Manage the Message – or Live with Chaos

The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.
- Marcus Aurelius, was Roman emperor from 161 to his death in 180. The last of the “Five Good Emperors”, and is also considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers

One of the greatest challenges in the large, complex business operations of today is the creation of a shared understanding of the common goal. Each person, let alone each group, has a perspective on the mission and vision of the organization. They may or may not overlap like so many sets in a Venn diagram. The are many reasons for the differences in perspective not the least of which is that we each have an overwhelming tendency to see the world from our own hilltop. As individuals that perspective is driven by our upbringing, or social influences, our education, our beliefs and mores, etc. The way we are primed in our formative years. When we combine in specialist groups it is compounded by our functional expertise and being surrounded by others with similar experiences, as well our shared perspectives on why other functional groups behave in certain ways. This makes for a diabolical mix when we are attempting to introduce new innovations into either work practices or the delivery of new products and services to market.

In this circumstance each organization is beset with its own variants on a theme; all share the universal affliction of organizational politics. It must be said that organization politics exists wherever there are more than two people. Not only is it a part of organizational life, its manifestation is actually neither good nor bad. The problem is that the worst attributes of organization politics manifest themselves as behaviors that foster ill-will and cause the organization to focus predominantly internally. Literally eating itself from the inside out. How this usually plays out, means the organization takes its eye off the market and begins the slide into poor performance and possibly death. The only thing that can cut across the chaos, confusion and corruption of rampant organization politics is a common and universally understood goal.

What will become compellingly important is absolute clarity of shared purpose and set of principles of conduct sort of institutional genetic code that every member of the organization understands in a common way, and with deep conviction.
- Dee Hock, is the founder and former CEO of the VISA credit card association.

In 1968 Dee Hock convinced Bank of America to do the not-so-obvious, to give up ownership and control of their BankAmericard credit card program to create a network of banks that could issue a common credit card. The new company, called National BankAmerica, was a non-stock membership corporation equally owned by its member banks. Then with the member banks aligned in 1976 the name was changed to one you probably know very well today – Visa. One of the greatest challenges Hock faced was helping what would eventually be over 25,000 member banks come to terms with the shared common purpose of a universally accepted currency substitute. Until 1976, the member banks had offered a range of bank network credit cards with names such as, BankAmericard, Chargex, Barclaycard, Carte Bleue among several others. Each name reflected an independence and politics often at counterpoint to the concept of a unified approach to credit card acceptance. Each trying to gain dominance. The opportunity for confusion and discontent was marked.

What Hock did was remarkable. He was determined to bring the various international networks together into a single network with a single name internationally that would be in the best interests of the central corporation. At the time many countries were reluctant to issue a card associated with Bank of America, even though the association was entirely nominal in nature. For this reason, in 1975 BankAmericard, Chargex, Barclaycard, Carte Bleue, and all other licensees united under the new name, “Visa” with a common and consistent brand. By changing the game, he enabled the member banks to reach beyond their usual competitive natures to embrace a politics of inclusion, essentially the wisdom of the commons. The more universally accepted Visa became, the better off they would all be. In 2008 Visa evolved yet again, when it was one taken public in one of the largest IPO’s ever.

If you are going to introduce change, be it internally or externally to market the lessons are clear: Choose a message and get in front of it – employ direction and action rather than response and reaction as your tactics for communicating. Build a coalition of collaborators based in the strength of mutually shared understanding. Supersede the chaos and problems of organizational politics and mange your message for long-term success.