Business Motivation Model

1. Decide on a time period for your BMM. We recommend a one to two year period with the expectation that you will review this every three or six months to see if the contents need to be adapted. 
2. Start your strategic planning with understanding what value the business should create in the chosen time period. Explore the vocabulary of Business Value elements (available in our card deck). The value elements become the stimuli for choosing strategiesto create such value, and goalsthat measure the value created or generated. (Every goal should have a direct correlation to one or more elements of value.) A good way explore desired value is to compose a desired-future Business Value Exchange Ledger.
3. Decide whether you want to capture your thoughts initially in the tabular format in a digital document (like MS Word or MS Excel) or go more free form with Sticky Notes and a large blank surface (whiteboard or butcher paper).
4. Use your thinking from the Value Exchange Ledger™ to initially populate the lower rows of the model: Strategies–Tacticsand Goals–Objectives.

Tip: Keep it really simple the first time you do this, and merge the Strategies-Tactics and Goals-Objectives — the additional granularity might not serve you well at this stage. Thus:

• •  Goals = the Measure of Value you seek to create or generate
  •  Strategies = the Activities you intend to do to create or generate that measure of value

6. Extend your thinking and be creative about other potential Goals and Strategies that may not have been revealed in the two value-based methods. It’s entirely up to you to decide the range, scope and number of items you want to put in the model.
7. When you feel you have a core set of Strategies, then compose a summary statement about these, which is your Mission. When you have a core set of Goals, then compose a summary statement about these, which is your Vision.

Note 1: The Mission and Vision in the BMM is ONLY an overarching statement that fits with the time period (i.e. 1-2 years) of your BMM. This Mission and Vision is for an internal audience only. This Mission and Vision is likely to be different and separate from your overarching statement of what the business/organisation exists for — and those statements are generally composed with an external audience in mind with a lot of word-smithing involved. It’s not worth investing a lot of time nor effort in word-smithing the Mission and Vision for your BMM. (NB: If you are maintaining a fuller Business Architecture for your organisation/business — that is a range of views/diagrams/models — then put your external facing Mission and Vision in a separate section to the BMM.

Note 2: This order of populating the model is based on the fact that many people don’t naturally think in abstractions or strategically. Rather than taking an idealistic top-down approach to populate Mission and Vision first, this is done last. Most people when doing future planning have a list of actions (Means) in mind before they have a list of things they want to achieve (Ends).

8. A key feature of the Motivation Model concept is coherency. So as you populate the final version of your BMM model, take regular moments to check the logic and coherence of the contents. See the Example below of a populated model.

• • A reference numbering system can be helpful.
    • Give each Strategy a whole number, e.g. 1.0; 2.0
    • Give each Tactic a part number showing which strategy it relates to, e.g. 2.1; 2.2
    • Match the Goals to the Strategy so they have the same reference number. Strategy 1.0 – Goal 1.0
  • Use these questions as prompters:
    • Does each Strategy have a Goal that is meaningful?
    • Does each Tactic belong to a Strategy?
    • Does each Tactic have an Objective that is measurable? (And you get to define what makes something measurable — be creative, it’s your BMM.)
    • Does the Mission reflect a summary of all Strategies?
    • Does the Vision reflect a summary of all the Goals?
    • Is there Value you seek to create or generate that doesn’t yet have a Strategy/Goal combo?
  • Use the Tip below (Disambiguiating the concepts) to check the language you have used to ensure it is in fact a Strategy or Tactic and not a Goal or Objective.

9. Set yourself a diary appointment for the future when you can review and update the model contents. Every quarter (3 months) or half year is a good time period.
10. Put a copy of the completed BMM somewhere you can easily reference it.