What makes vision important and practical

Jesse Stoner says that there are really three parts to a compelling vision. The first is determining who you are or knowing what business you’re in. The second is knowing where you’re going, which is your picture of the future. And the third is figuring out what will guide your behavior, which is specifying your values. So a compelling vision tells you: who you are, where you’re going, and what will guide your journey.

Most mission statements are so long and boring they’re practically ignored by everyone, including the people working for the companies that carry them. One of the reasons why most mission statements are so long is because they want to cover every ground of business aspect they’re involved in. But this is not practical.

Ken Blanchard says that the mission statement of a bank should be about the providing of peace of mind for the clients – letting clients know that once they give the money to the bank, the bank will take care of their money, protect it and maybe even grow it.

Walt Disney did not say he was in the theme park business; he said, “We are in the happiness business.”

Jesus didn’t say, “Let me give you My mission statement.”; He said, “I’m going to make you fishers of men.”

The first thing to do when it comes to a compelling vision is to understand what you are really doing.

Blanchard relates to his experience. “We worked with the big baseball stadium in San Diego. The owners wanted the fans to have a good time and a wonderful experience. Their mission now is simple: the only reason they exist is to make good memories. What’s so neat about that is everybody, whether as part of the food service or ticket sales, knows that what they are trying to do is make a positive memory for the customer. So when it comes to vision, that’s the first thing you’ve got to do.”

From this you can figure out what will happen next.

“At the stadium in San Diego, Petco Park, the picture of the future is that, every fan leaving the game will be talking with those they came there with about who they’re going to bring next time.”

With Disney, the picture of the future is that, all the guests leaving the park will have the same smiles on their faces when they entered the park six, eight, 10, or 12 hours ago. Take your vision and make it a rallying call by asking, “If we do a good job, what will happen?”

The third component is your values.

So you already know your picture of the future. The next thing to ask is: what are the values that are going to drive your behavior to actualize that picture?

Most organizations, if they do have values, have too many – eight, 10, 12. They’re for God, Mother Country, and so on and so forth. A teacher of the law asked Jesus, “Ten Commandments? But which are the biggies?” And so He answered and even rank-ordered them! If Jesus did it, it’s worth doing then.

You also have to rank your values because life is essentially all about values conflicts. If the first-ranked value is safety, then a child who is endangered will be taken cared of first before the happiness factor is considered. If the second-ranked value is service, then answering a query from the customer should be done in a courteous manner all the time. But this takes a backseat when safety is the issue.

Now, financial well-being is a value. But many companies miss success or profitability in their corporate values. Excluding financial well-being from the company’s corporate values is a joke – doesn’t everybody turn to focus on it the minute the company’s finances become tight?

Financial well-being must be included in the corporate value. But because this would rank third or fourth, it means the organization will not do activities to save money if those put people in danger or if customers wouldn’t receive courteous service.

Blanchard says, “If organizations get those three components – knowing what their business is, picturing the end result, and ranking values – and communicate them, everybody can understand them. Then when you put it up on the wall, it has some meaning. And then you put the goals under that and they just come alive. It’s really powerful.”

This is a good time to review your company’s mission and vision statements, and check if you have been following these three guidelines. Don’t you think so?

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