Following the Vision

I'm loving John Caswell's work at The Opposable Thumbnail.

I'm a fan of Ralph Stacey's (visually atrocious link - sorry!) views on 'corporate vision':

"If the future is inherently unpredictable, it follows that a single, organisation-wide 'shared vision' of a future state must be impossible to formulate, unless we believe in mystic insight. Any such vision that managers put forward is then bound to be either a dangerous illusion or an interpretation of what has happened with the benefit of hindsight"

For my part, I've seen many 'visions' lost in the turbulence of reality (no plan ever survives contact etc...) and several leaders 'claiming' that what finally happened was 'their' vision ('This is exactly what I had planned...'. Oh really...)

So, it's not the vision per se that is the issue but the quality of conversation that results when we 'see' each others' views. Having some shared values and a sense of trust is much more important.

We don't need colleagues to fulfil 'the vision' but it is helpful to understand how we are working together and how others might contribute as we go along...

Btw, John's blog is worth a look too.