What happens when there’s no living vision? – vision void! Over the last weeks I’ve discussed everything from the root causes to the deadly impacts of it. In case you missed a post in this series, here they are for your review…
- Impact of Vision Void – “Flight to the Past”
- Impact of Vision Void – “Fragmentation and Replacement”
- Reasons for Deadly Vision Void
But before I move on to discuss the final major impact, let me answer a question you may be asking yourself – “c’mon Johannes, why spend so much time talking about negative impacts?” The answer is simple and germane to most areas of life…unless you’re able to identify the symptoms and understand the root cause, you can’t fix the problem. Also my observation and work over the years has convinced me that this problem is one of the key issues sapping the life of many organizations today.
So, what’s the final deadly impact (it may be somewhat anti-climactic…)? It’s simply absence of vision all together. Unlike the other “deadly impacts,” the void isn’t filled with a surrogate vision; it’s just replaced with “today” i.e. operational busyness or “frenzy.” What does it look like?
First, management prioritizes and rewards “activity” over everything else. Since they can’t bear the thought of people “idly” thinking about the future, or laying out plans for the long-term (way too fluffy), they force “execution.” At least they can say “my team is working hard” and “we’ll see results tomorrow”…never mind the results may be useless to the future of the organization. Since “fast action” is their key tactic, it creates the smoke screen of effectiveness and keeps other stakeholders “off balance” (trying to catch up), making it difficult to hold these leaders liable for defaulting on their core role of assuring the future of the organization.
Second, let’s consider the resulting impact on employees. It’s predictable…at the beginning they’re so busy and weary from running in circles, they can’t “come up for air.” However, unfortunately for their managers, this typically doesn’t last. They soon begin to figure out the “system” and master the “activity.” What happens? One of three scenarios unfolds – the individual questions the lack of real purpose and is “punished” with more work (“you evidently have too much time to think”); or the individual only does exactly what they’re told and no more (the safest option – “since I don’t know where we’re headed – I have no idea what to do next”…breeding more micro-management); or the person leaves because they can’t connect themselves to the bigger picture (“I’m tired of running in circles”).
The net effect on the organization? Picture a hamster spending his life in a cage running in a wheel for hours – busy, stationary, ineffective and eventually…dead. Can you relate or know of an organization that does?
As this is the final installment of my series on the deadly impacts of vision void I would love to get your feedback. Does any of it sound familiar? Can you share an example that can make it come to life for others?
[…] beginning first and foremost with vision and strategy (note posts that describe what happens when vision is missing). The second essential ingredient for alignment is process. What is it? My personal definition is: […]