Business
Does Your Passion Match Your Aspiration? Rosabeth Moss Kanter
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eaders who create extraordinary new possibilities are passionate about their mission and tenacious in pursuit of it. Many people have good ideas, but many fewer are willing to put themselves on the line for them. Passion separates good intentions and opportunism from real accomplishments. Dr. Donald Berwick, my colleague and friend, was nominated last year by President Obama to head Medicare and Medicaid. Originally a paediatrician, Don Berwick passionately wanted to improve health outcomes for patients. He envisioned applying TQM (Total Quality Management) tools from manufacturing to health care. Entrenched interests with closed doors and minds didn’t deter him. Eventually, through the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the small organization he founded, he reached thousands of hospitals, hundreds of thousands of practitioners, and millions of patients over two decades.
your aspirations, try these 12 questions. 1. Do I feel strongly about the need for this? 2. Does the idea fit my long-held beliefs, values, and convictions? 3. Have I dreamed about something like this for a long time? 4. Do I think that this is vital for the future of people I care about? 5. Do I get excited when I think about it, and convey excitement when I talk about it? 6. Am I convinced that this can be accomplished? 7. Am I willing to put my credibility on the line to promise action on it?
Don knew this would be a long journey against hardened resistance but never veered off course. Now, as the Administrator of the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services, he can guide an entire huge system — a high proportion of the U.S. economy — toward better health at lower cost, zero defects, and more lives saved. He exudes not just vision but personal passion for the cause.
8. Am I willing to spend time to sell it to others who might not understand or support it?
Energy entrepreneur and green innovator Jim Gordon is equally passionate about Cape Wind. For 10 years Gordon has been fighting to get the permits for America’s first offshore wind power generator and the world’s largest offshore wind farm. In May 2010, he got the final approval and with the approval, a new source of power for the most densely populated region of North America will happen because Jim Gordon’s passion matched his aspiration.
10. Am I willing to devote personal time, above and beyond organizational time, to see that this happens?
Are you the next Don Berwick or Jim Gordon? Or perhaps you’re more like the executive who interviewed for a staff member “to do my part to make the world a better place.”
12. Am I committed to seeing this through, over the long haul?
To determine whether your passion matches 26
TIMELESS
success, but without it, the journey can’t even begin.
9. Can I make this the major focus of my activities?
11. Do I feel strongly enough to ignore negativity and fight for this?
Passing the passion test is doesn’t guarantee
JULY 2011
Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, where she specializes in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. Her strategic and practical insights have guided leaders of large and small organizations worldwide for over 25 years, through teaching, writing, and direct consultation to major corporations and governments. The former Editor of Harvard Business Review (19891992), Professor Kanter has been repeatedly named to lists of the “50 most powerful women in the world” (Times of London), and the “50 most influential business thinkers in the world” (Accenture and Thinkers 50 research).