The blog

The vision, as all the oth­er parts of the man­age­ment process, is a pow­er­ful tool that can play a deci­sive role for the busi­ness, even on an aver­age workday. 

There

As I see it, the vision describes the future sit­u­a­tion, where we want to be as a com­pa­ny. The vision needs to moti­vate the employ­ees to work 40 hours a week in X num­bers of years so that the com­pa­ny is able to reach this sit­u­a­tion. The vision needs to cause some kind of exal­ta­tion, an excite­ment, eager­ness, a nice feel­ing in my stom­ach. I believe that the more sens­es the vision is appeal­ing to, the more effi­cient it will be in moti­vat­ing me. 

The right thing right now

Beyond moti­vat­ing us, the vision needs to help us pri­or­i­tize. There is no objec­tive truth regard­ing what the right thing to do is at every moment. It depends on where we are aim­ing, where we want to be. 

The pur­pose of visions is also to be the start­ing point when we split the vision into small­er and more detailed inter­me­di­ate goals, and it is also the goal we are aim­ing for when we are cre­at­ing the strate­gies that are going to take us from here to there. 

It can also be a tar­get for how we are going to act in spe­cif­ic sit­u­a­tions with­in the work­day. In oth­er words, we can ask ourselves:

“If we assume that we are in the sit­u­a­tion of the vision, how would we act towards the customers?”

The 26^th of August 2014

Describe the future, desired sit­u­a­tion in many dif­fer­ent ways. When in the future do they occur? In three, five, ten years? Dif­fer­ent time per­spec­tives fit dif­fer­ent com­pa­nies, depend­ing on where they are in their life cycle.

How would it be if you imag­ine a spe­cif­ic day in five years? Where will the com­pa­ny be con­duct­ing busi­ness? What kind of cus­tomers will you have? How will the sur­round­ing world look upon the com­pa­ny? How large will the com­pa­ny be? What has hap­pened along the way? How do the employ­ees feel about going to work this day? What char­ac­ter­izes the cul­ture? How do you han­dle your cus­tomers? Where does your main focus lie?

The more vivid we describe the vision, the eas­i­er it will be for oth­ers to share it and be attract­ed to it.

Do you see clearly?

At your com­pa­ny, do you see the vision clear­ly? Will it be excit­ing and fun to work try­ing to reach it over the next years? Is it clear that you will be able to reach it if you reach your goals for the year to come and the years after that? Are there any aspects of the vision that you do not mea­sure as key fig­ures today, which you could fol­low up better?

What does the vision mean to you?

How do you think about the vision and its role? You are most wel­come to e‑mail me at {encode=“david@stiernholm.com” title=“david@stiernholm.com”} or post a com­ment below. Your thoughts and expe­ri­ences are valu­able to me and oth­ers that I share them with.