A Vision Statement was made really popular in the early 80s, and most of the time it was the big Fortune 100 companies that were creating them or at least making them publicly known. But, unlike leg warmers and mullets, these trends did not disappear with the 80s – they’ve become standard business proclamations that can be a guiding light for businesses of ALL sizes. That is why it is important to make sure they stay relevant and applicable to the business, especially after a time of crisis like Covid-19.
How to Write a Vision Statement You Can Operationalize
So many times, we see Vision Statements that are either not “future-focused,” too abstract or grandiose to be realistic, or too jargon-y to make sense to anyone inside the business, let alone outside the business. I talked about this with Mission Statements in my last blog post, and Vision Statements often have the same issues. Let me give you some examples:
“World class service”
“Maximize people’s lives one step at a time”
“To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.”
The first two are made up, but are examples of Vision Statements that are too vague. Yes, we want Vision Statements to be short and to the point, but what does World Class mean exactly? And HOW are we maximizing people’s lives?
The last example is Microsoft, and again, it is too vague.
I think Vision Statements need to be able to be operationalized. What do I mean by that? I mean that they should be the business’s roadmap around which the rest of the goals, objectives, and measures are created. I recently taught this concept in a Key Performance Indicator workshop, so let me walk you through how it works.
If you own a restaurant and the Vision Statement is “Maximize our customers’ flavor palettes through innovative culinary experiences,” it is probably going to be difficult to create a strategic plan around that. However, if the Vision of the company is “Our restaurant is a place where people come to experience excellent customer service while enjoying exceptional food,” then that gives you something you can set into motion by setting objectives and measures around. You could measure customer service by doing a customer satisfaction survey or by asking customers to write reviews on Google. You could also measure the customers’ opinions of the food and whether they think it is exceptional. You could have objectives around customer service and exceptional food that create measures around short cycle times from when the food was ordered to put on the table, or how long people waited to get a reservation. There are so many ways to operationalize a clear and concise Vision Statement!
And I always think it’s helpful to have more than one example, so here is another one.
At the health center that I ran, the Vision Statement is. We are the leading providers of healthcare in our community regardless of a person’s circumstances.
Objectives were set around patient satisfaction, serving more underserved people, increasing clinical outcomes, and improving staff’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. Then, we made measures around all of these objectives to ensure we were actually accomplishing the Vision we had for the organization.
Think of a Vision Statement as an overarching goal, which will then have a cascade effect on the rest of the goals and measures being set for the company. That is operationalizing the Vision Statement rather than letting it become just another wall decoration that no one remembers.
Other Important Things to Remember When Writing About Your Vision
It is not a Mission Statement – it is where the business is going, not its purpose for existing
It needs to be clear and concise – no more than 1-2 sentences
It should be obvious to what the business expects to accomplish – no jargon or vague terms
It should align with the Mission of the business
It should invoke a mental picture of the business’s overarching goal
It should be inspiring and achievable
It should be relevant to how you do business now (updated), so if your product or services changed a lot in response to the pandemic, you probably need to reset your Vision Statement.
Just like updating the Mission Statement, as business leaders, ensuring the company’s Vision is updated is simple but critical – especially to reset and get out of operating in crisis mode.
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