Peter Drucker has always advised asking and answering fundamental questions of our organizations and of ourselves before deciding to continue, change, or stop a business practice. Now, as economic hard times affect all sectors, there is an opportunity for organizations to take Drucker’s timely and critical advice:

● It is more important to do what is right than doing things right, and

● We are getting better and better at doing that which should not be done at all.

With funds in short supply, many people and their organizations find themselves cutting corners and scaling back on services and the employees who implement these services. By making such reflexive “quick-fixes” we are ignoring the question posed by Drucker.

Defining an organization’s value added to all stakeholders, both internal and external is critical. Doing so is at the core of “doing what is right” before doing things right.

I have been developing and validating concepts and tools for what I call “Mega thinking and planning” and defining in measurable terms the variables and criteria for societal value-added. Mega thinking and planning employs an “Ideal Vision” which is based on asking people almost world-wide “what kind of world do you want to help create for tomorrow’s child?’ It provides variables, in measurable terms, for thinking, planning, designing, and evaluating. It is ”ideal”, providing such variables as zero loss of life or permanent disabilities from murder, rape, physical abuse, violence, poisons, adulterations, environment and other human caused activities (and their consequences). If one is not intending to move ever-closer to the Ideal Vision, what do they have in mind? Using it can be both practical and ethical.

It is being applied in many places throughout the world, from Australia to Europe, Asia to the subcontinent, South America to Mexico in private and social sector organizations. One large-scale application use Mega thinking and planning to provide the core driver for the Sonora Institute of Technology (ITSON) in Mexico whose vision is:

VISION

ITSON is part of an integrated social system that provides a sustainable quality of life to its citizens by producing value-added contributions to a global knowledge-based society and economy

When applied with objectivity, as it is at ITSON, it provides the basis for identifying what an organization does that could be continued, modified, changed, or discontinued. For example, at ITSON all funding opportunities, new courses, projects, activities, and initiatives are first examined before approval to determine the extent to which they will add measurable value within and external—to ecosystems—to the university. ITSON has recently caught the positive attention of Ernst & Young as one of two innovative Mexican universities and of two Mexican presidents. Mega thinking and planning can answer the key question of “if my organization is the solution, what’s the problem?”

Each and every organization, in order to survive and thrive best adds value to all internal and external stakeholders. It should be done formally and have measurable performance terms so that organizations can plan, design, develop, implement and continually improve based on valid criteria. If so, we can act on the two Drucker principles noted above.

About Roger Kaufman, Ph.D, CPT. Mr. Kaufman is a Distinguished Research Professor at Sonora (Mexico) Institute of Technology and Professor Emeritus, at Florida State University. Change, Choices, and Consequences: A Guide to Mega Thinking and Planning, The Assessment Book: Applied Strategic Thinking and Performance Improvement Through Self-Assessments and Thirty Seconds That Can Change Your Life are three of thirty-nine books that Mr. Kaufman has written in this area.