Wayne Dyer, widely known for his new-agey and somewhat metaphysical teachings on self-development, is also known as the “father of motivation.”
In a very real sense this highly aphoristic spiritual guru and author of more than 30 books has a lot to say about the business and outsourcing mindset.
Much of what Dyer says boils down to knowing and trusting yourself, accepting yourself and in his words, making yourself “available for success.” Those are important guideposts in the business arena as well.
One of his most famous books, The Power of Intention (2005) is used by students and workers to further their careers and businesses. Dyer holds a Doctorate in Educational Counseling from Wayne State University and was an associate professor at St. John’s University in New York.
Intention is often described as a fierce determination propelling one to succeed at all costs by never giving up on an inner picture. In this view, an attitude that combines hard work with an indefatigable drive toward excellence is the way to succeed.
Dyer says there’s more to it than that. For him intention is a force that allows the act of creation to take place. His book explores intention—not necessarily as something you do, but as a form of energy that’s actualized and controlled through creativity, expansion, receptivity and kindness.
Well, I did mention that there’s a lot of the spiritual and metaphysical in Dyer’s teaching! But to bring this back to Earth and Vested Outsourcing, the Vested approach is based on creative collaboration and trust, receptiveness to change, expansion through innovation and incentives, and kindness by “playing nice.”
And one of the first things that outsourcing teams do as they establish a Vested relationship is to jointly draft a Shared Vision and then distill that vision in a joint Statement of Intent. These are the necessary building blocks of a Vested agreement, setting the larger guiding principles for the relationship.
The parties at this point understand the business at hand and align their objectives for the work ahead. But sharing intentions is not easy and requires a flexible and receptive mindset. The Statement of Intent builds the foundation for the agreement to go forward by defining how the parties will work together under the agreement and how they will behave once the agreement is documented.
The elements that go into crafting the Shared Vision and Statement of Intent are detailed in The Vested Outsourcing Manual.
It’s not quite a spiritual or metaphysical process, but the Vested approach and Statement of Intent does create the spirit and energy that drives the Vested partnership and makes it “available for success,” or as I call it, “getting to we” for the win-win.