Why two months is too long to write a CX vision
I’ve seen a lot of CX vision projects take two months (or longer). Almost all of them have failed to deliver a useful statement.
The two-month approach relegates the CX vision to a side-project.
Committee members get distracted. Executive sponsors aren’t actively involved. Focus group participants wonder what became of their input.
It leads to a lot of talking in circles. People get confused. The plot is quickly lost. Somebody eventually raises the question, “What are we even trying to do?”
The result is a bloated nonsense paragraph.
One company created a CX vision that covered an entire wall in its lobby. The vision was full of big, impressive words that had absolutely no meaning.
Employees weren’t inspired. They viewed it as a symbol of wasted time.
Why two hours is just right to create a CX vision
Imagine your organization on its best day.
One of those magical days when everything goes right. Customers are delighted. Teams are working in concert. Everyone is dialed in.
Those days happen. Maybe not as often as you’d like, but they happen. And it’s on those days that you’re fulfilling your CX vision. You just have to describe it.
The two-hour meeting is focused on defining that best day in one crystal clear, razor sharp sentence. It takes just two hours because the goal is to articulate what’s already there.
Kitchens for Good provides a great example.
It’s a nonprofit that runs a culinary apprenticeship program for people who face barriers to traditional employment. The CX vision at Kitchens for Good is also the organization’s mission statement.
Here was the old mission:
Kitchens for Good uses food to transform lives and nourish communities by providing people with the skills and support to launch meaningful careers.
It had some good elements, but nobody could remember it. There were too many words and it wasn’t direct. The mission lacked punch.
A cross-functional team of Kitchens for Good employees wrote a new statement in just two hours. This one is much sharper and easy to memorize:
Transforming lives through culinary arts
The new statement represents Kitchens for Good on its best day. Look at this Instagram post announcing the graduation of three apprentices and you’ll see it:
