Creating Vision, Christian Bale Style

(Michael Lewis, speaking of actor extraordinaire Christian Bale’s work to prepare for the hit movie The Big Short, from this interview: A Conversation with Michael Lewis)

"He’s shy. With his talent, he’s like a squirrel with a nut.

"He keeps his talent hidden. Christian Bale doesn’t want to talk about it, but he will. Oh, this blew me away. I told him that I spent a year with Michael Burry—clearly unusual, glass eye, Asperger’s, sitting alone in an office in San Jose, hated by the people he made a fortune for—and I couldn’t have generated the impression [Bale] did. Christian said, 'I spent a day with Burry.' I said, 'OK, a day, that’s not a ton.' Bale went into Burry’s office one morning at 9:00 a.m., sat with him until 6:00 p.m., and didn’t get up for food or to go to the bathroom. Nine straight hours. That was it. At the end of it, he asked for Burry’s T-shirt and shorts, which he wears in the movie.

"So I kept bugging him about how he did it. He was giving me these general answers, and I bothered him so much that he finally said, 'It’s the way he breathes.' I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'He breathes during odd times when he is talking, and a lot of the mannerisms flow from the breath. I started with the breath. If I didn’t have this going, nothing else worked.' 

"This is why he’s Christian Bale. I was thinking: I should be doing this going forward when I am writing about characters. I wish I had known this stuff when I was writing the book."

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As we embark on a new year, clearly communicating vision to all stakeholders is integral to achieving organizational alignment, clarity, employee engagement, and finally, results. How then can Mr. Bale's character study process help us?

First, we need to understand that conceiving vision is not the starting point. Context is needed to design something so important. To help guide you, here are three important definitions, often butchered, erroneously mixed and matched:

• Purpose. "Why does the business exist? What is the difference you're trying to make in people's lives, if not the world?" (Purpose never, ever changes)
• Mission. "The core strategy that fulfills the purpose." (Six to nine months shelf life)
• Vision. "What the purpose looks like fulfilled in the future." (adjust as conditions shift)

As you can see, there can be no vision or mission without overarching purpose, the "Strategic Higher Calling" (SHC) that not only serves as organizational true north, but is also where everything else (strategy, objectives, goals, employee engagement, workplace happiness, etc.) emanates from. And, in my worldview, the most powerful type of purpose is not social responsibility. Rather, it is the aforementioned SHC. (NOTE: There's more to achieving comprehensive organizational fitness beyond these three components, including core obsessions and behaviors, but together they form the necessary foundation)

Insights, which often lead to new truths - and potentially UNprecedented Value that can disrupt entire industries - begins with critically important curiosity, then basic observations. Sadly, that's where most people stop, believing that their scouting efforts are complete. For true visionaries, though, observations are just the beginning. The next step in the vision journey is "seeing what others miss," as Mr. Bale did zoning in on Mr. Burry's breathing. How many of you reading this have recognized exactly how your customer "breathes?"

Do not disparage. There is hope for you yet. Consider the evolution of Ray Kroc.

When Kroc, a marginally successful traveling salesman and future McDonalds President and billionaire, is told early on by  Harry Sonneborn, a financial wiz, "You’re not in the hamburger business; you’re in the  real estate business," Kroc's mind was forced to stretch, envisioning a far more lucrative future than the one he'd been considering. 

The new truth involved creating a real estate company that would buy up (or lease) the land on which all McDonald's would be located. Then, franchisees would pay Kroc a monthly rental fee for the land or a percentage of their sales, whichever was greater. Kroc started the Franchise Realty Corporation in order to execute the plan. As the logic soaked in, Kroc pivots, purchasing the real estate which he then leases back to franchisees.

Moral of the story? Listen intently to others who have honed the vision skill more than yourself - those who are tuned into a different radio station. There's no valor or reward to being the self-professed smartest person in the room, or supposedly the one with the greatest X-ray vision.

