The Power of an Audacious Vision
An Audacious Vision Drives Ownership and Engagement
In our work with business leaders around the world, we spend a lot of time talking about the organizational philosophies and cultures required to guide and nurture innovation in the business. One of the key questions we are often asked is, “how can we drive ownership and engagement within and across our organization for the new things we're trying to do?”
And the answer that we consistently come back to — and the one thing that has always worked for us in our own leadership — is to cast an audacious vision… one that can't help but be compelling.
Painting a New Future
What we mean by this — aside from whatever stated mission an organization may already have reflecting who it fundamentally is — is a statement that paints for them a very new future… one that captures their imagination and at the same time presents them with a significant stretch goal.
Some examples might include:
- “We will be the number one provider of ‘x value’ in the world!”
- “We will be recognized as the sole leader in the field of ‘x’!”
- “We will rise to the occasion of being the sole organization who drives the future course of the ‘x industry’!”
First, they all paint a strong, compelling image of who the organization is to become in the future, not who it is today. In other words, they represent a transformation… and sometimes a daunting transformation. And transformation will always involve a journey — often a challenging one, but one that will build a sense of community in the organization, and produce with it a story that's worthy of being called a legacy.
Second, they are about who the organization is to be, rather than what the organization is to do. As such, they transcend any one effort or goal — like “putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade”… something that is ephemeral and has an end date — and instead produce a potentially much longer burn by being about the ‘who’ as much as the ‘what’.
It is implicit in the vision that the organization will need to accomplish some rather extraordinary things if it is to become this extraordinary entity — that is the power of the vision. And even when they do eventually achieve this audacious vision, there will always be new ways to raise the bar and recast a new, equally audacious, vision — either vertically inside a market, or horizontally across markets (including with entirely new markets they create along the way).
Becoming a Part of a Movement
On numerous occasions, we've used this very same method in our own leadership — with great success.
In each case, what we've witnessed has been nothing short of phenomenal. People who would otherwise be ordinary ‘clock–watchers’ start to change. For them, it's no longer about the transactional treadmill of coming to a job every day and putting in their time in exchange for a paycheck. Instead, it becomes about waking up every day to be a part of a movement… part of doing something worth investing their lives in… something audacious to aim for.
This really does change people and their behaviors. And when that happens, the conversation changes too… we stop talking about things like ‘engagement’, ‘empowerment’, and ‘ownership’. Instead, we start talking about how we can all work together to change the world for the better. In other words, we use the language of movements. This engages people without our ever having to use the word ‘engagement’.
The Vision Drives Breakthrough Innovation
In the context of pursuing breakthrough and disruptive innovations (as is often done for driving Horizon 2 and Horizon 3 growth), it simply becomes a matter of tying those initiatives to this audacious vision. Once that has been done, passion tends to do the rest in terms of driving the innovations forward.
So, for all would-be world-changing business leaders out there struggling to engage your organization in your strategic growth efforts, our challenge to you is this… cast an audacious vision for becoming something much more than you are today — and really, really mean it and show you mean it by backing it up with your own actions — including giving clear strategic directions and investing in the initiatives. Then get out of the way and let yourself be amazed at what your people will do to deliver on that vision. The vision will do far more than any plasticy pep talk you could ever give, or any transactional incentive you could ever offer.
When it's all said and done, you probably will have changed the world, and along with it, yourselves too.
Talk To Us
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