"One person looks at a pile of coffee beans and sees a good cup of coffee. Another looks at the same sight and dreams of a national chain of coffee houses."
Burt Nanus, Ph.D., in Visionary Leadership.
Since human behavior in organizations is very much shaped by a shared vision of the future, developing and promulgating such a vision may well be the "highest calling and truest purpose of leadership." While many leaders have single-handedly developed their own visions and successfully used them to drive decision making in their organizations, experience suggests that involving others in the visioning process can realize greater gains.
Advantages of the Group Process:
Once an organization has been operating for some time or has reached a certain size, there are strong reasons for involving other people in the search for a new vision.
Some of these reasons are listed below:
A
group approach ensures that the resulting vision incorporates a broad
range of viewpoints and expertise.
A
participative process allows the ideas of individuals to be tested, argued,
amplified, and refined by the arguments of others.
Involving
executives in the search for a shared vision makes it easier to gain commitment
to the vision.
There
are team building benefits when managers share their values and dreams.
The
search for a shared vision often broadens everyone's understanding of
the enterprise and the challenges and opportunities that are likely to
face it in the future.
Dealing
with alternative future assumptions, an important aspect of such retreats
is a creative, mind-stretching exercise that helps to break with prevailing
pressures for "business-as-usual."
Purpose and Goals
Corporations have asked us to lead vision retreats for a number of reasons, including some of the following:
Organizational
Transformation: Significantly alter or
transform the organization into a new thriving entity.
To
renew, energize or revitalize an organization that is already on the correct
path.
To
examine, revise and update or gain support for an existing vision.
Starting
Strategic Planning: To reach consensus
on a vision statement in order to initiate and drive a new cycle of the
strategic planning process.
Management
Development: Use the process to sensitize
managers to emerging issues, to enhance creativity and risk taking, or
to improve the ability of leaders to set direction in their own areas.
Leader
Team Building: To enhance mutual understanding,
cooperation, synergy and/or teamwork among top executives.
New
Leader Orientation: To help the new leader
quickly transition by learning about the organization's key people, culture
and values.
The Program:
The vision program is tailored to the particular intentions, budget, organizational culture and other circumstances of each client. The following is a general model that is logical, systematic, well tested and effective, which can be modified according to specific needs as noted above. The Vision Retreat comes with Dr. Nanus' book Visionary Leadership and a participant's guide with structured exercises and assignments
Day 1
Context Setting: roles, process, and purpose
Vision Audit #1: Current mission and purpose of organization
Vision Audit #2: Values, institutional framework, and critical success factors.
Vision Audit #3: Culture, strengths/weakness, current strategy and vision
Vision Scope: Stakeholders, threats and opportunities.
Assignments for next day
Day 2
Vision Scope: Group discussion vision, purpose, and boundaries
Vision Context #1: Future needs and wants
Vision Context #2: Changes in stakeholders, economic and social environments
Vision Contest #3: Future changes in political, technological and other environments.
Probability Assessment of Future Developments
Identification of Themes for Scenarios of Future Environments
Candidate Vision Statements: Identification of "first impression" vision statements.
Summary, results, next steps and conclusion.
This program has been delivered to over fifty Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 corporations.