How to articulate a vision for your organisation
It is so easy for an organisation to busy itself with daily activities that it can become oblivious to its future, without reflecting or envisaging what can happen, without a vision or a sense of direction. Your organisation may be active in the short term; but, without a vision of the future, it will lose direction, purpose, and control - those essential ingredients for success in the long term. Here is one way of articulating for your organisation a vision linking values, purpose, and mission...
1. Get ‘vision’ in context.
Visionary organisations have two distinct, stand-out features - an enduring character that transcends all other things like products, bosses, management fads, and technological breakthroughs; and visible, vivid, real futures as yet unrealised. Vision helps to bring those two features to life. In 'Leaders', Warren Bennis and Bert Nanus defined an organisational vision as:
'A mental image of a possible and desirable state of the organisation - a view of a realistic, credible, attractive future for the organisation, a condition that is better in some important ways than what now exists.'
2. Understand the contributing factors.
In 'Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies', James Collins and Jerry Porras identified three components that contribute to the articulation of a vision:
- The core values - the 3 to 5 guiding principles important to those in the organisation.
- The core purpose - the organisation’s reason for being, its raison d’être.
- A desired future (or mission) - a clear, compelling, unifying and enduring statement that you believe distinguishes your organisation from others, a catalyst for team spirit.
By reflecting on these three areas, you will be well on the way to articulating your organisation’s vision; that is, a vibrant, energising, and specific description of what it will be like to achieve your mission.
3. Isolate core values.
Only a few values can be considered as ‘core’ - those that define what you stand for - and are likely to be meaningful and inspirational only to those in the organisation. Ask a small selection of highly credible representatives from groups within your organisation such questions as these:
- If you were to start a new organisation in a different line of work, what core values would you build into the business regardless of the industry?
- If you won the lottery and decided to retire, what core values, held in our organisation, would you continue to live by?
- What would you tell your children are the core values that you hold at work and that you hope they will hold when they are working adults?
