Progressive Development : vision/mission

Motley says: "Money - that's what I value!"

James Waletzky — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:54:00 GMT

Summary

Motley: Money is the thing I value most! Is there anything else?

Maven: Determine what your values are that guide your life both at work and outside work, and use that to derive a guiding personal vision statement.

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[Context: Motley and Maven are about to grab lunch on Maven's first day at the office]

Maven: It's noon! Want to grab some lunch?

Motley: Hmmm… let me see. Well, no one else around at the moment so I guess you'll have to do as a lunch partner.

Maven: Your enthusiasm is overwhelming. Want to chat about creating that personal vision statement?

Motley: I guess it beats the enema I had last week - but just barely.

Maven: Great! We talked about the importance of having a vision statement to help guide your decision making. A personal vision statement can be a great guide in your personal life as well. Let's start by figuring out what you value most.

Motley: Money, and um, money. Well, I guess writing code as quickly as possible is something else I value.

Maven: Think deeper! Let me give you an example. Some things that I value are:

Continuous Improvement: Personal growth is extremely important. Most of the activities I undertake involve self-improvement - bettering myself in some way.
Relationships: One cannot live alone. Building long-lasting bonds with friends and loved ones is important. Keeping in touch with old friends is paramount.
Quality: Excellence comes into play in everything I do - both personally and professionally. Quality is particularly important when the entity being constructed is for the benefit of others (like software).
Fun: All work and no play makes me a dull boy - even at work. Fun appears in everything I do, from building projects to building relationships.
Productivity: Time is rarely wasted, and when it is, I'm not too happy about it. I try to make the most of every spare moment (including multitasking) to incorporate the other values into my life.
Helping Others: Helping others achieve their goals is very satisfying. Through charitable giving, teaching others at work, or via some other mechanism, helping others with their problems is important.

Motley: That's deep, dude. Deep. So how am I supposed to figure out my values? I still think Money is top tier.

Maven: Everyone has different values. Just take some time to sit down and think about what governs your life. It need not be complicated. Think about how you live your life on a day-to-day basis and come up with a simple list of words. Give it a quick shot.

Motley: Okay, I'll humor you. How about writing great software, autonomy, being routine yet seizing the opportunity, having fun, leading by example, and being bold.

Maven: That's, errr, a start. We may need to explore that a bit further in the future. For now, think about those values, think about those things you do each and every day - both inside work and outside work - coupled with your personal strengths and weaknesses, and come up with one statement that defines you. We'll use this moving forward to help you make some key decisions in your life.

Motley: This still seems corny, but I'll humor you. How about: "To live each day to the fullest, do whatever I can to create great software by having all the junior developers at the company look up to my supreme example, all while being a funmeister and not taking crap from anyone." How's that?

Maven: Actually, it's a decent start. We'll work on refining as we go. The important part now is that you have a defining statement that characterizes you and acts as your life guide. Let's get back to it a little later. For now, let's eat. Sushi?

Motley: Today is not one of those days I feel like food poisoning. The enema kind of turned me off. Let's get burgers!

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Maven's Pointer: Here is a good exercise to go through when trying to figure out what your values are. Start with the set of words below. Add any you think are missing. Narrow down the list to the 15 values that really catch your eye. Then pare the list to 10 that start to define you, then to between 5 and 7. Those 5-7 values define you. It can be difficult to pare down to 7 or less, but think about how the words are in line with your daily actions. Be sure to write down the final list!

Achievement, Advancement, Adventure, Autonomy, Beauty, Belonging, Challenge, Communication, Competition, Cooperation, Creativity, Curiosity, Diversity, Duty, Effectiveness, Equality, Excitement, Experience, Family, Fun, Growth, Health, Helping Others, Honesty, Humor, Independence, Innovation, Integrity, Knowledge, Leisure, Mastery, Passion, Power, Prestige, Productivity, Quality, Relationship, Respect, Risk, Security, Self-Realization, Spirituality, Strength, Structure, Teamwork, Tranquility, Trust, Variety, Wealth, Wisdom

Maven's Resources: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey, Free Press, ISBN: 0743269519, 2004.

Motley says: "Forget the vision - it will just cloud your judgment"

James Waletzky — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:56:00 GMT

Summary

Motley: Forget a vision - it will just cloud your judgment!

Maven: A vision statements guides your decision making. Ensure every project has a vision and create your own personal vision statement.

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[Context: The story picks up the first time Maven and Motley meet at Cynthesis Software]

Maven: Hey. You must be Motley. I've heard a lot about you.

Motley: Great things I bet! You must be the new guy. Supposed to come in and clean this place up, eh?

Maven: Well, I'm not a janitorial engineer, but I'm sure I'll come up with some ideas for improvement. I do have a general vision for the development team though.

Motley: Vision? Vision? We don't need no stinking vision! Visions just cloud your judgment.

Maven: How so?

Motley: What I am doing changes on a day-to-day basis. There is no way one statement created by a bunch of marketing weenies could possibly have any impact on what I do.

<Marketing>: All whiney geeks - get back to twiddling bits now!

Maven: I disagree. A vision helps guide your decisions - even down to the development level. Should we add a feature that will require a third party library forcing the cost of our software to rise by $500 when we want to make our solution accessible to very small businesses? Probably not - unless we can find another way to stay within our vision.

Motley: Marketing only. I don't need to worry about that.

Maven: How about a personal vision statement? Do you have one?

Motley: What for? I do just fine, thank you very much.

Maven: Given a set of tasks, a vision can help guide you on the priorities of your tasks. For example, if family is important and is reflected in your vision statement and you have a choice between going out to dinner with your wife and kid vs. out drinking with the boys, your personal vision can help you make this decision.

Motley: Sounds really corny to me! I guess creating a one statement summary of what I am all about could be fun, so maybe one day I'll give that shot.

Maven: Don't just focus on you, but also your project. Every project needs a vision and goals even below the marketing level. Summarize the main goals of the development team and let that guide your decisions throughout the development cycle.

Motley: As long as I don't have to rely on those marketing weenies! I'm not sure how to go about creating this vision thing though.

Maven: Let's do lunch. I'll give you some tips on creating a vision statement. We'll get you up and running with some guidance - your own, I might add - in no time.

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Maven's Pointer: Sometimes there is confusion between a vision and a mission. I like to simplify it this way: the vision is where we are going, and the mission is how we are going to get there.

Maven's Resources: Create Your Personal Vision Statement, Basics of Developing Mission, Vision and Values Statements