“DRiVE” Driven *

I’m a fan of Dan Pink‘s work and had the good fortune to meet with him recently at 30,000 ft between Chicago and DC.  He was generous enough to give me some advice about my own book and promoting the ideas of Enterprise Performance Management.  Luckily, I referenced Dan’s work “Drive:The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, ” in both the preface and in Chapter 9 of my book.  There is an entire dimension of Enterprise Performance Management as a structure or platform for fulfilling what motivates us that I’m compelled to write more about it.  Here is my thinking at the 30,000 ft level:

Autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives.
If we know what the strategy is, and what the corresponding strategic objectives and targets are, why can’t we direct our piece of the business, in concert with everyone else’s pieces of the  business, to achieve those objectives?  EPM ingredients include:

• Accountability for the results
• Independence to make fact-based decisions to deliver those results
• “My” slice of the business (P&L by ‘x’ where x can be customer, cutomer-type, product, channel, territory, market, and so on)
• More facts, less politics

Mastery – the urge to get better and better at something that matters.
Maybe what matters to you is fanatical customer support.  How can you align that with the profit and revenue growth targets set out by the strategy?  There are probably an infinite number of ways to do it – what’s the “best” way, using the right amount of resources, delivering the right result at the right time?  EPM is a mastery platform, including:

• Cause and Effect inspection, new insights, learning
• Continuous improvement
• What-If Scenarios (investigation)
• A way to share and collaborate, improving transparency, inviting feedback
• The great game of business: seeing the drivers in action and seeing how the pieces work together

Purpose – the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.
Okay, EPM is not the same as selling all your worldly goods and tending to the poor of Calcutta.  AND in your pursuit of doing good (or doing well) you want to balance your contribution to the world and earning your pay-check.  How can EPM help you do what you do in the service of your organization, your customers, your employees, your markets, and so on, including:

• How my slice of the business aligns with strategic goals
• The impact that I have
•  Seeing new effects from my results (both positive and negative)
•  Noticing and measuring the people and community impact
•  What’s possible & what’s next (e.g.: corporate social responsibility, shared responsibility, environmental impact, and so on)

I’m curious if this concept lands for you, or if you see this as a possibility. Can EPM be “DRiVE” in action?
Please let me know – write me at rdimon@CheckPointLLC.com or comment here and discuss.

(* – the title of this post is an easter egg for my friend Frank Buytendijk – he is to guess the artist)