The True North is the first element of my TASTE model and is in the middle of my X-Matrix template. It is the central piece which holds the other elements together. On the X-Matrix I define the True North as:
The orientation which informs what we should do.
That is a bit abstract and jargony, so lets unpack it a bit. By orientation I mean that a True North sets direction. That direction doesn’t define any specific destination, let alone how we get there, but it does help us decide (i.e. it informs) what the next steps might be. In other words, rather than simply following a plan, we can ask “does this step take us towards our True North or away from it?”
When it comes to actually crafting a True North statement I’ve been evolving the way I describe my approach, and my current recommendation is to consider 3 aspects, conveniently as usual beginning with the letter C.
- Is it challenging? In fact a good True North is probably so challenging that its unlikely to be achievable in the foreseeable future. As such, it is not a target.
- Is it compelling? Is it something that people will want to spend their time working on? Will it bring people together to collaborate on the collective challenge?
- Is it concrete? Can people imagine what it would be like to achieve this ideal best? In other words its more than a woolly vision or mission statement or a set of platitudes.
I find that those 3 together can be used to create something which is short and snappy and describes something which is both ambitious and inspiring; a utopian outcome which is just over the horizon and out of reach.
As an example, a typical True North for a Lean manufacturing plant might be something along the lines of “zero defects”. Probably not achievable in the near term, but imaginable and worthy of striving for.
A recent example for an Agile Transformation was along the lines of “immediate development and deployment of customer requests”. Again, definitely not achievable in the near term, but clear enough to create alignment and focus.
There’s a phrase I picked up from somewhere (Google suggest multiple sources, mostly to do with personal development) that suggests focusing on:
who you want to be, not what you want to do
This seems like another way to think about a True North, describing an organisation’s long-term objective rather than a short or medium-term plan or solution.