I talk a lot on this blog and with clients and colleagues about the importance of vision. I’ve mentioned here before the amount of research that supports the idea that the human brain responds to a crystalized vision in ways that are almost difficult to describe. The brain is a continuous improvement machine, and if you give it a picture of a future reality that doesn’t match today’s reality, it goes into action mode to remove all things that don’t match the future picture. The challenge, or opportunity, then is to use this knowledge to our advantage.
Some questions:
- Have you considered a vision of wild success for yourself, your family, your team, and your business lately?
- Have you shared your vision with key partners, staff members, colleagues, suppliers, customers, and others who could benefit from that information and add value to your efforts?
- Have you asked those key partners to join you in providing value-added input into the vision?
- Have you battle tested elements of the vision to know how feasible they are to help you refine and adjust?
- Not to be redundant, but at a more subtle level, have you ensured that the vision describes wild, booming success? If we’re dreaming a bit, why not start there?
- Does the vision contain sufficient detail, or is it more of a vague, high-level goal?
- Have you identified the gaps that exist between today and that desired future?
- Have you begun to operationalize and sequence the action steps necessary to close those gaps?
Vision has a bad reputation as “stare at your navel” or “pie in the sky stuff”. Done well, it’s actually a very clear set of guiding principles that, when operationalized, become the key components of achieving the things you actually desire. If you’re in charge, you should live at the vision level more often than not. Get off the runway, zoom out to 20,000 feet, and spend some time thinking about the questions above. Your people, your customers, your company, and your own mind will thank you.
Want these blog posts delivered straight to your inbox each week? Click here to subscribe.
Follow us on social media at the links below.
