If you have spent time in the salesforce ecosystem, you’re probably familiar with V2MOM. It’s the framework for organizational alignment, assignment, and accountability that Marc Benioff has used at salesforce since it’s inception. While I was leading internal app development for the sales organization, my business partner got me invited to the annual sales kick off event. It was the first SKO I had attended. I remember feeling surprised at how educational, engaging, and diverse the program was for the time (2013 or 2014). Thank you to my colleague Sarah Campbell for sponsoring my participation at the event. A focus of the kick-off event is to co-create the Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures that the company will use to align and guide activities from the presidents across to every leaf in the organizational tree. It’s really something special to behold and I feel so lucky to have participated in these events.

After the post-lunch session on the V2MOM refresh for the year, I was feeling frustrated with something about the process. It was very easy for many of the folks in this room (VPs and above, mostly) to raise an idea and for the participants to say ‘yes’. The Vision became wordy. The Values became muddled. The Methods multiplied. The Obstacles broadened. The Metrics seemed meek. Some ideas were shared, met with disapproving harumph, but then continued their life in side discussions at the coffee table, near the water cooler, and into the evening entertainment events. The organization was big enough that parochial priorities could creep into a region or department’s Methods that didn’t have alignment to the overall company objectives and these would nag my team for the whole year without a sound way to redirect efforts.

At one point in the afternoon of the second day, the program allowed for a short break and the ~300 participants got up from their round tables to hit the coffee stands, restrooms, and approved phone use areas. As I stretched my legs and chatted with a table-mate, I noticed that Marc was standing, unusually solitary, near the center of the carpeted hotel ballroom that served as the kickoff venue. Even at this time, Marc had multiple assistants, about 20 direct reports, and was running the annual kickoff for the biggest, fastest growing software company ever. It was very strange to see him standing alone, taking in the room.

Now, I hadn’t met Marc yet. We’d been in a room together a few times but never met. But, there he is, just standing there, unoccupied. I approached and we exchanged smiles, handshakes, and introductions. He made a light-hearted pop music reference about my name. I smiled, stifled a pop tv reference about his name and got to my requestion(tm). “Marc, I’ve been thinking about the V2MOM and I’m unclear about something”.

“Oh, what can I help clarify?” he said.

“Well, it’s a terrific framework for aligning us with what we are going to do. The track record is outstanding for it as a unifying reference at scale for any size organization. I see two areas where it could be improved.” The look Marc wore at this point would be generously characterized as surprise. I wasn’t looking for clarity about the content of the latest V2MOM; I was questioning something about its structure altogether.

“It’s good to document the Obstacles we expect to encounter in pursuit of achieving the Measures related to a Method. But, it’s not about resolving the risk.”, Marc said.

“What if each person’s Obstacle could become someone else’s Method to help clear the path for their colleague’s success?”, I said.

“Well, the Obstacles are there for people to acknowledge there will be some adversity on their journey. They’re not supposed to be something that needs to be overcome, it’s more for awareness.” Marc said. And then paused. “Do you know Jim?”, he asked me, referring to Marc’s longtime collaborator Jim Cavalieri. “You should bring this up with Jim.”, he decided.

Whoa. I did know Jim. I knew that if my idea landed well enough for Marc to want Jim’s awareness, then I was on a good path. “Thanks, Marc. I will.” 

More on the Obstacle thread in a future missive…

I continued, “Secondly, I think we’re missing an opportunity to be explicit about what’s been proposed but was not ranked highly and determined to be off the list. We should be assertive about what we’re not going to do instead of individuals and teams inferring it. Let’s add a list of intentional omissions.”

Whew, that was it. I remember feeling excitement and relief in that moment because I had completed a crisp, substantive, spontaneous exchange with the chairman. I have no recollection of Marc’s reaction to my second suggestion as the break drew to a close and we all resumed our regularly scheduled program.

Fast forward 7-8 years. I’m no longer at salesforce. I’m leading the IT and business systems functions at a scale-up SaaS company as a customer of salesforce. I’ve had some excellent sales and success partners representing salesforce while I’ve been a customer including Brande Melton, Eric Sawall, Samaneh Pourjalali, Adam Durand, and Jeanne Koskella. I share this anecdote about my first unsolicited 1:1 with Marc with my partners at salesforce so there’s a shared awareness about my familiarity with the organization and its operations.

The salesforce annual leadership summits have become famously open and collaborative with the global salesforce staff with video and chat streamed in the room and around the world. Jeanne tells me that during the 2021 SKO event, Marc had introduced Omissions to the company as a way of articulating what the leadership team has agreed not to do for the upcoming year.

So, it’s valuable to expand your network because you’ll have more exposure to novel situations. Deeply engage and partake in the culture of an organization to experience the values they expose and become fluent in that language. Evolutions of powerful concepts may take time but can have revolutionary impacts. Shoot your shot, even if you miss, you’ve started a stat line for yourself to build from.

Whether you found this story intriguing, inspiring, inflammatory, or indifferent, Kumonami is pleased to connect with you to find the strategic Omission, Obstacle marketplace, or other structural upgrade lying in wait to incite your organization to surge.