Identity and Direction Setting, commonly referred to as Strategic Planning, is the process by which a business establishes its identity and what it is trying to achieve.
In this interview, we are talking with Yvonne Garcia, the founder of Trillium Technology Solutions, about how she uses Identity and Direction Setting to create and sustain health in her own as well as her clients’ businesses.
M: What do you do?
Y: I’m a business consultant. My specialty is helping people integrate information and technology to achieve their goals.
M: What kinds of products and services do you provide to your clients?
Y: Generally speaking, I create systems that assist with data collection, dissemination, or workflow management. These are the broad categories my work falls into.
While every solution I create is unique, my overarching goal with all of my clients is to create systems that help people share information or data and turn that information into knowledge. So it’s not just about compiling or disseminating information – it’s about making information useful.
M: What role does identity and direction setting play in your work with clients?
Y: It plays a very important role. When I begin working with a new client, I never start with technology. Instead, I take a more holistic approach. I like stepping back from the technology and saying, “OK, who are you as a business? What do you want to accomplish? What tools can we put in place to support that?” These tools could be strategic planning, process improvement, better training, or technology.
If my clients are not clear on their broader objectives, I may say to them, “We aren't at the point where we’re talking about the computer yet. What we are talking about is your business ecology.” And if technology isn’t the answer, which it isn’t always, I will work with them on discovering what it is that they really need to achieve their goals.
M: Beginning with these bigger questions helps you determine the exact nature of your clients’ problems?
Y: Correct. Sometimes this approach will reveal that the problem actually is not technological. And if it is a technological problem, starting with the bigger picture is critical, because if you don’t know who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish, the technology is not going to be as efficient or effective as it could be.
It’s often the case that, in working on a technological system, the client can’t decide exactly what they want something to do. When this happens, we go back to “Who are you as a business? What are you trying to accomplish?” And asking these questions adds clarity. It’s the structure, or framework to go back to. Even when we get down to nitty-gritty details, to something you might think is unrelated to these broader questions, if we can’t figure out how something should work, we step back out and then drill back inwards.
M: So identity and direction setting can help to resolve even the smallest technological problems?
Y: To some extent, yes. Obviously, there are technical problems that are simply true technical problems that require specific troubleshooting and tools to fix. What I’m talking about in this scenario, however, is still in the realm of defining what the client’s systems should do.
For example, I’m working with a client to create a system that tracks all of their research projects and associated tasks and meetings. As we define the various features of the solution, they realize they could track all of the departmental meetings in this solution. While it is technically possible, once we go back to the definition of what they do (manage research projects) and the information they want out of the system (data specific to research projects), then we see that while the other feature would be nice, it is not essential to accomplishing their specific goals.
And in this sense, you see how identity can be self-organizing. Once you’ve established a clear identity, it becomes more apparent what processes and technologies will help you achieve your organizational goals.
M: Let’s say you have clarified identity and direction setting, and you know you need to improve your technology systems. What’s the next step?
Y: The next step is to determine what end results you want from your systems. It’s that Steven Covey phrase: “Begin with the end in mind.” What do you want to see on your screen, or be holding in your hand at the end of the day? That becomes critical when we start looking at the technology aspect.
And then, after you have defined the need, you can look at what your solution options are. There are generally three approaches to solutions: keeping the systems you already have and learning how to use them better; buying something that’s already been created; or developing a customized system. In addition, there can be some hybrid of these three.
M: Your specialty is creating customized database solutions, but you bring to this a holistic approach and a broad array of solutions.
Y: Correct.
M: You mentioned the concept of identity being self-organizing. Is there anything else you’d like to say about this?
This is something that I think about often. I’m a firm believer that the identities we establish for ourselves – at work or at home – either hurt us or hinder us. When we have clarity about who we are and what we are trying to accomplish, then the choices we need to make in every day life tend to be self-evident. When we lack this clarity, it becomes very difficult to know how to take even the smallest of actions.
M: What advice would you give people about how to find this clarity?
Y: I think it helps to look at who we say we are, or who we say we want to be, and then compare that with the environment, or ecology around us. Ideally, the two would match up. But often they are incongruent.
So it can help to ask, “Who am I? Am I being reflected around myself?” or, “Who are we as a business? Is that reflected in our offices and what we’re doing and trying do do?” If we can answer these questions truthfully, then our identity and actions become more harmonious, and we achieve success in whatever we are aiming to accomplish.
