Why do visions fail to meet the expectations of managers and employees? Although there are more factors that play a role, in this article I want to stress firstly the importance of a right conceptualization of what a vision really means, and secondly the importance of making the link between vision and organizational culture. A vision is not a thing, but a living entity. A vital vision acts as the beating heart of culture.

The meaning of vision
Because vision is a tough and often misunderstood concept, the first thing to do is to clarify the meaning of vision. In most organizations, there is no agreement on what a vision is or should be. This is mainly because vision is a ‘polluted’ concept. Managers are using a great number of more or less related terms as ‘credo’, ‘guiding principles’, ‘purpose’ or ‘DNA’. These terms are also interpreted in totally opposite ways. For instance, some managers use the term ‘mission’ to indicate the raison d’être or higher purpose of an organization. Vision is than used to indicate the future destination of an organization. In other cases, the word ‘vision’ has the meaning of an ‘organizational paradigm’, a general way of believing and looking towards reality. The term ‘mission’ is used to indicate one or more concrete tasks the organization wants to achieve. Because I believe this Babylonian confusion of tongues not to be effective, I suppose we should agree on a definition in which it is clear for all what a vision means. Elaborating on the well-known work of Jim Collins and Jerry Porras (‘Built to Last’), I believe that must a vision should address at least four themes:
• The first theme has to do with the higher purpose of an organization: why do we exist? What is our unique contribution to stakeholders? What would disappear if we were not there anymore? These are the questions that should firstly be answered in a fundamental way.
• The second theme has to do with the core values of an organization: what are these? What do people within the organization consider to be true or false, right or wrong, important or unimportant? Again, these core values should be unique for the concerning organization. One should avoid core values that are merely ‘licenses to operate’, i.e. values that are self evident with regard to the industry in which the organization operates.
• The third theme addresses to the audacious goal of the organization: what is the ultimate and inspiring dream that the organization wants to pursue? An audacious goal should be clear to understand and provided with a limited timeframe. I should me a ‘dream with a deadline’. Opposite to Collins and Porras, who claim organizations should take into account a timeframe of 30 years, I think that 10 years is a maximum timeframe for inspiring and energizing employees.
• The fourth theme was not foreseen by Collins and Porras, but is extremely important: the core qualities of an organization. Core qualities are the most fundamental ‘strengths’ or ‘talents’ that are responsible for enduring organizational success. We can discover these core qualities by asking the following questions: what are our natural strengths? What qualities do we use in order to outperform other companies? What are our passions?

These four elements build the framework for a ‘complete vision’. In reality elements are often missing. That means that the vision remains ‘incomplete’, i.e. not all the potential power of the vision is used and energy is leaking. To give an illustration: when the notion on ‘core qualities’ is missing, a vision is in danger of having no roots in reality. The vision might contain a compelling purpose, beautiful values and an inspiring dream, but the ultimate questions that remains to be asked is: can we really achieve what we intend?

Vision as the beating heart of culture
Most of the time, a vision is seen as a document or poster on the wall. This means a vision is conceptualized as a ‘thing’. However, a vision is nit a thing, but a living entity. A vision has its origin in the organizational culture and can never be separated from it. A vision contains the core ambitions, beliefs, principles and qualities that are central to an organization. A vision is the beating heart of culture. To understand how a vision works, we should first have a clear understanding of what organizational culture is. Generally, a culture is influenced by three dimensions:
- Depth: following Edgar Schein, we can say that culture is a layered phenomenon. The visible outside consists of what people do, how they behave, what they say in public etc. Underneath there is a layer that consists of ‘hidden’ intentions and rules. The core or ‘soul’ of culture is made of deep and fundamental beliefs. The development of a vision is the attempt to discover the core elements of a culture. Once these elements have been discovered and made explicit, the challenge is to weave them elements into the fabric of the organization. This means that a vision should always be ‘real’ in the sense that she should be the result of an authentic attempt to find deeply held ambitions, principles and qualities.
- Diversity: according to Robert Quinn’s ‘competing values model’ a vital culture always consists of a dynamic interplay of opposing forces. Corporate culture must not suppress internal divergence, but must give an answer to the question of how to make use of diversity. In order to be effective, a culture must find a way to reconcile opposing or competing value orientations. Defining organizational culture in terms of how tensions between competing values are reconciled (or not) acknowledges that cultures are dynamic because reconciliation is a continuous process based on dialogue between different value orientations. To fulfill its role as beating heart of culture, a vision should always represent a dynamic balance between competing and opposing cultural values. When managing culture consist of reconciling opposing values, a vision is the symbolic outcome of this process.
- Discipline: although this element is often overlooked, any viable culture is the result of disciplined thought and action. With the word ‘discipline’ I refer to things as ‘consistent’, ‘demanding’, ‘determined’, ‘focused’ or ‘systematic’. Bringing a vision alive, is not merely walking the talk or managing by walking around. To create a living vision (and as a result of this, a living culture) one should adhere to the principles of discipline.

As vision is the beating heart of culture, it is no surprise that the three dimensions mentioned above should also be applicable to vision. This means that a vital vision cannot be an enumeration of superficial statements, but must always have ‘depth’. It also means that a vital vision must represent a fundamental reconciliation of opposing value orientations. And it finally means that when a vision should become embedded in the daily decisions and actions, it should be implemented in a disciplined way.

Finally
Of course, one cannot hope that visions will be experience as more authentic and inspiring, merely by stressing the fact that a vision should be ‘complete’ or that a vision is the heart of culture. To create vital vision, the most important thing is that leaders should live, breathe, weave the vision into the fabric of their organizations. Nevertheless, this is only possible when one understand what a vision is and how it functions.

Hans van der Loo is an independent consutant, working in the Netherlands and Germany. He is the main author of the bestselling book ‘Kus de visie wakker’ (Kiss the vision alive). In november he will release an audio-cd on ‘soul management’.

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