Strategic Direction and the End in Mind

Direction versus Destination

Direction and destination are two different things.  On a map, one is represented by an arrow and the other by a point.  Though different, the two concepts work very well together and are always useful in discussing general quests such as turning dreams into reality or achieving our life’s goals.  But they are especially useful when discussing the very specific quest involved in the lifelong career-development process—the subject from which we took a recent brief detour, and one to which we will now return.

 
The Shirley strategic planning model is designed to deliver a strategic direction rather than a specific endpoint.  But as one follows any fixed direction, one passes over many possible endpoints, with the number depending on how long and how rapidly a particular person or organization has been moving.

Covey’s second Habit, Begin with the End in Mind, helps one discover life’s most important end in mind—the ultimate end in mind that one is taught to identify through the personal mission statement process of Habit 2, and the very same one that will guarantee our desired life legacy for all time to come.

 
The arrow pointing from our current location in life to our ultimate end in mind always establishes the strategic direction we must take in order to achieve that end in mind.
 

“All human plans are subject to ruthless revision by Nature or Fate.”

                                                                                                                              Arthur C. Clarke

Experience teaches that even when our intended destination is firmly in mind, the actual journey may still involve sudden detours that resemble the zigzag motion of a sailboat tacking against the wind.

It is also like the path of a spacecraft launched toward the Moon.  The design path is a perfectly smooth curve, but the actual trajectory can be quite different.  As the spacecraft drifts off its intended course, it makes no attempt to return to the original path.  Instead, it periodically recalculates a new path to the original destination from its current, off-course, location—much like the GPS systems do in today’s cars.

 
These examples provide a powerful metaphor for what one can expect during the lifelong quest to achieve your ultimate end in mind, and also applies perfectly to the career-development process.
 
As anyone who has tried to cross a stream by stepping only on the dry rocks soon learns, such a crossing is not likely to follow a smooth curve much less a straight line.  This metaphor may best represent what most career-development trajectories tend to look like, meaning that there may be times when one must perch on one dry rock longer than desired, while figuring out the next safe and logical move. 
 
Strong Interest Inventory results help to establish a strategic direction aligned with career success and career satisfaction, but that direction remains relevant only for the duration of one’s working career which, for most people, leaves many years of post-career life to plan for and, subsequently, to live.

A Strategic Direction for Career and for Life

In planning for one’s career and life, two different insights will be helpful.  The Haldane method for career development together with the Strong Interest Inventory will help identify the ideal career path, i.e., direction.  But beyond that, the Shirley strategic planning model and/or the Covey 7 Habits of Highly Effective People will be helpful in providing decision criteria for achieving one’s desired life legacy.  With a bit of luck and planning, it is quite possible to realize both of those critical goals, i.e., to achieve your ideal career aspirations while, at the same time, ensuring your desired life legacy for all time to come. 

 
In a previous blog post I described my life-changing experiences with Haldane Associates and the Strong Interest Inventory.  Those two powerful experiences pointed me toward a career in public academic administration at the university level.  And as I will describe in more detail later, the journey from my dream of becoming a ‘public administrator’ to its realization took 20 years with many twists and turns, some of my choosing but many at the whim of “Nature or Fate.”  But during that entire time, I looked patiently for opportunities that changes in the external environment might give me.  And every time such an opportunity emerged—providing me with a fork in life’s road—I conscientiously chose the path most likely to help make my dream a reality.  In cases where I could discern no difference between the two alternatives, I flipped a mental coin and chose whichever path seemed more interesting at the time.