M: It strikes me that maybe it’s not always easy to answer these questions accurately. We sometimes see ourselves differently than we really are – whether on the personal or business level.
Y: That’s true. For example, if I say, “OK, customer service is really important,” but everything I’m putting out there is about increasing my bottom line, then maybe I am not being entirely honest with who I am and what I am trying to accomplish. Right?
So you may need to go back and clarify your identity. If you decide that customer service really is important, and you have faith that by focusing on that, the bottom line is, to some extent, going to take care of itself, then you can build in processes that are more supportive to letting you help your customer.
M: And having an outsider’s perspective could be helpful in situations like this!
Y: That’s why I like to do what I do. Because sometimes just having a conversation with someone with a different perspective can help people get clear and then everything else just falls in place.
M: What role has identity and direction setting played in the development of your own business?
Y: That’s an interesting question, because my identity has evolved over time. And by identity I mean both what I do and how I label myself as a business.
I started off by offering and marketing a very focused skill set: customized database solutions. And my business at the time was called “Digital Diva.” It was a fun name, and made an impression on people, but did not really reflect who I was or what I did.
While I continue to specialize in customized databases, my business has expanded to encompass a holistic approach that enables me to offer a range of services and products to my clients. I chose my new name with the intent that it reflect this new approach and clearly communicate who I am and what I do.
Y: Can you say more about your new name?
My business card reads: Trillium Technology Solutions: Integrating People, Data and Technology. This name and tagline works well for me because it reflects both my specific skills in the area of technology as well as the more holistic and organic approach that I bring to my work.
I have the words “Technology Solutions” in my name, because I wanted it to be clear that I’m a solutions provider. If somebody has a particular problem, especially around technology, we have solutions. This says a lot more than, for example “technology services” or “technology consulting.”
The word “Trillium” and my tagline “integrating people, data and technology” both reflect the holistic approach I bring to my work.
I have often asked myself, “Do I identify as a company that provides database solutions?” That is my specialty, but if I identify that way, for example, if my company tagline is “creating customized database solutions,” that is what I will become. I will get clients who are interested in just that. The tagline “Integrating People, Data and Technology” is a very different approach.
M: It more accurately reflects what you have to offer.
Y: Exactly. It opens up what I can offer, and what people expect of me. When people see my business card it will click with them. Because they know they have people and data in their business. And they know that they are not using the technology the way they could be using it to get the most out of everything.
So this tagline automatically makes them step back and consider their business as a whole, rather than just, “I have a computer problem.”
M: And how did you choose the word “Trillium?”
Y: The Trillium is one of my favorite flowers. It is a white flower with three petals that grows in shady, wet forests and blooms in the springtime. I’ve always enjoyed going on walks and finding it first thing in the spring.
“Trillium” and “Technology” – together – represent what I do. I bring an organic process to technology, where my focus isn’t on the remote, detached part of computers. It’s about making them this secondary flow and adding a bit of humanness to it. And it’s about seeing technology as part of a greater whole in the organization.
The Trillium means a lot to me. And I wanted a name that I related to, that I could identify with. I wanted my name to reflect that I am more than just a computer geek and to have a deeper connection for me personally. So this is what the word “Trillium” does – it represents the less techy and more personal, human side of me and my business.
M: The name “Trillium Technology Solutions” also sets you apart because it is unusual. “Technology Solutions” is not as distinctive.
Y: Absolutely. That’s my identifying stance.
And also, the Trillium creates an interesting visual that reflects what I do. The Trillium has three flowers, which represent the basic building blocks of my work: people, data, and technology. Beneath and between the petals are three leaves, which show how I bring people, data and technology together. I try to integrate data and technology. I aim to make an intuitive fit between technology and people. And I try to have the interaction between people and data (via technology) lead to intelligence. So integration, intuition and intelligence are the leaves between the petals. And finally, the space around the flower is what I label the “business ecology” or the larger purpose of the organization.
Mira Ames is an editor, writer and communications consultant. For the past three years, she has worked with Sara Grigsby and Healthy Systems on a variety of projects, including editing and helping to write training manuals on Meeting Management and Facilitation, as well as Project Management. She takes great pleasure in helping her clients use the written word to express with clarity and depth what matters most to them. Mira is also a professionally trained facilitator and mediator, has a J.D. from Suffolk Law School in Boston, and is a member of the Oregon State Bar.
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