SUMMARY
Like the elusive Bigfoot, a truly compelling nonprofit vision is often pursued but rarely captured, yet the process becomes simpler once leaders understand that vision literally means “to see” and starts with vividly picturing the organization at its best.
Chasing Bigfoot
In the northwestern quadrant of the United States, there are devoted, believing souls who spend their time searching for a mythical creature—a thing so rare and hard-to-comprehend that it has become almost an obsession for those in pursuit. Also known as the Yeti, Sasquatch and the Abominable Snowman, this legendary beast is perhaps best recognized as Bigfoot. And, for more than seven decades, people have been finding and photographing traces and clues of its existence. But, to this day, this large, hair-covered, man-like animal has never truly been documented.
And so it goes with most nonprofit vision statements. Indeed, like the illusive Bigfoot, vision is often talked about, but genuine sightings are rare.
Like searching for Sasquatch, endless hours in countless board and staff meetings have been dedicated to capturing this brute. Tragically—despite the effort invested—very rarely does a nonprofit’s vision live up to its full potential.
In this article, we’re going to do a number of important things. First, we are going to examine what “vision” really is. In so doing, you’ll gain a trusty and reliable way of thinking about the visioning process which will help you greatly as you move forward in developing and refining the perfect one for your organization. Next, we’ll explore what vision does and how it specifically works. And finally, we’ll list three important reasons why your organization’s vision matters.
... developing an inspiring organizational vision begins with what you see in your mind's eye.
As a result of reading this article, you’ll gain a much greater understanding of what vision is and how to harness its power in your organization.
With that said, let’s get started.
What Vision Is
More often than not, nonprofit leaders (and their board members for that matter) make crafting and maximizing a nonprofit’s vision statement so much harder than it needs to be. In fact, virtually every nonprofit executive has experienced the pain and suffering that accompanies the group exercise of developing an inspiring, pragmatic vision statement. Legion are the stories told by nonprofit executives of the hours invested in dialoguing, discussing, debating, and arguing what vision is and what vision is not. And despite the best of intentions—not to mention the exhaustive group effort put forth— consensus is seldom reached.
From where we sit, there has to be a better and easier way. Let’s see if we can break this down into more helpful, manageable bites.
Literally translated, the word “vision” simply means “to see.” And believe it or not, this is perhaps the most useful definition that exists when it comes to establishing an organization’s vision.
So burn this into your brain: developing an inspiring organizational vision begins with what you see in your mind’s eye.
Here’s a useful exercise. Put your feet up on your desk. Close your eyes. Now, picture in your mind’s eye your nonprofit functioning at its very best. Who specifically are you serving? What services are you providing? What differences are you making? These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered. But, by seeing all of this activity in your mind’s eye, your vision no longer remains an abstraction.
Now, imagine having 10-15 of your closest and most trusted advisors participating in this same exercise. As simple as this sounds, this is how it should be when developing a shared vision with your board members. And here’s the bottom line, a vision is genuinely shared when you and your board members have identical pictures in mind and are wholeheartedly committed to achieving what you collectively see.
What Vision Does
Specifically, shared vision creates two essential elements for getting your nonprofit to the next level: energy and alignment. Let’s take a closer look at each.
First, because a well-crafted vision is inspiring, it produces energy. This energy fills the heart and then moves the feet. Certainly, most—if not all—nonprofit executives know what it’s like to be inspired by a noble, breathtaking organizational vision. Indeed, it’s most likely the reason why they entered the field in the first place.
Peter Senge, one of the nation’s leading scholars on organizational vision, further relates that vision is “a force in people’s hearts, a force of impressive power…It is palpable. People begin to see it as if it exists. Few, if any, forces in human affairs are as powerful as shared vision.”
Make no mistake, when people genuinely share a common vision, they take action. And this is what it’s all about for a nonprofit.
But there’s more.
In addition to creating energy, shared vision creates alignment. By alignment we mean that shared vision not only gets everyone energized, but it ultimately and effectively channels that energy to get everyone moving in the same direction.
And this is a very powerful thing. When you, your staff, your board members, and your constituents share the same vision and everyone begins moving in the same direction, great things happen.
Summary
As you can see, your nonprofit’s vision is big deal. In this article, we’ve addressed both what vision is and what it does. In our next offering, we will share with you three BIG reasons why your charity’s vision matters—and how it can be a game changer if employed properly.
