Sunday, June 5, 2005

   On Personal and Organizational Vision
I’m trying to get into the habit of constantly working on new essays. It keeps my mind keen and well-organized. It also gives me a sense of control over the general chaos of the world.

// Sidebar: Having a sense of control over things correlates strongly to happiness. I’ve read a few psychological studies on this. Whenever you’re down, just take control of some situation, and voila! Instant glee.

Today’s post will be on the importance of vision and how it relates to both individuals and organizations. Hopefully by the end, you’ll come to appreciate the whole vision thing and maybe even apply it to your own life.

First, what does “vision” really mean? Well, let’s first break the word down into its semantic roots. “Vision,” according to my handy-dandy dictionary, is from the Latin verb “visio,” which means “to see.” And, related to that Latin verb, is its current definition: “A mental image produced by the imagination.”

But that’s just a general definition. I like to think of a vision as merely a destination that one imagines for something.

For example, let’s say you want to build a Lego castle. Right now, you’re just staring at a box of oddly shaped Lego pieces. Not much to look at, but you’re still excited. You can just see the finished castle sitting before you. It’s a clear and defined goal that exists just in your head (and maybe on the cover art of the box).

That’s your vision. Though right now you have a lot of random pieces, you can imagine and just see a destination for those pieces—namely, being built into a great castle.

Okay, that was a lame example. I don’t think anyone really plays with Legos anymore. But you get the point.

So why is having a vision important?

Well, why is having a destination for anything important? To use a simple analogy, if you’re going on a trip, it’s important to first know where you’re going. Otherwise you might get lost or end up spending too much money on gas. On the other hand, if your vision is too precise, then you might miss out on some great opportunities along the way (tunnel vision, it’s called). So always keep your vision slightly out of focus. Stay flexible!

To get away from this analogy, I will now list a few concrete reasons on the importance of vision (feel free to chime in with your own ideas).

First, when you have a vision, you’re working toward a firm goal. And because you have a firm goal, you can take measurable steps toward its completion. This should keep you motivated since you can generate short-term wins.

Second, if you’re able to communicate your personal vision to others, then they’ll no doubt help you achieve it. Just being aware of your vision will cause them to keep their eyes and ears open for any related opportunities. I once heard a quote that if you really want something, the universe molds itself to help you accomplish it. The hard part is just figuring out what you want.

Third, as I mentioned earlier, a sense of control is correlated with happiness. Having a vision gives you a sense of having some control over your life. That’s why I recommend writing your vision down.

So where do you see yourself in five years? It’s a popular interview question (let me tell you…) that directly taps into one’s sense of personal vision. It’s also a hard interview question. I mean human beings were never meant to answer it. If you’re a caveman, struggling to survive in a hostile jungle, you live then and there. And if you do have a vision, it’s not to be eaten by a jungle cat.

I blame evolution for our general difficulty in formulating a vision.

Now, to take a step back, I wrote that this essay was meant to demonstrate the importance of vision as it related to both individuals and organizations. So far I’ve only discussed individual vision, but I think that the same basic rules apply for both.

If you’re the CEO of IBM, you better have a vision for where your company should be in a few years. And not only that, you better be able to communicate that vision to your people on a daily basis. How can you captain a ship when all the oar-men are pushing the water in different directions? You can’t—that’s why communication is so integral for organizational vision. It keeps everyone on the same page and working toward the same end.

Like individual vision, organizational vision also lets everyone keep their eyes and ears open to new opportunities that relate to your vision. It will also keep everyone motivated, since you can generate short-term wins.

So how should one go about formulating a vision? This is an eminently difficult question. Choosing the wrong vision is worst than having no vision at all. Steering a ship toward a deserted island will lead to guaranteed failure, whereas if you’re steering it randomly, there’s a chance you’ll stumble upon a worthy destination.

The framework I find most useful for creating either a personal or organizational vision is often used for analyzing companies. It’s called a “SWOT” analysis, with “SWOT” standing for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Basically, strengths and weaknesses relate to internal attributes whereas opportunities and threats relate to more external and environmental attributes. Both are important, so I’ll give a quick demonstration using myself as an example.

First, let’s look at my internal attributes, which include my strengths and weaknesses. My strengths include writing, design, quantitative analysis, logic, business/marketing, well-roundedness, and generally being very easy-going. My weaknesses include the fact that I’m probably too easy-going and demand a certain level of skill variety in whatever I do. I also have a very strong drive toward individualism, which hinders being able to work under other people.

Taking my internal attributes into consideration, let’s look at some external threats and opportunities that relate to me. Let’s say I wanted to focus on my strength in writing and wanted to stay independent (to avoid my weakness). Well, what are the opportunities and threats that relate to me?

I could be a creative writer, but that’s insanely competitive and, at best, I’d have to struggle to make ends-meat. Plus, I don’t see things getting any less competitive in the future. To make things even worst, people have been reading less and less fiction and that trend is expected to continue deep into the future.

On the other hand, digital content is really taking off. This represents an opportunity. I could become a specialist in online content. That could be my personal vision.

See? After using SWOT, I now have something worth fighting for. (This is just an example though--I'm not really interested in pursuing this path.)

Make sure though that when you’re doing an analysis of both opportunities and threats, you rely on sound market research and not solely on intuition. There are a wealth of secondary sources out there that talk about industry growth, expected trends, and average salaries. For example, my duties with this network require me to always keep my eyes peeled for statistics related to anime and manga sales growth.

If you have a few moments today, sit down and write out a SWOT analysis for either yourself or your organization. Then use that data to create a vision. From there, create a plan for achieving that vision and communicate it to everyone you know.

I think you’ll find it a helpful exercise.
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