Our work with enterprise clients is usually about helping them to make and take a decision to change some aspect of:
- what they do,
- how they think,
- how they run their business or
- their business plans.
In essence we are helping them to take decisions that are ‘hopeful’. The decisions, if acted upon, hold the potential (not guaranteed) to make things better.
‘Hope’ is the essence of the enterprise professionals offer. Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life. Hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had.
Yet in my experience many enterprise professionals are pragmatists and realists – sometimes uncomfortable when talking about ‘hope’. After all, “hope is not a plan”. They encourage their clients to be ‘realistic’ – in essence to be less hopeful and optimistic – about what they might be able to achieve.
Yet hope and optimism provide the basic motive force for human endeavour. The generate the commitment that makes progress possible. When we diminish hope and optimism we are diminishing our chances of creating a more enterprising culture.