Creating A “Cardinal” Vision!
April 2, 2009
See how a cardinal banging his head against a window can help you understand the primary vision of your organization.
Often I hear leaders in organizations say, “Trying to initiate change is like banging your head against the wall.” If you’ve felt that same way in your attempts to implement change, you may well end up feeling as frustrated as the cardinal I saw in Atlanta…
I had an appointment with a potential client in Atlanta. She was held up in a meeting so I waited in the lobby while catching up on some phone calls. Unfortunately, every time I attempted to make a call, I heard a “tap-tap-tap” sound on the window. I looked around to see where it was coming from, but each time I saw nothing.
Once again, I heard the sound. First it came from one end of the window. Then the other. Then from the middle. It wasn’t loud, but it was annoying and was driving me a little crazy. Finally, I asked the receptionist if she heard anything. “That noise?” she asked, “Oh sure, that’s just a cardinal. Look down and you’ll see him.”
Sure enough, I looked at the base of the window, and there was a beautiful red cardinal pecking away at the window. “What is he doing?” I asked the receptionist. “We’ve tried to figure that out ourselves, and the best explanation we can come up with is that he sees his own reflection in the window and thinks it’s another bird.”
Although we were never really sure, we surmised that the cardinal kept banging his beak against the window to get to the other bird he thought he saw in the window.
As I was sitting there, I couldn’t help thinking how much this was like most organizations. In an attempt to find a direction for the company, something that looks real and tangible, people will grasp onto whatever looks like a reasonable signpost and peck away at that vision.
Whatever the cardinal was attempting to accomplish, pecking at the vision in the window surely didn’t accomplish the desired results. Similarly, a lack of direction in an organization will ensure that your people’s efforts will be scattered in various directions without achieving the results you had hoped for.
Make sure that the objectives of your organization are clearly defined so that everyone is focused on your “cardinal” or primary vision. You’ll achieve the results you desire and you’ll ensure that your people don’t end up “banging their heads against the wall.”
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