Vision
- from theory to practice step by step

In recent years, one word in particular has become associated with leadership: vision.  

A vision expresses the picture of the desirable, long-term future of the organization. It sets the direction for the organization's development and answers questions like: Where do we want to go? What does the ideal situation look like in three, five or seven years for our organization? And what do we want to achieve by then that we haven't achieved now?

The vision is thus the long-term guideline that the daily management task of setting direction and creating results navigates by. It goes without saying that leaders can only lead based on a vision if a vision has actually been formulated. This is where vision processes come in. A vision process is the phase where a vision is developed.

Visioning processes are often very participatory, and managers, employees, board members, politicians, business partners, citizens and customers are involved in providing input to the vision.

Among other things, they provide input on what improvements they want the organization to achieve, what dreams for the future the organization should realize, and what narratives should be created about the organization in the future. In other words, a vision must support desired changes.

Many people associate vision with a single 15-20 word sentence - but a vision is much more than that. The vision can be unfolded in a vision document - typically 3-5 pages long. This document contains a series of vision pillars that specify in prose text what the organization wants to achieve in the future. The vision itself is simply the sentence that summarizes the content of the vision document in a crisp one-liner that clarifies the direction of the organization's development in general terms.