Author and management consultant Peter Block once defined a vision as “a dream created in our waking hours of how we would like our lives to be.” In fact, the word “vison” comes from the Latin word “videre” which means “to see.” It is a picture of the future that we wish to create.
When creating a vision, it is important to articulate it in the present tense. There is a certain dissonance and even a feeling of being uncomfortable when you say you are “something” and you know that you are not. If a vision is expressed in future terms (i.e. “we will do this”), it becomes too easy to say that capability is far into the future and we don’t have to begin thinking, feeling or doing anything that is consistent with our vision.
Feeling uncomfortable when creating a vision is actually the way that one should feel. Noted management guru, Tom Peters, called creating a vision a very “messy artistic process.”
So how does one go about creating a vision – or as I like to refer to it, your personal “impossible dream?”
One begins by asking this question – What would we like to see our company offering, providing or meeting five years from now as it relates to…?
- Customers
- Services
- Organization and employees
- Professionalism
- Facilities
- Productivity
- Financial structure
- Standards
- Partnerships / Synergisms
- Communication
- Education
- Not for Profits should add in “Community Needs” and “Volunteer Organization”
Here are some other questions to ponder:
- What would you personally like to see your organization become?
- What kind of customers would it have?
- What sort of processes might it conduct?
- What reputation would it have?
- What contribution would it make?
- What sort of products or services would it produce?
- What values would it embody?
- What mission would it have?
- What would its physical environment look like?
- How would people work together?
- How would people handle good and bad times?
- If you had this sort of organization what would it bring you? How would it allow your own personal vision to flourish?
Answering these questions will allow you to begin to see clearly what needs to be done.
And isn’t that what having a vision is all about?
Strategy Insight 