The other day, I was having a conversation with the owner of a highly successful Home Care company. We were talking about bringing his leadership team together for an “Executive Strategy Retreat.”

I shared with him my Model of Strategic Refocusing. Refocusing is the process of looking closely at where you are now, where you want to be in the future as a company, and the factors that move you from where you are now to where you want to be.

Where you are now begins with an assessment of your business as it exists today; what I call a Strategic Profile. Then, we look at where you want to be in five years, which is affected by three things:

* The outside Forces and Trends shaping your industry.

* Your Desired Future, as defined by vision, values, and strategy

* Competitive Advantage, based on the Seven Sources of Competitive Advantage in Home Care.

The final part of our strategy retreat is to define clearly what will move us from where are now toward our desired future. The elements that move us are:

* Leadership

* Focus

* Action

And of course, we have to measure our progress as we move from Now toward the Future.

Vision without Action is Hallucination

Many years ago I was leading a Home Care seminar in California, and talking about Vision. A young man in the audience stood up and said, “Remember, Vision without action is Hallucination”. The audience erupted in laughter. I told that story many times over the years. In another program, a young woman replied to the quote with another comment: “Yes, and Action without Vision is Chaos.”

We want neither hallucination nor chaos. We want focused action by our leadership team that takes us from where we are now to our desired future in a highly competitive marketplace.

What about you and your team?

Are you moving with Focused Action toward your ideal future?

Do you see clearly the Forces and Trends shaping your industry?

Have you clearly defined how you will gain and sustain Competitive Advantage in your marketplace?

I like to say to my clients,

“If you can get all your leaders in the same room, I can help you get them all on the same page.”