Christian Bale and Harry Sonneborn aren't the only ones to have "seen what others missed." Here are a few more examples of business icons who learned how to sharpen the visionary skill in ways that may surprise and enlighten you:

Daniel and Ozzie Silna. In 1976, the NBA decided to absorb four of the remaining seven ABA (rival league) teams. Of the three not chosen, the Kentucky Colonels were paid $3.3 million and folded, while the Virginia Squires were a financial mess, and with no leverage, also folded. That left the Silna's St. Louis Spirits, a viable team expecting an NBA invitation. Angered when snubbed, the Silnas negotiated a different type of buyout; a visionary agreement. First, the Silnas would be paid a total of $2.2 million for Spirits players drafted by NBA teams. Additionally - wait for it - the Silnas would also get a 1/7th share of each of the four former ABA teams’ NBA “visual media” rights. That meant they would receive that share of the NBA’s television revenue in perpetuity, which worked out to roughly $300 million without ever fielding a team, paying player salaries or building an arena! Yes, the brothers foresaw cable television, ESPN, and the growing popularity of the sport. The price to end the deal was a $500 million lump sum payment (in 2014) and a small annual stream of money. Total haul, $800 million (and counting). That's what true vision can do.

Betterment (Jon Stein) and WealthFront (Dan Carroll & Andy Rachleff). It's a fact: Millennials do not trust their parent's financial advisors, or the process and associated legacy system. Enter "robo-investing," offering a more third millennium-centric experience, providing advanced personal control, not to mention algorithms that appear to rival their human counterparts (financial advisors) expertise - without the high cost (4X less). In fact, Betterment states on their home page, "On average, our investing principles can increase returns by 2.66% when compared to the typical investor." As for WealthFront, let their Purpose statement soak in: "To help democratize access to sophisticated financial advice." Ask yourself, why didn't the nation's largest wealth advisory firms see this enormous opportunity and react accordingly?

Tesla, Inc.'s Gigafactory. Dumb like a fox, Elon Musk is. Why would Tesla release its electric car IP to the marketplace years before their patents would expire? Because they want as many electric cars on the road as possible. Why? Because, many feel, Musk has built the largest battery factory in the world in Nevada to supply all of those cars with the renewable energy they need to run. In short, he saw the bigger picture right from the beginning.

Meeting with business owners and CEOs monthly, I routinely ask about their respective organizations' vision. More often than not, they shoot from the hip, sharing punchless, soulless mantras like "$50 million in 10 years," and "To be known as the top thought leaders in our industry." Ugh.

Additionally, many entrepreneurs tend to cultivate a romantic self-image of being "dreamers," anointing themselves as King and Queen visionaries. After all, they took the EOS test, and it confirms their vision status! Hogwash. More often than not - based on my four decades of experience in senior level positions - that type of "visionary" desires the title for two selfish reasons.

First, it sounds sexy, and these folks are all about inventing and protecting self-image. Second, execution of all the requisite, messy details of running a business, including all of the people "stuff," scares them (or they're just lazy), and they usually have no track record in the operations area. They abhor the "heavy lifting." In short, they only want to be responsible for what's "easy" with little to no accountability. Double ugh.

Remember, peering into the look glass through new, "broader" lenses is paramount to designing world-class vision. What can you see that others miss? What is aspirational but still attainable, something people can become passionate about pursuing? Don't overthink it. Consider that Chick-fil-A unevened the fast food industry's competitive playing field by operationalizing a corporate purpose as simple as politeness:

"How may I serve you today," "Please," "Thank you," and "My pleasure." 

Results? In 2018 they sold more chicken than KFC - a first - and currently enjoy the highest revenue/store in a highly competitive industry. Their senior management envisioned a future where obsessing over kindness and common courtesy would deliver uncommon results. So far, so good. Yes?

Christian Bale analyzed the soft nuances of Michael Burry, curious and driven to identify what was at the man's core, using his findings to deliver a remarkable performance in a hit movie. Leaders should heed this "vision cue," spending time first designing organizational purpose, and only then working on vision.

People deserve to know not only why the company exists, but where it's going, too.