Is your vision a waste of time?
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Is your vision a waste of time?
As Director of five companies, Chairman for The CEO Institute (WA), and Managing Director of his own company, TeamSmart, Steve Stanley has worked with clients from numerous industries including financial services, IT, government authorities, health, elite sport, to oil and mining. Here he tells WILLIAMS MEDIA how to write a successful vision statement for your business.
A great deal of attention is paid to the importance of an organisation having a vision, and the subsequent vision statement. Many hours and, on occasions, thousands upon thousands of dollars, are spent on consultants, retreats, and workshops to produce the right vision. Why then, do some appear to have a significance, and others are words on the wall?
In essence, a vision is exactly that, a picture of what it is to be like. As humans, we operate on images. Why do we watch movies? What does a good novel generate in your mind? A picture of what is described. We don’t dream in text, we dream imagery. Therefore, if you have a vision statement that does not generate a clear and exciting picture in the minds of every employee, and they buy in to, it is a waste of words and will achieve nothing. Well, it will create dissatisfaction in everyone’s minds as they have no idea where they are headed. Not even the panacea that it is worth the exercise anyway, to focus peoples’ thinking, is a deliverable result.
Lehman Brothers vision statement was: “We are one firm, defined by our unwavering commitment to our clients, our shareholders, and each other. Our mission is to build unrivalled partnerships with and value for our clients, through the knowledge, creativity, and dedication of our people, leading to superior returns to our shareholders.”
Can anyone, in all honesty, say that this statement forms a clear picture in their mind that creates a level of excitement and causes staff to act accordingly? It led to Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy with Lehman holding over US$600 billion in assets. Clearly, the mission of building ‘unrivalled partnerships with and value for our clients’ was missed.
Volkswagen had two parts of their mission statement that read “We assume responsibility regarding the environment, safety and social issues”, and “We act with integrity and build on reliability, quality and passion as the foundation of our work”. That led to a good outcome. As an organisation that has been fined for consistently cheating emission tests, you wonder how they ‘act with integrity’, and ‘assume responsibility regarding the environment’. Why then have a set of statements outlining behaviours expected, and pay no attention to those values at the highest levels?
If culture can be defined as the behaviours that take place when no one is looking, then changing those behaviours is the key. Is this done with words? Never. This can only be done when the vision, the image, of what it needs to be like is stronger than the current reality, what it’s like now. According to Robert Fritz, as soon as you have a vision that is different to the reality, you create structural tension. If the vision is strong, energy is generated, and actions move to the vision. If it is weak, negative energy is generated and complaints increase as does a decrease in productivity.
This means coming up with a set of words that make everyone feel the box is ticked has a negative impact. Producing a vision that is clear and creates a picture in the mind of how it can be, then aligning the behaviours that need to change and working on those, has real power. As Simon Sinek says, “Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.” You can’t love a company if the picture is the same as the current reality, nor if the picture is so weak that we complain that a vision has been created but we’re doing nothing.
Compare the examples of poor implementation to Ikea, whose vision is, “To create a better everyday life for many people.” Or TED, “spread ideas.” I’m not advocating for short, catchy vision statements, but both of these evoke a picture. I can see myself working for Ikea and stating that my job is to create a better life, or TED and telling people who ask that every day I contribute to the spread of ideas across the world.
Many people will know the story of the janitor at NASA and JFK. It is summarised like this. President John F. Kennedy was visiting NASA headquarters for the first time in 1961. While touring the facility, he introduced himself to a janitor who was mopping the floor and asked him what he did at NASA. The janitor replied, “I’m helping to put a man on the moon.” The janitor got it. He understood the vision, his part in it, and he had purpose. He behaved accordingly.
So, is your vision a waste of time? If it doesn’t inspire a picture of where you want to be, cause your staff to behave differently and translate into action, then it is. Be real. Leadership is simple, it requires you to have a vision and inspire your team to work towards it. You can’t do that if you have words on the wall that no one pays attention to, as they are uninspiring and paint a picture of ethereal nothing.
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