DC Velocity - September 2016

order fill and stock-out consequences?

Of course not. He or she cares a lot about return on equity, about customer acquisition and retention, about finding the balance between capital investments and margins, about business continuity, and about happy, smiling shareholders (whether the company is publicly or privately held).

Again, it is visibility, communication, and recognition that provide the optics that reinforce the basics of how you do business. Certificates, plaques, awards banquets, photo ops, and public expressions of success, of harmony, of service, of impeccable performance—all these create the right kind of optics.

Why the “right kind”? Because they are rooted in the reality of actual performance and accomplishment, with optics illuminating and brightening actuality.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

As long as the horse is in front of the cart, you will be OK in the conscious application of optics to your world. But overdone, optics can easily lose their positive impact and become occasions of disbelief or ridicule. You can only have so many preferred partners, so many customers of the year, so many employees of the month. Not every accomplishment merits a pizza party, or a press release, or a personal introduction to the customer’s CEO.

Stay grounded in authenticity, relative impact, and thoughtful intentions for engaging in a situation’s optics. Never create optics around a hope or intention. Never announce an outcome that is merely a hope or a plan or a target. Always wait for the accomplishment before recognizing its architects or working staff. The deck hand calling out “Land ho!” is not the same as wading ashore in the New World.

And if you succumb to the pressure that makes it attractive to create an optic to deflect attention away from inaction in a priority environment, or failure in basic execution of normal expectations, look over your shoulder, all day, every day, until the end of time. Buzzards will be coming for you. And I will be cheering them on.

OPTICS AT THE END OF THE DAY

So, as with so many things, optics can be a tool for good or the tool of those who are on a path to abuse. Created well, with proper intent, they can make our work lives richer and fuller, and more rewarding. Created with an intent to distort, misinform, or obfuscate, they can diminish us. How we use optics is up to us—to you, to me, to our leaders. We owe it to one another to call out those who choose the wrong path.

Art van Bodegraven is, among other roles, chief design officer for the DES Leadership Academy; he can be reached at (614) 893-9414 or avan@columbus. rr.com. His website is www.artvanbodegraven.com.