How good is your Vision?

What is your company’s vision? Do you know the answer? Is it an intuitive, primal motivator for your whole team? If not, you might want to do a vision check.

I recently started working with a few established entrepreneurs to help refine their corporate visions and spark the strategy & innovation conversation in their companies.

It’s exciting work because it gets to the very essence of why groups of people (companies) come together every day to do things. The more meaning this “essence” holds for the individuals in the organization, the better.

So I’ve been re-reading some of my strategy books, most of which offer much more insight now that I have my own entrepreneurial experiences to draw from.

One of the best authors, in my view, is still Jim Collins. Here’s what he has to say about vision (this comes from his web site):

Vision is one of the least understood - yet most important - concepts for building great organizations. People confuse terms like “mission”, “vision”, “strategy”, “purpose”, “values”, and so forth into hopelessly muddled stew of vague and fuzzy concepts.

He’s right!

It all starts with vision and flows from there. If the vision is fuzzy, it’s impossible to build an efficient organization that can go the distance. (Of course, articulating a strong vision is only the first step in a long journey…)

Mr. Collins, most famously in his best-selling book Built to Last, offers up a “rigorous conceptual framework” to help entrepreneurs define, and make sense of, a tighter vision.

With that in place, really, anything’s possible. Strong visions empower teams of people to do wonderful things together, helping drive long-term success.

I strongly recommend his article, Building Your Company’s Vision, available from Harvard Business Review ($6). Also, his web site has some useful boiled-down content and vision drills.

Spend some time with Mr. Collin’s materials and you’ll be able to develop your own true vision, an essential first step in reaching long-term success and fulfillment, on a corporate and personal level.