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06 Aug The vision elephant in the room

Posted at 07:47h in Article, Leadership, Organisation Development, Vision by
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In this article, Craig Yeatman tackles some tough questions about strategic vision in the build up to our August conversation café. 

In their classic 1998 guide to strategy, Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel open with the metaphor of a blindfolded group standing around an elephant, each touching one part of the elephant. They are asked to describe what they are touching, and although they give great descriptions, none knows it is an elephant.

In that guide they take readers on a tour of ten schools of strategic thought. Each of the ten schools has both academic roots and practical examples of strategy in action. This is all good theory that is well grounded in stories from organisational life. The authors show that there are many ways to skin the strategic elephant (apologetically butchering an idiom).

If conventional wisdom says that every organisation needs a “vision”, and that “leadership” cannot exist without a vision, how does that tie up with the ten schools of strategic thought? Not so well, it turns out.

While some approaches to strategy absolutely require a vision, others don’t. Some organisations get their sense of purpose and direction from other sources, including “muddling along”. Is that a good thing?

We are working toward our 24 August conversation café “where are we going again?”. As we build up to the cafe, we are framing the questions we would like to bring to the conversation. Clinical psychologist Nevern Subermoney is tackling questions like:

  • Why is it so difficult to come up with a vision?
  • Why can’t most of us recall the organizational vision without looking it up?

Organisational Development practitioner Craig Yeatman is tackling questions like:

  • Do all organisations need a vision? If not, what are the alternatives?
  • Is vision critical to the very idea of leadership? If not, what are the alternatives?

This is not an academic exercise –many organisations spend a lot of time and money in crafting and communicating their vision. Is any of that a waste? Where it is necessary, how can we make it easier?

The WorldsView team hope that you can join us – the cafe is free, it is online, and you can register here to be part of the conversation. AND, as a special request – if you have a vision related thought or question, pop it in the thread on this post. 

OD Café | “Where are we going again?”