You can be the 'Minister of the Interior' communicating your organization's vision downwards to employees and act as the 'Minister of Foreign Affairs' communicating the vision to your users, or upwards to politicians and upper management. Here's a look at the benefits of communicating the vision downwards, outwards and upwards.
When you practice vision management, you formulate, communicate and sustain a vision for your organization. This article focuses on the communication part: Who should you communicate the vision to? And what are the benefits of communicating the vision to different audiences?
Set direction and create meaning by communicating the vision downwards
A vision is your organization's picture of a desirable, long-term future. When communicating the organization's vision to the employees who will live it, it's your job to express the direction in which the organization should move and, together with your employees, identify how they can contribute to the vision through their daily tasks.
Management literature suggests that there are two benefits to communicating your organization's vision to your employees.
The article continues in the next section.
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1. The vision sets the direction
Firstly, the vision can clarify the overall direction of your organization by giving employees a course to navigate. In doing so, the vision acts as a guide for their behavior.
If a university department has a vision to "deliver world-class international research excellence and world-class research-based teaching", this means, for example, that the direction set for employees means that they should spend their time writing good, English-language research articles and preparing thorough, research-based teaching material. This contrasts, for example, with employees writing Danish-language articles, preparing teaching materials that are not research-based, or spending time on media appearances, participating in expert groups or similar matters.
In other words, the direction-setting element of the vision ensures that your employees have a guiding star when prioritizing whether to spend their time on this or that task.
