Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others – J Swift

The self-help books are full of advice, most of it contradictory, amusing, or insane. One thing most gurus agree on is the need to have a big enough reason to change.

People can get behind a vision, a dream, a why.  It awakens the emotions and creates a story of hope for the future.  There is a reason that Martin Luther King said “I have a dream” not “I have a strategic plan”!

Knowing what you want is the first step to getting it, and the same is true in business as in life.

Our vision is built from our core values, core purpose and the envisaged future we see when we set our outrageous goals.

With a big enough and clear enough vision, you can accomplish anything.

The first step to setting a vision is to understand who you are, or what your organisation is.  Ask “What are the core values for you and your business and what are you there to do”?

Core Ideology

This is the glue that holds the organisation together.  If your business agrees on why you do what you do, it will enable you to grow and develop without losing sight of your values and what makes your business unique.

Core Values:

Your core values define you, they define what you stand for and what your business will allow or not allow.   Getting clear on your core values will help you to recruit and market your business

Try this exercise, it is not as easy as it sounds;

Write down what you think your core values are. Try to be descriptive and not too vague.

For Example:

Vague:  Ethical.  More specific:  Ethical working practices e.g fair pricing, care in the work environment and outside of it

Vague: Equality. More specific:  Giving customers equal opportunity to use my services, equal opportunities to staff development and progression

Vague: Positivity.  More specific:  Focus on the good side of a problem and see it as a challenge, not an issue.

Disney have core values of imagination and wholesomeness but also no cynicism, fanatical attention to consistency and detail that have stood the test of time and allowed Disney to move from film making to theme parks and holidays.

Then ask if you would keep this value even if you were to be penalised for so doing.   If you can’t be sure then it probably isn’t key to your value list.

Ask yourselves under what circumstance would you drop this as a core value.

You are going to be left with only three to five really core values.

These are things you intrinsically know to be true.

Core Purpose

Mark Twain: “There are two important dates – the day you were born and the day you discover why”

Your businesses purpose should be something that could last 100 years or so.  It will be the thing above all others that you want to achieve by doing what you do.  If you know your purpose, your everyday decisions can be guided by whether they fit with this purpose.  Where your choices conflict with the core purpose of the business, you will need to find another way.

Write down what you do – the descriptive nature of your work.  Then ask yourself “why is that important?”  Keep asking until you get to the emotion.  You will get to a point – probably after 5 whys when the answer comes back “it simply is”.   Don’t short-change yourself, if you are not in tears thinking about your purpose you may not have got there yet, keep digging.

Next Steps

Now that you have looked within to find your core values and purpose, it is time to look outward to what you want to achieve in the future.

With thanks to Harvard Business Review 1996 James C Collings and Jerry I Porras.