Time in Syria

As I get older and more crotchety I get increasingly intolerant of organisational vision statements. It's not that I believe they are unnecessary, but too often they seem to be completely disconnected from reality, as if their authors had drafted something which was to have no practical purpose. And for others, the world of vision seems to be as far as they want to go. It's as if they believe that merely stating the vision is enough, and everything else will fall into place. If wishing made it so. I meet too many people in organisations for whom their vision statement is a meaningless blur, entirely disconnected from their daily responsibilities.

So I'm rather tired of vision statements. In their place I suggest we speak of New Realities, and of the work that will take us there as Creating New Realities. So the vision statement, reworked, starts: We see a New Reality where... And the strategy/plan begins: We will create this New Reality by the following means... That in itself involves a good appraisal of what constitutes Reality Now, our starting point. And it directly links the top-line statement of purpose by the organisation to the plan required to carry it out.

Labels: Management