30 Aug What is sufficient direction in an organisation?

In this blog, Craig Yeatman asks whether organisations are spinning the wheel without getting anywhere. Join our strategy discussions in the September 18, 2024, 90-minute WorldsView Café. Register HERE for one of 50 free, online spots.

Do we find ourselves in a time where the future is too blurry to establish a “vision for the future?” Or are we just letting ourselves off the hook while we destroy our ability to imagine with a barrage of mind-numbing noise?

Our free, online 18th September Café conversation will be on organisational strategy, and we are staying zoomed in on the nature and usefulness of “a sense of direction”. Places are limited to 50, so register early HERE to get a spot. Our August café reviewed the challenges of creating, communicating, and receiving (adopting someone else’s) vision. With the help of clinical psychologist Nevern Subermoney and our wonderful community we identified several challenges with, and some helpful guidelines for, “the vision thing”. You could read the summary of that café here or watch the edited video here.

We should care about “the vision thing” because there is a relationship between what we do now and where that takes us into the future.

If vision is where we are going, and strategy is how we will get there, what qualities make up a useful vision? Classically, a good organisational vision captures three things to inspire organised group effort: (1) a sense of purpose and values (why), (2) a sense of goals (where), (3) a sense of inspiration (emotion). The vision is symbolic.

To develop a vision, we need a combination of craft (action, try), art (imagine, dream) and science (measure, count). The vision does not have to be in the centre of all three but will likely draw on all three.

It seems that many people are unable to imagine the future or are exhausted by the thought of doing so. Dr Louise Van Rhyn wonders whether it’s time to let go of the vision thing, and Beatrice Atrill notices that many organisational members don’t want to join the “vision” conversation.

In our August café, we looked at the psychological processes that need to be activated for future orientation. Our busyness (cognitive overload, 4IR), our generational issues (personal relevance, financial insecurity), and our immediate need for food and shelter (choosing contingent reward in the present over uncertain future outcomes) are just some of the factors we have explored. Nevern Subermoney gave this a psychological label – Present Bias.

In some organisations this plays out as Vision made up of purpose-only, or purpose plus values – with short term and fluid goals. The “vision thing” is adaptive rather than enduring. When asked about their vision, many leaders respond with operational tasks (get this done, get through the day or the week). The task focus dominates the conversation with a bias toward survival over prosperity.

One can’t help but wonder whether organisations might feel even more like hamster-wheels, where you run on a wheel to spin the wheel to earn a meal, but the wheel doesn’t “go anywhere”. Spinning the wheel faster may earn more meals but also burns more energy.

Broadening purpose does alleviate the pain. If the purpose is to “spin the wheel”, and spinning the wheel becomes our life’s mission, there is a zen-like acceptance of life’s nature. “Chopping wood and carrying water” as a sacred activity.

If we hook a generator to the wheel, and for every spin of the hamster wheel the hamster gets a meal and five other hamsters get a warm bed, then spinning the wheel becomes about “spin the wheel to keep hamsters warm and safe”. Even in this simple analogy, one can smell the emergence of vision – “keep all hamsters warm and safe”! From there, some operational goals (500 hamsters this year, for example) would keep an organisation moving forward.

As simplistic as this sounds, many people we talk to seem to focus on spinning the hamster wheel. What is happening here, and do we need to do anything about it? Join the conversation in the comments section, and register here for the free, online café on 18th September 2024.

Written by: Craig Yeatman