulfilling personal life, and determine what would need to happen for that vision to be realized. Maybe part of a fulfilling life is physical health and feeling like you’re game to take on the challenges of the day.
Great. Now you have a goal.1 Time to take action. Maybe action starts with walking, water, and more sleep. Or maybe it’s lifting weights and riding bike. As long as the action brings you closer to your goal, you should be fine.
What about the business world?
Maybe the vision is to build a quality small business that can reliably turn a profit. One goal might be converting a percentage of first time customers into repeat customers. One action to support that goal might be to learn each customer’s name and make some kind of connection in person. Another action would be to make the physical layout of the store as welcoming and easy to navigate as possible.
As a teacher, my vision is to give students an Experience they will look back on fondly and feel improved their lives. One goal is to improve students’ ability to write and think through difficult problems. I can move toward this goal by providing students structured writing methods and feedback that emphasizes where they are doing well.
When the three levels harmonize, beautiful things happen. But a breakdown can spell disaster.
Kay notes that companies without a high-level objective are doomed to fail. This is why making profit margin, which is shaky even as a goal, the main target is the beginning of the end.
Obliquity shows up in the synchronizing of the levels. Remember that the oblique approach is indirect. It relies on experimentation and discovery. It is a process of iteration, trying something, seeing how it goes, making adjustments, and trying again. This has implications for both the individual and the organization.
The individual needs to maintain flexibility and an objective perspective of their own work. It means not getting hung up on repeating the same actions that used to work or worked for someone else. Instead, keep an experimenter’s attitude as you feel out what is and is not working. Question whether the things you’re doing today are building up into your goals and vision. If not, make some tweaks on the action level. If you’re accomplishing goals but not getting closer to your vision, figure out why the goals are wrong or what they’re missing and iterate a new set.
In a large organization, vision needs to be communicated and consistent through all levels while goals and actions are localized. Planned neighborhoods and cities tend to fail because they are the work of a single mind. But these are very complex tasks that no single person could fully comprehend or solve. However, if the vision is consistent and present from top to bottom, when challenges arise those closest to them can make a decision based on what would best accomplish the goals and ultimate objective. The greatest achievements happen obliquely, through twists and turns. They are the work of teams striving toward a common goal. And they all start with a clear vision.
This stage can be repeated in order to break a complex goal into smaller, more actionable goals.