Annual plans are nothing new. Contact virtually any business and they will have one. So, why is the PlayBook™ different? Vision and Action Clarity.

We often hear the term playbook bandied about. Typically, we think of sports or politics and how the term applies there. In business, a playbook, according to Accenture includes “process workflows, standard operating procedures, and cultural values that shape a consistent response—the play.

Welcome to Phase Two of TransFormX. As we saw in Phase One, The Compelling Journey™ gives leaders the opportunity to take stock of their organization, determine a Call to Action and what they might attain when they fulfill it.

My son lives in Sweden. Everyone talks about the land of the midnight sun, but they don’t talk about how dark it can be in the winter. In Stockholm, the sun doesn’t rise until 9 and sets at 3. Plus, it’s pretty gray even when there is light.

The leadership team had worked steadily to ensure the continued progress of the organization. They had engaged in exhaustive annual planning sessions. Their work in recent years had borne fruit: the company was poised to grow dramatically in their market.

The team had been through a lot. It had been a tough two years. Lots of turnover, customers leaving, vendors leaving them in the lurch. The Board had begun to question leadership’s strategies and the investors were becoming restless.

The leadership team had taken two days offsite to participate in the Compelling Journey™. They went away to a resort where they closeted themselves in intense conversation and debate about where they expected to lead the enterprise.

The organization had a healthy sales record and several seasoned professionals that headed up the business development group. The challenge was that the sales fell in low margin areas that caused a lot of churns in the operation and was difficult to get to the bottom line.

The business had grown slowly, steadily. The company faced financial headwinds and felt boxed in when opportunities presented themselves. They could see growth but struggled to find the right combination of people and product.

The business was mushrooming. Hard work and good positioning in the market created a number of healthy opportunities. The CEO and her team had weathered the difficult time of proving their bona fides and now they had several new projects that required attention and execution.