Visionary leaders build vision-based cultures, not companies
Suppose your vision is essentially, “In five years, I will take this organization from here to over there.” The fatal flaw is that in five years (and probably a lot less time), “over there” won’t be where it was when you started. The market will have shapeshifted, perhaps more than once. Heck, your market might not exist at all! This “target-based visioning” just isn’t valid when seismic shifts in entire industries and economies can happen quickly.
The alternative is “culture-based visioning.” That’s what we preach to our clients. Instead of trying to reshape your organization to compete in an unimaginable future, reshape your organization’s culture to counter the disruptive forces at work with some disruptive mojo of your own. Instead of aspiring to build the latest gadget, open new offices in ten locations, or out-innovate your nearest competitor—what we call “visioning outward”—focus your planning and resources on remaking your culture into one that adapts easily, pivots on a dime, breeds and nurtures wild ideas, and brings diverse, disruptive energy to everything it touches. That’s “visioning inward.”
Ingredients of a Culture Driven by Vision
In this scenario, a visionary CEO treks to the mountaintop and, instead of seeing a future of new products and services, sees an ecosystem of diverse people, fresh ideas, flat hierarchy, open communication, empowering systems, and high engagement. That’s a culture equipped to adapt and compete with whatever the future turns out to be and to change just as quickly as conditions in the marketplace change. This is a prescription for survival in the current world! Applying your visionary powers to culture, not R&D or operations, means even if the ground in your industry is in ways no one can anticipate, your organization and people can shift right back.
What does this kind of culture look like?
Mussa Omary
Suppose your vision is essentially, “In five years, I will take this organization from here to over there.” The fatal flaw is that in five years (and probably a lot less time), “over there” won’t be where it was when you started. The market will have shapeshifted, perhaps more than once. Heck, your market might not exist at all! This “target-based visioning” just isn’t valid when seismic shifts in entire industries and economies can happen quickly.
The alternative is “culture-based visioning.” That’s what we preach to our clients. Instead of trying to reshape your organization to compete in an unimaginable future, reshape your organization’s culture to counter the disruptive forces at work with some disruptive mojo of your own. Instead of aspiring to build the latest gadget, open new offices in ten locations, or out-innovate your nearest competitor—what we call “visioning outward”—focus your planning and resources on remaking your culture into one that adapts easily, pivots on a dime, breeds and nurtures wild ideas, and brings diverse, disruptive energy to everything it touches. That’s “visioning inward.”
Ingredients of a Culture Driven by Vision
In this scenario, a visionary CEO treks to the mountaintop and, instead of seeing a future of new products and services, sees an ecosystem of diverse people, fresh ideas, flat hierarchy, open communication, empowering systems, and high engagement. That’s a culture equipped to adapt and compete with whatever the future turns out to be and to change just as quickly as conditions in the marketplace change. This is a prescription for survival in the current world! Applying your visionary powers to culture, not R&D or operations, means even if the ground in your industry is in ways no one can anticipate, your organization and people can shift right back.
What does this kind of culture look like?