Evan Renaerts

Finding a Way

January 4, 2008

I was talking to a friend and colleague the other day; he was on his way to meet with a very large corporate client to discuss a project. Many people in his position would be busy strategizing, trying to anticipate the client’s desires, my friend’s attitude was, “I’ll just go see how I can be of service to them.”

I think of this as my friend’s “way.” It is a way that is based on principles and an orientation to life that doesn’t rely on strategy or manipulation to achieve success. It is a way that remains constant regardless of the client and their particular motives. Most importantly it is a way of being that the doer can always feel good about.

In his book, Birth of the Chaordic Age, Dee Hock leads the reader through the journey he took when given the task of creating what would become the credit card giant, VISA. Those of us who have grown up with credit cards don’t remember what it was like in a cash-only world, or when each banking institution had its own card. That was the world when Dee Hock set out to create an organization that brought together natural competitors working across national and international boundaries.

In order to create a successful strategy Dee Hock and a core group of leaders from various institutions needed to create a way of working together that combined shared values and no restriction of individual freedom. The key turned out to be a set of guiding principles that addressed the very nature of the new entity. Prospective members were invited to sign-on and be guided by these principles if they wished to be a part of VISA.

Sometimes it can seem incredibly difficult to find our way in life. On one side are the voices that say, if we don’t take advantage of that person or that situation someone else will; while on the other side we hear, never treat anyone differently than how you wish to be treated.

In business I have watched companies contort themselves trying to guess what it is that the customer wanted to hear so that they could promise to deliver that – even when they knew they couldn’t deliver what they were promising. Not surprisingly these scenarios never work out well. What they demonstrate to the observer is an absence of core principles or perhaps a belief that success means being/doing what others expect of us.

Great minds in science, medicine and business have all agreed that the simple solution is often the best and this applies equally in the life of an individual or an organization. The simple solution is to know who you are and what guides your thoughts, decisions and actions.
One such simple way that I have heard for finding your guiding principles is to imagine yourself on a sinking ship; there’s one seat left in the life boat, what would you give up that seat for? What do you value above life itself? When you can honestly answer that question you will be close to knowing what your deepest principles are.

Evan Renaerts
604 314 0835
evan@evanrenaerts.com