What is the Vision?
Does our organization or our business have a good vision?
I listened to a speaker this week who used an illustration for all organizations and businesses. He told us to think about our business or group as a rope circle with all of our employees or members inside, but holding on to the rope. The rope circle illustration made it easy to see that a business or organization cannot move far in any direction without eventually all coming along as a team.
He said all groups have several factions:
Fully energized and focused
Energized but not particularly focused
Not energized and not focused but move with the group
Little energy and only by force will they move with the others
Obviously, the fully energized employees or members are the ones straining at the rope toward any goals and vision that have been set by the leadership. We want as many of them as possible.
If the rope circle isn’t moving any particular direction, then the business or organization has temporarily stagnated and maybe lost its way. In order for any business or organization to move positively, it must have a strategically outlined vision. If leadership or owners do not fully articulate the goals and objectives that make up the vision so all will understand and accept it, progress cannot occur.
Whether it is profits, growth, new memberships, or completed projects, we all need to help set and believe in the vision for our businesses and organizations. Otherwise, complacency and lack of focus will occur to the detriment of all.
This article is meant as a reminder, because we probably already should know this. However, sometimes we forget, and our business or group suffers.
I once heard a prolific inventor say that most successful inventions are very simple ones. As an analogy he asked us to think of our favorite most popular song. Almost always these hit songs have few but simple lyrics! We should apply this thought to our groups and organizations to forge positive directions.
