“It’s for the journey”
16/10/2018
![LloydsTSBTrain1 LloydsTSBTrain](https://blogs.cranfield.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/LloydsTSBTrain1-1.jpg)
You may recall, “It’s for the journey”, was an advertising campaign for a bank that now no longer exists (at least in the form that it was). Why did that bank come off the rails? Why, when one year do you see a Chief Executive of a large Insurer being feted as a star, yet this year they’re being fired for failing to perform? What happened to Nokia? Will the same happen to Apple?
Personally, I can’t speak on their behalves, but it does appear to us in our travels that the so-called “journey” has more than one dimension to it!
How many times do we hear about new (often punctuated with as many currently trendy words as possible) strategies that will take us to a “new level”? And just to make it a little more concrete, we then talk about the journey to get there. This dimension is almost always about improving performance (revenues, profit, productivity, customer experience etc.).
There is at least one other dimension which we believe is critical to journey along if there is any substance to be behind a positive journey along the Performance axis – and that is what we will call the Maturity dimension.
It is our observation that unless individuals (Front-line, Managers, Executives – all of whom are Leaders) move up through Maturity Levels (see Maturity Model below), then any organisational performance improvement appears to be ephemeral – ultimately slipping back from whence it came.
Evidence is indicating that journeying up through the Maturity Levels is not an option. And a critical barrier is the Understanding Level – because the environment around us (rate of change, Big Consulting, media etc.) is telling us to make decisions at the speed of thought. “We don’t want the details”, “We don’t have time to understand”, “We just want the answer!”.
Well we recommend making decisions is done at the speed of Understanding!
Or you might just come off the rails!
Categories & Tags:
Leave a comment on this post:
You might also like…
Keren Tuv: My Cranfield experience studying Renewable Energy
Hello, my name is Keren, I am from London, UK, and I am studying Renewable Energy MSc. My journey to discovering Cranfield University began when I first decided to return to academia to pursue ...
3D Metal Manufacturing in space: A look into the future
David Rico Sierra, Research Fellow in Additive Manufacturing, was recently involved in an exciting project to manufacture parts using 3D printers in space. Here he reflects on his time working with Airbus in Toulouse… ...
A Legacy of Courage: From India to Britain, Three Generations Find Their Home
My story begins with my grandfather, who plucked up the courage to travel aboard at the age of 22 and start a new life in the UK. I don’t think he would have thought that ...
Cranfield to JLR: mastering mechatronics for a dream career
My name is Jerin Tom, and in 2023 I graduated from Cranfield with an MSc in Automotive Mechatronics. Originally from India, I've always been fascinated by the world of automobiles. Why Cranfield and the ...
Bringing the vision of advanced air mobility closer to reality
Experts at Cranfield University led by Professor Antonios Tsourdos, Head of the Autonomous and Cyber-Physical Systems Centre, are part of the Air Mobility Ecosystem Consortium (AMEC), which aims to demonstrate the commercial and operational ...
Using grey literature in your research: A short guide
As you research and write your thesis, you might come across, or be looking for, ‘grey literature’. This is quite simply material that is either unpublished, or published but not in a commercial form. Types ...