This has enormous organizational benefits. It means that when opportunities emerge that are out of the bounds of our vision (and they do all the time), we can veto them quickly—saving extraordinary amounts of time and energy. Life is short, and time spent agonizing over opportunities that seem too good to pass up but aren't going to help us get where we really want to go is, in my opinion, time wasted. I'd prefer to spend my time working toward the future I've chosen to create. Trust me—I've worked both ways, and using visioning as I've described here is about 1,500 times more rewarding.
The good news is that crafting a vision is a lot easier and less time-consuming than you might think. As I outline in the steps below, getting started should take no more than 30 minutes.
I can already see the eyes rolling. A half-hour to write a future for my entire organization? What about gathering the appropriate data, consulting with experts, assessing the big trends and the leading economic indicators? Good questions, but to get going, you don't need any of that. Why? Though we spend most of our work lives responding to problems and opportunities as the world presents them to us, visioning comes from the inside out. It's about what you believe, what gets you excited, what you truly want to accomplish.
Eight steps to a vision of greatness
STEP 1
PICK YOUR TOPIC
Because visioning can be used for just about anything, it's important to start by being clear about what you're working on. Is it a vision for your organization overall? Or just for a particular piece? For today's shift? Or your retirement? We do visions for all of the above and everything in between.
STEP 2
PICK YOUR TIME FRAME
How far out should you look? There's no right answer, but as a general principle, visioning works best if you go far out enough to get beyond present-day problems but not so far out that you have no sense at all of actually getting there. We have a long-term organizational vision that's set in 2020. Most organizational visions will probably be set somewhere from two to 10 years out—but five is a typical place to start.
STEP 3
PUT TOGETHER A LIST OF "PROUDS"
Think about the work you're embarking on, and throw down a list of past positive achievements that seem at least somewhat relevant. You might include specific contributions that you or your colleagues have made to past successes, or skills, techniques, and resources that could be assets in achieving your vision.
At Zingerman's, it might sound like this: "I feel good about the past three projects we've successfully implemented: (1) the team really came together; (2) we've improved cheese quality a lot in the past two years; and (3) we've brought our staff turnover rate down 20 percent since 2007." Anything good that comes to mind is fine. And don't stress out about it—just do it. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. The idea is just to create a base of positive energy and high-quality experiences on which you can build for future success. The more people focus on the positives, not on the present-day problems, the more likely you are to attain the greatness you envision.
STEP 4
WRITE THE FIRST DRAFT
Writing a vision is hugely important, but don't let its perceived weightiness work against you. The amount of time you spend drafting it is, in my experience, generally unrelated to the quality of the vision. I would actually argue that the two are inversely related—those who just dive in and get something down on paper almost always are the ones who emerge from this process with the most creative and inspiring visions.
You can compose your vision in any style you like—prose or bullet points, by hand or on the computer. I've seen people draw it and then talk through what they've illustrated while someone else takes notes. Just make sure you put the word DRAFT on your document. We've found that by simply writing the word at the top of the page, we get a lot more input; whereas without it, people tend to assume the vision is final and there's no point providing any real feedback.
Before you start writing, let me provide a few technical tips. If you follow them, the work will be way better:
Go for something great. The work here is about writing a vision of greatness—so put something wild out there. I think about John Kennedy's call to go to the moon, winning the NBA championship…things that are big but also specific, scary but also exciting. Get past the 59 reasons why it won't work. If the early draft isn't kind of scaring you a bit, then you probably haven't pushed yourself hard enough.
Write from the heart. Go with your gut and put down what pours out, not what you think other people want to see. Often that means including what you've always wanted to do but have been told so many times by others that you couldn't, a notion that you've long since filed away under "impossible."
Step into the future. Having gone through this process a few thousand times, I can tell you that it works way better when you write as if you're already sitting in the future you're envisioning. This seems strange, but it really is critical. Don't write as if your vision going to happen; write as if it already has happened.
Go quickly. The visions I've been involved with turned out much better when we didn't drag out the process. Just sit down in a reasonably comfortable spot at a reasonably comfortable time and get to writing. Once you start, keep writing for 15 to 30 minutes, regardless of how silly you sound. Don't start self-editing. The most interesting and insightful elements of my visions are the ones that I initially wanted to leave out but forced myself to put down anyway.
Get personal. In our visioning work, we blend the personal and professional so we arrive at a single vision, or at least two compatible and mutually supportive ones. If you're the one running the business, it makes sense that you build your passions into what you write. If you want to teach, put that in the vision. If you want to work less, say it. If you've "retired" into an advisory-only role in the company, talk about how the person who took your position feels about his or her role and how you relate to that person. In other words, don't write a vision that you aren't a part of.
Now, with all these rules in mind, take no more than 30 minutes and put down a vision draft. Then put the draft aside for a few days. Go back to all the other stuff you do every day.
STEP 5
REVIEW AND REDRAFT
When you're ready to revise, read your draft through from start to finish. Don't erase anything. If you're on the computer, start the second round by copying your first file so you can edit what you wrote without losing the original version. In my experience, at least 80 percent of what is in that first scary rendition is pretty right on. In any case, you'll have plenty of opportunity to edit the content and the language. As you read through, keep in the back of your mind: Does this sound inspiring? Do I get excited when I'm reading it? Note that in this context, excited does not preclude anxiety about the challenges of implementation.
