But is it yours? Do they share your vision or is it their own beacon they follow?
Many companies put a lot of effort in defining a vision. With that amount of thinking it is surprising how badly visions depict in which direction a company wants to be moving. Most of the time it describes where the company is, what the company itself wants to achieve. And most of the time it is static.
What your people want
Your company is a big team. When your people work together, they can achieve great things. So the biggest challenge is to align the efforts of your people, so they re-enforce each other. A strong and shared corporate vision is a way to bind those people to the company that help the vision come to life. In other words, a vision is a means to make your people want what you want for your company.
So, how do you derive a vision that can achieve all of this?
The secret of your success
First of all, you need to determine what makes your company successful, both on short notice as well as on the long run. This is not as much related to what you can do or your product portfolio as it is to the willingness of your customers to give you the business instead of your next competitor.
Your client must experience that you truly understand where it is moving and what you can provide to make them successful. This also implies that you understand your limitations. Sometimes giving some business to your competitor lands you more business than keeping the client completely to yourself.
You have to communicate this with your people. They must truly understand why the client chooses to do business with you, and not the competition. And that is exactly what your vision should communicate.
Create desire
A vision should be so tangible that your employees get inspired. That they want to find out how they, in their role, can contribute to the realization of your client’s success. In other words: your vision. You should not need to align your people along your vision, they should want to do that themselves.
A great way to validate this is with both your employees and your clients. Explain the journey you are on. Ask for feedback. You’d be surprised how willing they are to help you improve.
If your vision is spot on, your employees start to act in the spirit of the vision without you asking them. Your clients immediately recognize that you help them grow. Help them improve. At their pace, with their people and with their clients. And both will tell you. No measuring required.
A well-defined vision is a game changer
Many companies are struggling with the culture change required for the adoption of Agile, LEAN, or DevOps. In my experience, this is often caused by the lack of a proper vision. The employees do not understand the reasons to change, do not see their contribution in making the client successful. They do not see any benefits for themselves.
So they rely on their own vision on how the client is supported best. And this vision is at best aligned with their co-workers in the same department, if it is aligned at all with anything or anyone. As a result they cannot envision what a change required for the implementation of DevOps would add for the client.
It is a process, not a product
The creation of a vision is therefore not a one-time thing. It is a process. Especially with the speed at which IT is changing the world. A vision must be validated every quarter and updated whenever needed. And everyone must be involved. Everyone must revalidate their own contribution to client success. And everyone needs to know the measurements. Which critical success factor can they influence and how.
And that is also why it is not bad if the vision is not spot-on the first time. If the process is right, it will be. Soon. It is self-reinforcing.
Mark's blog 