Vision is the ability to see beyond, in time and space, and above others, it means to visualize, to see with the eyes of the imagination, in terms of the final result that is intended to be achieved.
Vision is the long-term achievable dream, the aspired future.
Functions of the strategic vision
The strategic vision allows to fulfill two vital functions:
- Establish the Reference Framework to define and formalize the Mission, which is established by the Guiding Criterion of Strategic Planning. Inspire, motivate, integrate or move people to act and enforce the reason for being (Mission) of the Institution.
In the Strategic Vision there is knowledge of the external environment, adaptive capacity, structural flexibility and ability to live with ambiguities and change. All members of an organization must know where the Institution is going and where its work is heading, for which the Vision, Mission and Institutional Objectives must be stated. It must incorporate both the vision of the external user and that of the internal user. It must be achievable and real.
Future Visualized
The strategic vision provides guidance on which core to preserve and toward which future to stimulate progress. But vision has become one of the most overused and least understood words in business language, evoking different images for different people: deeply held values, exceptional achievements, social ties, exhilarating goals, motivating forces, or reasons for being. We recommend a conceptual framework to define vision, to add clarity and rigor to the vague concepts that revolve around this buzzword, and to give practical guidance for articulating a coherent vision within an organization. The visualized future is what we aspire to become, to achieve, to create something that will require significant change and progress to be achieved.
The strategic vision is vibrant, fascinating, and is a specific description… translating vision from words to images, like creating an image that people can carry around in their heads. It is a matter of making a painting with your words. Creating an effective visualized future requires a certain irrational level of trust and commitment.
The most enduring contribution of those who build visionary companies is the fundamental ideology. Any effective vision must incorporate the fundamental ideology of the organization, which in turn consists of two distinct parts: fundamental values, a system of guiding principles, and fundamental purpose, the organization's most essential reason for being. Walt Disney Company's core values of imagination and decency… do not come from market requirements, but from the founder's inner belief that imagination and decency must be promoted.
The Vision as inspirer of change
The purpose (which should last at least 100 years) should not be confused with specific goals or business strategies (which should change many times in 100 years). While you can achieve a goal or complete a strategy, you cannot fulfill a purpose; it is like a guide star on the horizon, always chased but never reached. Although the purpose itself does not change, it inspires change. The fact that the purpose can never be fully realized means that an organization can never stop stimulating change and progress.
A bold goal goes from 10 to 30 years and vivid descriptions of what it would be like to achieve that goal. We recognize that the phrase visualized future is a bit paradoxical. On the one hand, it communicates concreteness, something visible, vivid and real. On the other hand, it involves a future not yet realized, with its dreams, hopes and aspirations. A visualized future helps an organization only while it has not been achieved.
Visionary companies typically accomplished their goals more by an organic process of "let's rehearse a lot of things, and stick with what works… success is building the strength of your organization as the primary way to create the future."
Many executives work with mission and vision statements. Unfortunately, most of those statements become a messy stew of values, goals, purposes, philosophies, beliefs, aspirations, norms, strategies, practices, and descriptions. The fundamental dynamic of visionary companies: preserving the core and stimulating progress.
Vision simply provides the context for bringing this dynamic to life. Building a visionary company requires 1% vision and 99% alignment. When you have an excellent alignment, a visitor could come from outer space and infer their vision of the company's operations and activities, without ever reading it on paper or meeting with a single executive.
The first step will always be to rethink your vision or mission in an effective context to build a visionary company. If you do it correctly, you wouldn't have to do it again in at least a decade.
In the following video, from MediapressConsulting, you will learn more about the concept of vision and about the importance of developing a strategic vision for your company.
