This is a series on mis-communication, which occurs through the use of abbreviations and buzzwords, bluffing, inconsistent interpretations of key concepts, our attempts to make sense of things we don’t understand without putting the effort into learning, and applying different values. The word for this article is Vision – a common idea in most businesses which is very exposed to interpretation, personal value schemes and falling into the meaningless hell of buzzwords. I will describe the origin and meaning, and how it can be communicated.
Origins of Vision
Vision is sight, in the original sense. The capacity to see permits recognition and reaction in the most basic way – a threat, food, a friend, an opportunity. Since it is the most important sense in humans, the word is linked to the concept of understanding: in virtually every language “I see” and “I understand” are synonymous. A vision is therefore something that is understood; and, if understood, it must be capable of being communicated.
A vision involves understanding something that isn’t yet part of common experience. Historically, the use of “vision” in this sense has implied one or more sources:
- Foresight – the expounder of the vision bases it on their experience, extrapolating into the future and taking certain trends into account
- Imagination – the vision is based on intuition of what might be;
- Hallucination – the vision is passing and not real;
- Revelation – the vision is based on knowledge that the expounder has received from outside, but from a trusted source.
“I have a dream”
Martin Luther King
Vision in business terms is something you can aim for, but is unrealized.
Business visions involve something that does not need to be immediately possible; it evokes ideals and hopes; it is not always rational, often considered not serious when first announced. A famous example: Paul O’Neill at Alcoa, refusing to talk finance and taking safety. However, visions partake of the four sources listed above, and it is critical to make sure that those who are to follow the vision believe it is not an hallucination. Trust of the person or persons who develop and communicate the vision is therefore crucial.
“I want to talk to you about worker safety. Every year, numerous Alcoa workers are injured so badly that they miss a day of work. I intend to make Alcoa the safest company in America. I intend to go for zero injuries.”
Paul O’Neill’s CEO address, Alcoa, 1987
Vision is intended to motivate.
The vision will speak of ideals and hopes. It will provide a picture of the end result, and intend to motivate those that hear it. It should show the way of realizing the vision, linking with a strategy or mission that gives a direction, a means or a limitation to the vision, defining a target market or scope, or similar. Amazon, for instance, refers to scope – customers on “Earth”; market – “anything you might want to buy,” with a growing “available selection”; means – “online” with “utmost convenience” at “lowest prices”. This gives guidance which helps to progress just beyond the rather undefined concept of “most customer-centric company.”
“To be Earth’s most customer- centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online. We will strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience.”
Amazon vision and mission (author highlights)
How to get the vision to work for you
The vision and its consequences should become a self-fulfilling prophecy. This requires excellent, coherent and continuous communication to make sure that those who are supposed to be involved with it, within the company and outside, consider themselves linked to the unrealized future expressed, and motivated by it. However, it should not dictate how it is to be fulfilled. It should be clearly based on imagination or foresight, and the originator must be a trusted person or group. It should generate a sense of happy expectation among those that follow. It should speak on their behalf, and the cultural concepts involved (especially for international companies) should be considered to make sure they are compatible with the areas of operation of the company, before the vision is rolled out. It should imply that there are means of finding out how much progress has been made. And finally, those that invented it or rolled it out must be consistent in their application of the vision and its consequences.
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
