Do everything you can

In my last passage at the Pearson International airport in Toronto, I stopped over at one of the restaurants for a bite to eat. While waiting for my food, I observed a message stuck to the register on the counter. It said: "Do everything you can to make the traveler's life better."

I realize that the piece of paper stuck to the monitor is just a reminder. And that there is probably a better message that was given to the staff of the restaurant to give it context or meaning. Or was there?

I can definitely see the management wanting to get a better performing organization hiring a consultant. I can see the consultant telling them that they needed to have a vision statement for their organization. They lock themselves in a room for a day and collectively author this vision statement: At Molson's T1 lounge, we make everything we can to make the traveler's life better. And then the managers come back and organize a company gathering and serve drinks and present the company vision in a nice PowerPoint.

Although the statement is short and memorable (the business consultant told them that the vision statement had to be short and memorable), it does not have much meaning by itself. The individual employee, the one that didn't participate in authoring the statement, is left with two important questions: Where is the limit of "everything I can do"? and; What does it meant to make the traveler's life better?

I have learned last week that the solution is to make the vision concrete. You are trying to define an experience for the traveler so you need to tell the story from the traveler's standpoint and not the company's. To do this from the traveler's point of view, you need to create a clear picture of that traveler. In other words, a persona representing this traveler. You need to know enough about him to know what is important to him and what are his goals. After all, you cannot make his life better if you do not know what his goals are.

Once you now the person that you are trying to help, you need to create an instance of the vision. A context that the employees can use to guide their own interpretation of the vision. For example, you could tell the story of the traveler missing his connection an having a hard time getting home. Show how the employee at the bar can help make this traveler's life better by serving him food and, while he is eating, making a phone call to help him to get another flight or lodging.

In an situation like this restaurant, you might want to pick 2 or 3 personas to tell stories around. To make the story easier to tell and remember, you could make a small comic-book or short movie to show to employees this instantiation of the vision. Once you have seen such a video, you don't need a reminder on your monitor. The message becomes really concrete and memorable. This is a key element of creating a compelling experience for the traveler.

All employees at this restaurant are design agents of the traveler's experience. And they cannot design a compelling experience for the traveler if they do not have a clear picture in their minds of the vision for this experience. Making the vision concrete is an essential step in achieving this.

And you; Can you articulate in a concrete way the vision of your company from the point of view of your customer or your end-user?