A World in Flux

The structure of the economic world is changing in fundamental ways. We are familiar with some of these changes. National economies are submerging within the larger global economy. There are fewer purely national companies or national products as the content of everything from computers to cars to airplanes becomes internationalized. At least seventy percent of U.S. products and services face international competition.

The relationship of raw materials, labor, capital and information in the production of any good or service is transforming constantly, with an increasing emphasis on the information content. Both the sources and the skill level of labor are changing. The lifecycle of virtually every product and service is decreasing. This list could go on — add your own dynamics for your industry group.

The bottom line is that flux, turmoil, rapid change and globalization are the new normal state of the economy. It is difficult to see how this might revert to a steady-state. How, then, can a business enterprise survive, even flourish, in such a world?

Getting Un-Stuck

The most significant action is to develop a new image of the future. People, companies, cities, even whole nations have an image of the future, but sometimes get stuck in the past. When the image of the future is primarily an image of the past, change becomes more difficult and resistance to change becomes greater. The trap we are all susceptible to is that the more successful we have been in the past, the more reluctant we are to let go of that old image. When faced with difficulty or uncertainty, we yearn for the good old days and wonder how to recreate them.

Your own businesses may be stuck in an old way of managing, or in an old approach to quality control, or in processes and procedures which have been computerized but not really improved. You may adopt some new techniques, and talk the language of participative management, or of total quality management and yet see only superficial improvement. To dig deeper you’ve got to change your image of your own future — your vision.

The Power of Vision

Vision sounds like such a soft concept that many in business consider it with suspicion. Can vision really contribute to the bottom line? There is evidence that vision is not only helpful, but essential.

One recent study done at Stanford University finds that “visionary” companies have outperformed Wall Street since 1920 by a factor of 50. As Donald Povejsil, retired VP for corporate planning at Westinghouse puts it, “Vision is the linchpin of strategic management; there’s no other conclusion you can reach after a while.” Where members of an organization have a compelling vision, and where that vision is used as a rallying point, you see decisions, performance and motivation affected throughout the organization.

In my own consulting experience, where clients have developed, affirmed and used a compelling vision, there have been phenomenal results. One client which developed a 15-year vision and strategic plan, concluded after two years that they were closer to their vision than to their starting point. They counted millions in additional revenue and saw a “quantum leap” in organizational openness to change.

Another company had worked for three years on continuous quality improvement with some success. But, once they stopped to develop and commit to a vision of what they wanted to accomplish through quality processes, they leaped from 40% on-time delivery of service to nearly 100% on-time delivery.

Having a compelling and understood sense of direction makes a huge difference. If you like this idea, you immediately face three questions — What vision is, what vision is not, and how you might create vision?

WHAT VISION IS

A vision is a compelling description of your preferred future. Such a vision is typically expressed in words, sometimes with pictures or other symbols. The level of detail may vary from a few words to very complex.

Magnetic

However expressed, a vision has to be magnetic. People in your company ought to feel drawn toward the vision. A vision about which people say, “Who cares,” is not sufficiently attractive. If you are going to create and communicate a vision, you want something about which people say, “Wow, that makes a difference. I would like to work on that.” When Steve Jobs co-founded Apple, the vision was, “to make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind.” The language may have been a bit awkward, but the image was compelling and many creative people were drawn to it.

Transformative

A powerful vision ought to have reach, ought to represent a future in which things would be transformed for the better when the vision is accomplished. To reach for a vision is to leap beyond the routine of today. When McCaw (now AT&T) Cellular said, “Imagine no limits,” they communicated an abstract vision with great reach, a vision which would be transformative if accomplished. The state of Washington adopted a vision for education of a “World Class school system in which all students learn.” This too would represent a transformation.

Flexible

A useful vision must be flexible. It ought to change as your company moves toward it, because the world will constantly change. In this sense a vision is not so much a statement written on stone. Instead it is a continuous conversation, in which people are constantly asking, “Where are we going, why do we want to go there, where are we now, and what are we doing next?”

Leverage Point for Change

If you want to change your organization, change its image of the preferred future. Both folk wisdom and research affirm that we tend to move toward and become like that which we think about. If your company’s image of the future is confused, you will probably behave in confused ways. If your image is clear, compelling and flexible, you will be more likely to behave in clear, flexible and strategic ways.

With you in the Present

The vision is of the future, but it is not really “out there.” Instead, think of the vision as a holistic field of energy which surrounds you in the present. You have to see the vision happening, in the minds eye, all the time.

Undergirded by Values

While a vision tells you where you want to go, behind it are values which tell you why you want to go toward the vision and how you want to behave as you proceed. Articulating these values clearly and overtly will greatly aid in the pursuit of a vision.

WHAT VISION IS NOT

There are a variety of concepts which are not vision.

Not Annual Problem Solving

Annual planning is known to virtually every American organization. Such planning typically centers around comparisons to last year’s goals, the identification of current problems, and the development of some new goals based on these two analyses. Such planning does not result in a vision as I am defining here.

Not Predictions

A very common error regarding vision is to assume that vision is somehow a prediction of the future. When using this definition, people typically make predictions and prepare strategies to deal with their predictions. Such extrapolation of the present into the future may have value in helping people see certain options, but more often than not produces plans designed to create a more efficient past rather than a truly new future. In addition, in a world in flux, predictions are inherently unreliable.

Not Mission

There is confusion between the concepts of mission and vision. Vision is a description of the preferred future. Mission is a clear description of the organization’s purpose or reason for being, today.

Since mission is a more familiar concept, I have seen many companies use mission as a substitute for vision. I think they are best kept separate. As organizations try to be more visionary, I have seen them re-write their mission statement to reflect their ideal of what they would like to be. When this happens they end up with a mission which neither describes the preferred future very well, nor does it capture what the organization is about. People read it and say, “This is not really who we are.” Only more confusion results.

Not Wishful Thinking

Though a vision describes the preferred future, it ought not be just a list of wishes. To be a powerful, magnetic force the vision must communicate a refined, heartfelt sense of what people yearn for, tempered by an understanding of the forces shaping the future.

HOW TO CREATE VISION

Does vision come from a powerful individual, the company founder perhaps? Or does vision come from the collective of people who make up the organization? Either can work. What matters is whether the vision is shared, understood and committed to. The process of creating vision, or “preferred futuring,” involves a variety of activities which share these characteristics.

Explore the Probable, Possible, and Preferred Future

The process must at some point enable examination of, and play with, three questions: What is probable in the future? What is possible? What future do we prefer?

Done “in” the Future

To really experience the preferred future, and from that to articulate a vision, the process must enable you to step mentally out of the present and into the future. In other words, at some point you must somehow travel in time to the future and describe it in the present tense, as though you are actually seeing it. There are techniques for doing this and when done well they provide a powerful experience.

Combines the Past and Future

If you don’t go far enough back in memory and far enough ahead in hope, your present view will be limited. A complete effort to think through vision will include a look at your history, so that you can decide upon the best features to take with you into the future.

Provides “Look Back” Perspective

If you succeed in stepping into the future, from that perspective you can “look back” at today. By asking, “What did we do back there (the present) which enabled us to end up here (the preferred future)” you can acquire a powerful insight into strategy and action planning.

Creative Tension Between Future and Present

An effective vision process, and vision statement, produces creative tension as people compare where they are now to where they want to be. The tension has to be just right — too much and people will get discouraged, too little and people won’t care.

Process is Critical

Ultimately the goal of a vision-based planning effort is not to create a wonderful plan. Rather, the goal is to foster a daily stream of wise decisions, in the pursuit of strategic directions. The organizational where this occurs will have vision as its linchpin.