Rethinking Hope as a Strategy

The origin of the statement is unclear. The best guess is sometime during the mid 20th century. Most of us have heard the phrase before. The pointed jab from an adversary, used to disarm the opponent, leaving them defenseless in their response. Often used to bring someone’s ideas or perceived lack of ideas to their knees, the words, when weaponized, have a neutralizing effect on all it encounters. The phrase: “Hope is not a strategy.”

           As an author I am becoming increasingly fascinated with the casual nature of the words we use. While research shows the actual words we use play a limited role in our daily communication compared to the tone and emotion applied to those words, the words still matter. For example, one word forced upon the world of late is “essential”. An innocent word meaning necessary and important has now separated our world into two groups, those that matter and those that don’t. The relentless use of this word has led to the unintended consequence of lowering the self-worth for those who happen to work in a job labeled as “non-essential”. Right or wrong, people attach a portion of their identity and self-worth to what they do. To label a job as non-essential is to label a person as non-essential. Words matter.

Back to where we started, the idea of hope not being a strategy. The word hope is one of those words with multiple meanings. For many, the word is the idea of a future desire or wish for some certain thing to happen: “I hope we get the contract.” A more meaningful look at the word, however, brings you face-to-face with the idea of a confident expectation: “There is great hope for the future.”

For me, the latter is the more important definition. As a culture nerd I have become a keen observer of people. By definition, culture is the way people think, feel, and act. Every organization has a culture no matter if you know it or not. Additionally, your culture is perfectly aligned to achieve the outcomes you are achieving today. Bottom line, people make up the culture and the culture delivers results, good and bad.

So, what does culture have to do with hope? Everything. Peter Drucker said it in the 70’s, “Culture will eat strategy for breakfast.” The reason for Drucker’s comment is simple, leaders too often forget the actual doing part of any strategy is accomplished by people. How people think and feel impacts how they “do strategy.” How people think and feel drives what they do, and what they do delivers a result. So, should a person think and feel life is “hope-less” then their behavior will be reflected in how they execute any strategy.

Let’s be clear about one aspect of people. It is possible to move people, regardless how they think and feel, toward an outcome by muscling the result. Frequently referred to as command-and-control culture, muscling the result is a common tactic used by leaders in times of crisis or when there is a lack of authentic influence by the leader. When a leader lacks influence they rely on process, at times disproportionate amounts of process, to get anything done. The suggestion of an overly processed organization can be a leading indicator of a crack in the culture. A closer look will most likely reveal evidence of the lack of authentic influence from key leaders.

On the other hand, in times of crisis, confusion is a natural occurrence during the first moments. The perceptive leader will sense the need for clarity during these moments and lean into “muscle mode” as a way to craft a clear direction. In this instance, the muscling of results is more a course alignment story to ensure everyone is clear on the path forward. The key for this leader is the nuance of the narrative. How they tell the story and how long they stay in muscle mode is important. Staying too long in muscle mode, and leaders begin to over process; not staying long enough and confusion reappears.

People moving towards a common goal is the outcome of every culture. People self-engaged and delivering consistent results is a sign of a healthy culture. Having to remain in muscle mode for long, continuous periods of time is evidence of a culture with cracks. How people choose to engage is driven by how they think and feel toward what they are being asked to accomplish. For the most part, we take in two types of stories throughout our day which shape our thoughts and feelings: stories of fear or stories of hope.

It is interesting to note, the narrative which consumes us tends to control us, driving the bulk of our engagement and behavior. The fear story, while effective in getting people to move, has a long-term diminishing return. To prevent the fear threat from fading, the story-teller is required to maintain and even increase the intensity of the fear to perpetuate the desired engagement from people. The fear story often has the feeling of, do it or else, as the common theme. Make no mistake, the fear story is a powerful stimulus for people. The downside, however, is that there are consequences with long-term fear stories as culture drivers.

On the other hand, the hope story, grounded in the idea of confident expectation, taps into a core part of what my friend Dr. Jason Jones refers to as our “Intrinsic Values.” When a person senses hope, they connect a confident future to a present state, creating meaning in the moment. Meaning, fueled by hope, is a powerful, self-selecting, internal motivator of people.

In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl revealed that our search for meaning happens in our work, our relationships, and in our suffering. It is in our suffering, which we all experience, “that is in and of itself meaningless unless we give it meaning by the way we chose to respond” (Frankl, 2006). When we suffer with courage, we develop what Dr. Angela Duckworth refers to as perseverance in her book Grit, The Power of Passion and Perseverance. The perseverance muscle, which is a cornerstone to resilience, over time, strengthens our character. It’s our character, defined by Dr. Fred Kiel in his book Return on Character, that is expressed in four behaviors- integrity, responsibility, forgiveness, and compassion that produces hope. And our hope does not disappoint.

For me, over the years my faith has shaped my ability to not only have hope for the future but also to be hopeful in the moment. My hope in a confident assurance allows me to extend hope towards fallible people, myself at the front of that list. It is possible to have hope in those we follow and to be hopeful in tomorrow. It is my belief, for what it is worth, that people, deep inside, desire hope.

So, as a leader, what story are you telling? Is it a story of fear or a story of hope? As a follower, what story is consuming you? What consumes you controls you, it is either fear or hope. The good news, you are in control of choosing your story. For both leader and follower, consider these three anchors as you write your story. 

Hope is anchored by a Sincere, Clear, and Compassionate story.

·   The sincere story is grounded in a sincere integrity and gratefulness for life.

·   The clear story is grounded in personal accountability for simple, consistent outcomes.

·   The compassionate story is grounded in courageous generosity and relentless kindness towards others.

A culture built on fear is exhausting, but one built on hope produces meaning and purpose. We can choose to be victims, consumed and controlled by our circumstances or we can find meaning in our current moment. After multiple millennia of highs and lows, we have proven over and over, our ability to rise above our circumstances and persevere. We learn, we grow, and we move onward. We fall down and our neighbor picks us up and together we continue forward. We chose to thrive, not out of a spirit of fear, but out of a spirit of hope. So maybe, just maybe, it is time to rethink the idea of hope as a strategy. I think we need to accept that hope can, in fact, be a strategy in and of itself. After all, there is great hope for the future!