Where Do Outcomes Come From?
hint: it’s not just from your dreams and aspirations
The need to pursue outcomes instead of outputs has seeped into the mainstream. We seem to be in agreement that when it comes to progress and impact, understanding the difference we made by what we did is more valuable than just counting the number of different things we produced.
What doesn’t get talked about as often is where outcomes come from.
In my experience, many come from a closed-door boardroom where the C-suite works with a consultant-magician to poof something up. It’s all rather academic and requires a few flowcharts and a confusagraphic to get through.
Yes, as the leader or founder of your business, you 100% should contribute to what you want to achieve. I know I do.
But if you're the only voice in the room, you better be your only customer too.
Purpose-driven businesses exist to provide lasting value, and you deliver that value to someone—first and foremost to your customers.
Now remember, your value isn’t what you produce; it’s what the humans you serve can do, achieve, or become because of your product or service.
Thus your outcomes should, at least in part (if not entirely), be reflective of what success looks like for them. It’s part of translating your purpose, and especially your vision, into reality. You can then deploy objectives and tactics that align with these outcomes as well as measures to track your progress.
They should be the ones in the room, and you should be salivating over every word they have to say because—bonus—it isn’t just what they say but also the language they choose to say it with that helps you set your outcomes.
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