The Third Vison Keyword: Achievable
Burt Nanus said, in "Visionary Leadership," "The most powerful engine driving an organization toward excellence and long-range success is an attractive, worthwhile and achievable vision of the future, widely shared." A leader embarking on a "vision quest" needs to understand each of those words. Here, we'll talk about what it means for a vision to be Achievable.
This may be the most obvious of the four keywords that make a vision powerful. Still, it may be the most difficult to understand and satisfy in stating your vision of the future. It's really what makes a vision hard to describe. It's what makes a vision not just a dream. It requires planning, not just dreaming.
There are other words that Dr. Nanus could have used, such as realistic or credible. He does use them in similar context later in the book. But achievable really does say it all.
To make us work hard, to "give it our all," a vision of the future must be reasonable. We must believe that it will happen, and that we can make it happen. And that it won't, if we don't.
Everyone dreams, but few have achievable visions. Let's say you have a dream, one night, of sitting in your office in a very successful organization. You're reading the weekly progress reports from all of your divisions or departments. All are reporting new customers, new clients for your services, saying that they will need more space next year, and more good people and even more locations They are begging for more supplies, whether it be salable inventory or printed literature or vans to distribute it with. There is on your desk a pile of employment applications from outstanding people. It seems like everyone wants to work with you. Your business or your nonprofit agency keeps bringing in cash, but it seems like there is never enough to do all you want to. Are you in heaven? No! You're in an organization that is living in its vision of the future!
How did this happen? That's the crux of the matter.
I suggest that it's often better to start at the end than at the beginning. Getting from here to there seems impossible. There are so many problems to solve, obstacles to overcome, money that must be found, that the task of achievement seems overwhelming.
Get your people together and pose your vision to them. Then ask: what got us there? What did we do that made us grow? How did we make so many people want to use our services or buy our products? How did we choose those growing locations, or find and develop those managers, or attract all that money from investors? Go back step by step to the present and you will be confronted by the choices you must make - every one of them achievable - to get to that wonderful place of your vision.
My next post will talk about the last of the four "magic words:" your vision must be widely shared.
This may be the most obvious of the four keywords that make a vision powerful. Still, it may be the most difficult to understand and satisfy in stating your vision of the future. It's really what makes a vision hard to describe. It's what makes a vision not just a dream. It requires planning, not just dreaming.
There are other words that Dr. Nanus could have used, such as realistic or credible. He does use them in similar context later in the book. But achievable really does say it all.
To make us work hard, to "give it our all," a vision of the future must be reasonable. We must believe that it will happen, and that we can make it happen. And that it won't, if we don't.
Everyone dreams, but few have achievable visions. Let's say you have a dream, one night, of sitting in your office in a very successful organization. You're reading the weekly progress reports from all of your divisions or departments. All are reporting new customers, new clients for your services, saying that they will need more space next year, and more good people and even more locations They are begging for more supplies, whether it be salable inventory or printed literature or vans to distribute it with. There is on your desk a pile of employment applications from outstanding people. It seems like everyone wants to work with you. Your business or your nonprofit agency keeps bringing in cash, but it seems like there is never enough to do all you want to. Are you in heaven? No! You're in an organization that is living in its vision of the future!
How did this happen? That's the crux of the matter.
I suggest that it's often better to start at the end than at the beginning. Getting from here to there seems impossible. There are so many problems to solve, obstacles to overcome, money that must be found, that the task of achievement seems overwhelming.
Get your people together and pose your vision to them. Then ask: what got us there? What did we do that made us grow? How did we make so many people want to use our services or buy our products? How did we choose those growing locations, or find and develop those managers, or attract all that money from investors? Go back step by step to the present and you will be confronted by the choices you must make - every one of them achievable - to get to that wonderful place of your vision.
My next post will talk about the last of the four "magic words:" your vision must be widely shared.
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