5 easy ways to define your organisation’s vision
People need to feel connected to a sense of a future that is compelling to them
First published onJul 27, 2020
A vision is an articulation of the long-term impact that an organisation wants to manifest in the world. It matters because a major attribute of high-performance cultures is a high level of team buy-in to vision. To get and stay motivated, people need to feel connected to a sense of a future that is compelling to them.
Organisations can be well-practiced at pouring time and money into defining their “vision”. Away-days, workshops, executive retreats, consulting projects — all of these (and more) are often deployed in service of articulating and agreeing what can feel like an oh-so-elusive form of words.
Unfortunately, despite significant investment, many organisations fail to define their visions in a way that feels credible, relevant and distinctive. WeWork’s stated ambition “to elevate the world’s consciousness” is a stone-cold classic example of this problem in action. In bearing no clear relationship to its business model or service offering, the statement simply served to make its leadership look divorced from reality. This reinforced some of the serious concerns that investors were already raising about WeWork’s governance, business model and level of corporate debt — and so became a hugely self-defeating exercise.
As a leader, how do you create a vision that is compelling to your people, relevant to your market and distinct from the competition? Here are five useful start-points.
Lead on values. This type of vision involves appealing to a deeper consumer or societal need that exists beyond the organisation itself. Articulated badly, such visions can become self-serving, cynical and woolly. On the flip-side, a values-led vision can speak directly to the beliefs that led to the founding of the business, and drive long-term organisational development in ways that are consistent with the convictions of the founders. At their very best, values-led visions can lead to entire industries being changed for good.
Outstanding examples: Ford’s “to democratise the automobile”, Airbnb’s “to help people feel like they can belong anywhere.”
Get numerical. It’s possible to ground a vision in hard, quantitative outcomes. Such visions are tangible, unambiguous, and straightforward — so tend to please financially-focused shareholders. The principal challenge with them is that they easily default to being little more than financial targets — which are uninspiring to team members and don’t convey any sense of competitive advantage to the wider marketplace. After all, no-one ever got out of bed to “create shareholder value.” Where quantitative visions do prove compelling, it tends to be because the stated numerical outcomes communicate something of value about the societal or cultural context in which they are achieved.
Outstanding examples: Microsoft’s “a computer on every desk and in every home”, Jay-Z’s “to become the first rap billionaire.”
Define your social role and impact. Organisations often have an innate desire to add greater value to human endeavor. This gives rise to visions that define the positive social impact that an organisation can have. Sometimes (as per the WeWork example above), such statements can appear over-worthy or narcissistic. But, executed well, they can be truly differentiating, motivating for team members, and a basis on which to build a meaningful corporate reputation. It is telling that this type of vision is common amongst highly-regarded brands.
Outstanding examples: Google’s “to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, Volvo’s “by 2020, no-one will ever die in a Volvo.”
Attack a common enemy. Creating a rallying cry to defeat a societal or reputational enemy can be a helpful conduit for vision definition. While this can sometimes feel like the preserve of the not-for-profit sector, it can lend a motivating David-and-Goliath quality to an organisation’s efforts. It can also have high-appeal to socially-aware and conscientious consumers.
Outstanding examples: Sony’s “to become the company most known for changing the worldwide poor-quality image of Japanese products”, Oxfam’s “to create a just world without poverty.”
Turn the category on its head. Finally, there is the option to challenge the received wisdom of how a category should behave. While such visions tend not to articulate what the business will do once the category in question has been revolutionised or disrupted, they can create a short to medium-term sense of momentum (or “permanent revolution”) in activities that can be helpful for challenger brands. Category-changing vision statements can also provide a platform not only to attract talent but also for PR and communications.
Outstanding examples: Spotify’s “to give people access to all the music they want — all the time”, Uber’s “to evolve the way the world moves.”
A well-articulated vision is a powerful platform for both growth and change. So it makes sense that defining vision is amongst the most challenging tasks for leaders.
Start by gathering your people together. Break them into five groups — one for each of the headings above — and have them write as many visions of each type as possible. Then get them to buy, bin and build each other’s work. You might be surprised by where you land.
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