Great Visions Unlock Human Potential

A great vision is one that unlocks human potential and creativity by painting a clear picture of what is possible. Stewarding, adapting, and continuously refining the vision is the top priority of successful leaders because it is a core component of the organization’s strategy. It is really hard to get it right, but there is a pattern that I have found in the work of great leaders that can be replicated. It can help us craft and steward better, more motivating language for our visions.

When it is well articulated, understood, and shared, it serves to motivate people to apply creativity in their work. The kind of creativity that delivers value by driving toward the future is described by the vision. With the combination of a clear vision and a motivated team to achieve it, a healthy, powerful strategy is in place. When a group of motivated people has shared clarity and alignment on the strategic output that they want to achieve together, they have the foundation required to also achieve great clarity around both the strategic and tactical inputs needed to accomplish the stated goals. Having a clear vision also helps you to attract the right people; those who care about solving the same problems for the same people that you have defined in your vision. It will also help leaders more readily identify when they have the wrong butts in the wrong seats in their organization.

When a vision is weakly constructed or poorly articulated, motivation languishes, the group will have a poor understanding of what capabilities are required to achieve it, resulting in frustration. Much waste will ensue. The earliest and most profound symptom a team will experience is confusion. A shared vision is a powerful part of any group's culture. Similar to all other components of an organization’s culture, the vision exists, primarily, in the language used to express it, making it critical for leadership teams to communicate it clearly. When done poorly, teams have one of two problems. Either they don’t have clarity around whom they are serving, or they are working to solve the wrong or poorly defined problems. When done well, clarity of purpose serves as the foundation for directional, strategic decisions and the primary guardrails keeping the organization on track toward a meaningful and motivating goal.

The original article can be found here.