Vision: The Blessing of a Chosen Few?

When we hear others say that someone “has vision” or “is a visionary”, the statements are made in such hushed tones that we are led to believe that the person has been blessed by the gods.  While the person may, indeed, have many blessings to celebrate – being one of a chosen few to possess vision isn’t one of them.  Doubtful?  Try this little experiment.  The next time you are involved in a conversation with someone who has a strong interest in the topic you are discussing, ask:

How will things be different in the future?

What changes will create those differences?

What is going to drive those changes?

Their responses represent their vision for the future for that topic.

Repeat the experiment with people from all walks of life, with varying levels of education and socioeconomic standing and you will find that in the areas that interest them most, they have vision of what the future will bring.  If people have the capacity to be visionaries, then why is it that so many business owners and senior managers bemoan the fact that their employees don’t seem to be able to look ahead – to see what might be rather than what exists today.

As we explore the development of a vision, what we find is that there are four critical elements to creating a vision – interest, knowledge, awareness and logical thinking.   

Interest

People willingly invest their time and energies only on those things that interest them.  That is why people who seem to be very insightful, almost brilliant, in one area seem to be naïve in others.  Things that interest them create a desire to continuously learn more about the topic.  They read more about the subject, associate with others who share their interests, spend more time discussing those interests with others and find ways to carve out time to spend learning more about the subject.  Interest is the foundation for knowledge – the second element of vision.

Knowledge

The ability to see what “might be” depends on one’s knowledge of the way things are and how they have evolved to their present status.  If we don’t have a thorough understanding of how something works today, we cannot hope to predict how it will work in the future.  Who could have envisioned satellite communications without first understanding how sound travels?  Knowledge is gained because interest drives the quest for knowledge.  That knowledge is enhanced (expanded) through the third critical element of vision – awareness.

Awareness

People who are genuinely interested in a subject are keenly aware of new developments.  Their antennae are always up for new sources of information on topics that interest them.   They spend time in bookstores, browsing the internet, taking classes and scanning periodicals for information on their topic of interest.  Awareness of how things are changing in their field of interest triggers thoughts about how those changes are going to affect the future.  This, of course, leads us to the fourth element of vision – logical thinking.

Logical Thinking

The ability to answer the question, “What’s next?” depends on the ability to think logically – to determine the cause-effect relationships between what’s happening today and what will be different tomorrow.  During the process of creating that linkage between cause and effect, the mind opens to seemingly endless possibilities.  One after another the possibilities are explored and success probabilities are assigned to each alternative.  It is not unusual to visualize several variations of any given possible outcome each with a different likelihood of occurrence.  This is where the future is molded.  This is how visions are created!

Creating Visionaries

How can we use this knowledge of the visioning process to help our employees, at all levels of the organization, apply their vision capability to their work efforts?  We must generate INTEREST.  Interest is the magnet that attracts the other three elements.  If there is no interest there will be little, if any, time invested in increasing knowledge beyond what is necessary to do the job today.  Without interest, people are oblivious to changes in their environment until they get hit with the proverbial 2”x4”.   As managers, we often fall victim to the same 2”x4”.that hits our employees.

Gaining Interest

How do we gain our employees’ interest?  Involve them!  Think back to a time when you asked one of your staff to help you with a project.  Unless you were asking for their help after you had already burdened them with more than anyone could reasonably handle, you will have noticed that their interest level increased, they were more animated, more energetic and more focused than they were a few minutes earlier.  Why?  Because they are becoming involved with something new and the vast majority of us want more variety in our lives including the workplace.  We also want to make a difference; involvement in a new initiative gives us that sense.

Involving others means that we not only share what it is that we want them to do, but what we are trying to accomplish and why it is important.  The more they understand the reasons behind the initiative the better job they can do for us and the more they will demonstrate the visioning ability we desire.  Why?  Because their interest will cause them to pursue more knowledge, become more aware of how things are changing and begin to explore the cause-effect relationships that promote the development of vision.  Want more visionaries in your company?  Simply heighten their interest. 

Copyright © 1999, Dale Furtwengler, all rights reserved