Many visions are developed at the top of organizations with very limited employee involvement. New research suggests that you can ignite your employees' passion if you get them involved. But how do you do this in practical terms? This article presents a research-based model that can form the basis for developing bottom-up visions in smaller organizations.
Why should I involve my employees in formulating the vision?
Involving your employees can create engagement and ownership of the vision, provide different perspectives on what is the desirable future for your organization and create a good starting point for a shared vision that makes sense to everyone involved. Furthermore, you can also influence your employees' perception of the vision by involving them in shaping the vision.
Involving employees can help them see the vision as the "shared covenant" that binds you and your employees together.
The book "Vision Leadership" summarizes the leadership literature on why it's a good idea to involve your employees when developing the vision for your organization.
In summary, this literature suggests that management should involve employees in the formulation process, ask for input and generally support the individual in "making an individual mark" within the organizational framework. The participative bottom-up approach is in contrast to a top-down approach, where a leader-articulated vision is expected to "rub off" on employees when a charismatic and visionary leader communicates the vision.
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The Journey to Shared Vision: Three Types of Vision
To understand how you and your employees can work together to develop a shared organizational vision from the bottom up that everyone can "see themselves in", we need to look at vision on three different levels.
- The personal vision is an individual's holistic view of what is broadly desirable in all aspects of life and is based on their values, among other things.
- The personal organizational vision is a picture of how each employee ideally envisions the organization in the future.
- The shared organizational vision describes the desirable future for the entire organization and it is this vision that guides strategy development, decision-making and everyday behavior in the organization.
As a manager, you should be aware that the individual employee's personal vision will often strongly influence the employee's personal organizational vision and the many employees' personal organizational visions will strongly influence the shared organizational vision. Below are examples of the three types of vision.
