Compelling vision.

26JANUARY2021

It started with a hunger, an overwhelming desire to make a difference. I wanted my life to matter. I wanted to accomplish more than people, where I come from, could imagine. I wanted others, everyone, to know that they could be and do more than ever thought possible.

I’ve been called a visionary and I’ve been called a dreamer. Dreaming has always been easy for me. I struggled in school due to my constant daydreaming. I never thought much of vision until I started to try and get others to join me in my dream. Early in the process, like dreaming, I thought vision would be easy. Until others did seem to “get” it. I realized I needed more than just a dream. Dreams and vision are not the same things, just as dreams and goals are not the same things. A compelling vision contains both dreams and goals, along with values.

After years of struggling through the process of creating and communicating a compelling vision, I found a framework that articulated what I was sensing way better than I could, the Collins/Porras Vision Framework. This framework says there are three components to a compelling vision. These are values, purpose, and mission.

Your values are your fundamental beliefs. They are the principles that guide your decisions, your behavior. You don’t declare your values you live them. Organizationally, values help the collective understand the difference between right or wrong. They help the organization determine if you are on the right path or fulfilling your goals.

Your purpose is your dream. It’s the guiding light, the North Star. It is rarely attainable, none less, it is why you do what you do.

Mission is the task at hand. It is the mountain that you are currently climbing. Your mission must-have details. It must have a strategy with roles and responsibilities. Mission must have a timeline, an end date. This is important because its completion creates unity, builds community, and when accomplished it reinforces your collective purpose. Your purpose will remain the same while you grow and move from mission to mission bringing you closer to your dream.

When time is taken to intentionally look at values and purpose I believe an opportunity will reveal itself in clearly seeing the next step, a task at hand, a viable mission. This mission will in turn create more opportunities for others. This is how we come together to change the world.

Let’s go for it!