If your life isn’t integrated, then it is segregated. If your business isn’t integrated, it is segregated. The concept of Blendification® rests on the foundation that you cannot reach your human potential without intentionally helping others pursue their potential. Further, a business cannot realize its potential without being completely integrated, or blended, with everyone working together towards something meaningful.
Potential is an interesting word. You can succeed in certain areas but still fall short of your potential. A business can be profitable and remain in operation for a long time, but it won’t realize its potential unless it is integrated.
Organizational integration doesn’t happen organically. It must be intentional. To realize business potential, leaders need to integrate:
-Product or service with customers and the communities they serve
-Employees’ ability to learn, grow, and contribute at work with their homelife
-Organizational culture, strategy, and day-to-day execution
When leaders are intentional about integrating these components, it becomes a standard by which they operate and communicate. It sets a commitment for how they want to run their business and their life. When these intentional and shared expectations for integration become visual, apparent to others, integrity follows.
It is not a coincidence that the words intention, integration, and integrity are similar. In a business context, when you become intentional about your organization’s potential, you must integrate virtually every aspect of your business. This process creates standards to which you and others will be held accountable, opening the path to integrity–doing what you said you would do.
It starts with your openness to pursue something greater than self-serving interests through your business. Business exists to solve customer and societal problems. That is what we do. Organizations have a positive (or negative) impact through their business operations and products. The critical question is, “What kind of impact are you having on your employees, customers, and community?”
The table below outlines the progression and connection of intention, integration, and integrity:
|
Element |
Connection to Business |
|
Intention |
In a business, the intention becomes a foundational cultural element that defines your commitment to your employees, customers, and community. Since business exists to enhance society, it is critical that a business outlines its intention for the three groups it impacts most. A Statement of Intention establishes the benchmark by which your organization will be evaluated. More substantial than a vision or mission statement, it clearly articulates how your company will affect your key stakeholders. |
|
Integration |
To realize your potential as an organization and fulfill your intention, you must have an integrated operating model. This is not simply having periodic meetings between departments or a quarterly team-building event. This a complete integration of culture, strategy, and execution. This starts by using the Statement of Intention to develop behavioral and cultural guidelines. The progression then develops a rigid strategic focus and outcomes that will enable the organization to realize its potential. Finally, the strategic focus is cascaded throughout the company, so the strategic actions become flexible and nimble to react to external changes. |
|
Integrity |
When an organization is fully dedicated to its intention and integrates the company so that it can realize its potential, a level of peer accountability and integrity evolves. Think about a company that is completely aligned on its impact (intention) and united (integration). These factors then establish the cultural and business expectations for peer accountability to flourish. Higher levels of integrity become prevalent, further enhancing culture, outcomes, and impact. |
Businesses have the opportunity to make meaningful impacts on employees, customers, and communities. The path to doing this is through intention, integration, and integrity. When these three are blended, organizations pursue and realize their potential. The emphasis is on the intentional blending of these elements.
Think of a cup of tea. It starts out as a glass of hot water. The teabag is then placed in the water, and it must be given time to steep. It cannot be dipped in and out to be effective. After the steeping process, the hot water becomes tea. It is no longer simply water.
Similarly, when a business commits to its intention, integrates all areas of the company, and builds integrity, it becomes something other than “work.” It becomes something greater, where employees, customers, and communities are proud to be associated with the organization—and the organization can realize its potential.
Author bio
Dan Bruder is the CEO of Fusion Dynamics Group, an Instructor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Instructor of Strategy and Leadership at Colorado State University. His new book is The Blendification® System: Activating Potential by Connecting Culture, Strategy, and Execution. Learn more at www.BlendificationSystem.com.