Nothing occurs by accident. Everything has a purpose and flows with it. It is up to you to realize this. Once you understand action, what motivates it and what drives the actions of others, you are ready to navigate the whitewaters of the Brook of life. The Framework for Purposeful Action shows you how.
The Framework dissects action into twelve steps that apply equally to your personal and professional life. These twelve steps are organized in three phases:
- Forming the Mission for Action
- Performing the Action
- Reinforcing the Action
The first phase covers three steps. Using the metaphor of the archer, this phase expresses the desire to hunt, the spotting of the target and the aiming of the arrow.
Introspection is the search for resonance–to discover the dream that represents a state to which one aspires. One reaches within to find the vision for action. Enlightened leadership starts with this step.
In extrospection, one looks outside to reconcile the vision with the world. This is called ‘gap analysis’ in business–finding a need. It includes an assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Entrepreneurship starts with this step.
Once the internal vision is reconciled with the external world, a mission is formed and commitment is made to the mission. Management starts with this step.
Listen to an excerpt from my lecture on purposeful action for quality improvement (2:28): What is Purposeful Action?
Look for additional excerpts in future posts.