|
Creating_a_Vision
| Creating a Vision
Creating a Vision (reprinted from Semiconductor Magazine, March
2000)
by Dr. Marilyn Manning CSP, CMC
To sell your product or service, you need vision. To attract
investors, you need vision. To market yourself, you need vision.
Is this article, I give you simple steps to articulate your
vision.
All successful leaders have a vision for their businesses,
projects or teams. In fact, you wouldn’t be a leader if you
didn’t have vision, if you couldn’t see exciting possibilities
not only in your product or services, but also in your people.
And, yet, many leaders when asked to create a vision statement
for their team tend to minimize the importance of this process.
They often give it lip service, so they can get back to the
“real work.”
An in-depth, thoughtful vision process can be a major motivator.
An authentic vision comes from your soul, your team’s soul, and
touches the heart. A team that is emotionally moved by their
vision has the strength to overcome the rough spots and the ups
and downs any business faces. When the team has a clear vision
for the business, they are creating a picture of the future.
They can then work backwards, identifying priorities and what
needs to be done to actualize the end result.
Having facilitated many strategic planning and visioning
processes for my clients, I have found the following to be a
blueprint for a successful visioning process. To know the
potential and possibilities of our organization, we have to
access where we are, our strengths, our vulnerabilities, our
competition and society’s trends.
STEP 1: Conduct a thorough internal and external environmental
scan. a.Identify all stakeholders b.Analyze stakeholder needs
and impact c.Administer a reliable employee satisfaction survey
d.Conduct customer focus groups e.Identify key questions for
environmental scan f.Seek input from stakeholder representatives
g.Consider using an organizational assessment consultant
Although many teams, projects, and even divisions of companies
are not required to develop vision statements, they can be
helpful in creating identity and aligning priorities. A vision
is a picture of the future we seek to create, described in the
present tense, as if it were happening now. It shows where we
want to go in the next few years, and what we will be like when
we get there. The word comes from the Latin “videre,” to see.
Criteria to consider in writing a vision statement include:
strategic focus and market place competitive advantage, adding
value, building on current strengths, and embracing the
organizational values. Vision should provide the driving force.
It should be clear, specific and simple. Everyone in the
organization should be able to speak it, feel it, act on it, and
integrate it.
Examples of some of my clients’ vision statements developed in
our strategic planning:
“To be the leader in providing high quality communication
support services by exceeding our customers’ service
expectations.” Lotus division cc:Mail
“California State University, San Bernardino will become one of
the leading comprehensive universities in the nation,
distinctive for its contributions to the understanding of
learning and for innovative partnerships promoting educational,
social, economic and cultural advancement in the region.”
“We are an educational institution with the resources to
provide our distinct services to the community at large.” Palo
Alto Junior Museum and Zoo
“We envision the Cupertino Educational Endowment Foundation as a
leader in entreprenurial philosophy, leveraging its human and
fiscal resources in partnership with others to enhance the
quality of education in our community."
“We will strive to insure that the City of Gilroy is a safe,
clean, prosperous, well governed city, in which the citizens are
involved in the decision making process.”
“The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology is the leader in
transpersonally-based, whole person education and
state-of-the-art research.”
STEP 2: Seek answers to these questions from stakeholders:
a.What kind of company do we want to become? b. What reputation
would we have? c.What contribution would we make? d.Would our
services, products expand? e.Would our customer base change?
f.How would our people work together? g.What values would we
embody?
It is very challenging to craft a good vision statement. It must
reflect present actions while representing the desired future.
It must factor in existing competencies while identifying what’s
missing and how to overcome any limitations.
As you can see from the above questions, company and team values
are the foundation for a solid vision statement. Values are the
standards and principles upon which behaviors and decisions are
made. A true value is not something we are willing to
compromise. Values affect our actions and choices. They
establish how we expect to be treated and how we treat our
customers and employees.
“If employees know what their organization stands for, what
standards they are to uphold, then they are much more likely to
make decisions that support those standards. They are also more
likely to feel as if they are an important part of the
organization. They are motivated because life in the
organization has meaning for them.” Deal & Kennedy –Corporate
Cultures, 1982
I highly recommend that a thoughtful value process be conducted
before writing a vision statement. Every employee in your
company already has a set of values that they live by. Values
are very intrinsic and personal. If you can hold some meaningful
dialog about values, you begin to see where employee priorities
lie. By aligning employee and company values, you build an
environment that is congruent. You build loyalty. We all want to
work in places that reflect our personal values. For example, a
perfectionist engineer who values high quality and thoroughness
will soon feel discouraged, demotivated, and become unproductive
working for someone who values quantity above all else.
Peters and Waterman (1982) say “Figure out your value system.
Decide what your company stands for. Every excellent company we
studied takes the process of value shaping seriously.”
STEP 3: Hold Company Wide Values Discussions. a.Design an
appropriate list of values (at least 30) b.Distribute to all
personnel to prioritize c.Identify top priority values d.Train
leaders in facilitation skills or use an outside facilitator
e.Hold team discussions to define importance of top values
f.Executives & employees discuss behavioral expectations g.Gain
consensus of company code of behavior
Each leader and each team needs to define their own
expectations. How will they put their values into play? What
procedures can they agree to? How will they distribute
responsibilities? How will meetings be conducted? What will be
the lines of communication? How do problems get resolved?
The results of a recent survey of American managers shows that
clearly articulated organizational values do make a significant
difference in the lives of employees, as well as in performance.
Values are the bedrock of all company cultures. Working
globally, values become even more important to understand and
respect. Paying attention to values, discussing them, honoring
them can build teams and prevent unnecessary conflict.
Successful teams create and adopt their own codes of behavior or
team expectations. In the next issue, I’ll outline how teams can
best accomplish this.
Remember, to create a vision for your business or team, try the
four primary steps outlined in this article. Conduct your
internal and external environmental scan, gain consensus on the
organizational values through a meaningful process, assess your
stakeholders, and utilize a thorough process to respond to the
key visioning questions.
About the author:
Marilyn Manning, Ph.D., CSP, CMC, facilitates change and
motivates others to resolve difficult workplace conflicts
through interactive speeches, workshops, and consulting. Dr.
Manning specializes in Leadership, Teamwork, Conflict Mediation,
Executive Coaching, Meeting Facilitation, Strategic Planning,
and Communication. She has authored seven business books,
published in eight languages. Over 80% of her work is repeat
business.
|
|
| |
| |
