For Compelling Visions, Keep it Simple
Great leaders have great visions. But for every leader who takes you to the Promised Land, there are another dozen who march you straight back into the desert.
A great vision is not always good: it can be evil, foolish or evil and foolish - step forward Pol Pot, Stalin and Hitler.
In more positive vein, Kennedy and Martin Luther King showed how strong visions can mobilize an entire nation.
Martin Luther King gave voice to an entire rights movement with his "I have a dream...." speech. It is electrifying, even 35 years after the event.
The problem for practicing managers is how to live up to the standards of Martin Luther King (although there are plenty who seem to aspire to the standards of Pol Pot and Stalin).
If you stand up in front of your department and announce "I have a dream..." you will go far -- probably out of the door, never to return again. If you have dreams in the office, keep them to yourself.
So how can you inspire staff with a vision if you are in charge of paper clip purchasing at MegaCorp?
In practice, what people want from a vision is very simple. They want a story. The basic story (vision) has three elements:
- This is where we are
- This is where we are going
- This is how we will get there
Look at it the other way: if people are unclear, uncertain and lack direction they will probably lack motivation.
A simple vision (story) provides the framework, it will help people determine priorities and what are right and wrong courses of action without having to ask you for direction all the time.
The more people ask you for direction, the less you have succeeded in setting a clear vision for your team.
There is one more element that converts a standard vision into a great vision. Added to 'where we are, where we are going and how we will get there' is a fourth story line: this is your (very important) role in helping us get there
This makes an abstract vision relevant to each individual. Clearing muck may not be inspirational, but if a medieval muck clearer were helping to build a cathedral that would promise him eternal salvation, it would have some meaning. Perhaps paper clip procurement can have meaning in the right context.