Vision.  Sometimes, the idea of a personal or business vision can come across as a mushy, touchy-feely, feel good idea. George H.W. Bush was famous (or infamous) for referring to it as “the vision thing.”

It isn’t supposed to be that way. A compelling vision is one the most powerful ways of creating high levels of engagement (desire, commitment, etc.) for individuals and teams—because an effective vision is literally a picture of what you want.  When a team is truly committed to a clear picture of what they want to achieve together, they have a real shot at making it happen. If the team doesn’t have a clear vision of where they are going, there’s a good chance that’s where they will end up–nowhere.

A few years ago, I was a member of a leadership team that crafted a new vision for a large service business with over 70,000 employees across North America. The business had been struggling financially and was ranked dead last by its customers relative to all its major competitors for its products and services.  Workforce engagement was low and turnover was high–almost the highest turnover in its industry. Many of my peers on the executive team had turned over too. Bottom line: neither our customers or employees had much loyalty to our business.

Our new vision was specific, descriptive, colorful and full of heart—with defined metrics. It was also based on rigorous customer insight and analytics. We were confident that if our people understood and worked together to make our vision real, our customers would love what we were doing for them and goodness in many forms, including financial, would follow.  So we set about sharing our vision with every single one of our people and every new hire. We made sure that every person on our team learned about our vision and how they could help make it real in a face-to-face conversation with a trusted person who had “drank the kool-aid” and was well-trained on how to authentically share it with others.

What happened? Within 30 days of sharing our vision with tens of thousands of team members, our customer loyalty measure moved up dramatically. There were no other changes in product, pricing or process. Simply and powerfully, enough of our people bought into our vision to make a big difference in how they worked together to execute to our customers. And our customers noticed it immediately. Guess what the customers did as a result? Came back more often and spent more money at our business. Over the next several years, the business stayed focused on making our vision real – building it into the design and execution of our processes, products, culture and more.  Customer loyalty went from dead last to the top quartile of our competitors. Employee turnover at all levels was cut in half. Financial results?  Our profits increased by more than 300%.

If you think vision is some soft, touch-feely thing, ask the millions of customers, employees and investors who all got better products, jobs and financial returns from executing that vision. There are many, many other examples and I’m sure you have several in your own life.  History is full of them– if you haven’t heard Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, it is a terrific example of the power of a compelling vision to make a huge positive impact.

See It Then Make It Real

Would you do a little exercise with me? It won’t hurt. In fact, it will taste great in a virtual sense (and in the real world too, if you do it).  Here we go:

• What is your favorite food? By that I mean something from a specific country or type of food. For example, French, Italian, Sushi, Indian and so on. I love so many it’s hard to pick. For today, my choice will be Thai—and I will come back to that later.
• In your mind’s eye, take a minute and envision that food with all of your senses. See it on a plate, beautifully presented to you and ready to eat. Smell the different herbs and aromas as you inhale them. Feel the first bite as you taste the delicious flavors and textures.
• If you were to go for the absolute very best in the world dining experience in a restaurant for this, your favorite cuisine, where would you be? Be specific—identify the country, city or place, and type of restaurant.
• Now, close your eyes (after reading this item of course). See yourself in that place—see where you are sitting, who you are with (you’ve got to bring a great friend with you!), the sights, sounds and smells around you. What music do you hear playing?  Imagine the aromas, taste, texture of your favorite foods (and a drink to go along with them) as you dine in the most authentic, real place in the world for your choice with a treasured friend.

You have just created a vision. It is very specific and tangible in your mind’s eye isn’t it?  Right about now, your mouth ought to be watering like the fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas at the amazing prospect of this experience!

What if you’d stepped out of your front door one day and thought to yourself “Hmmm, I’m hungry” and gone to the nearest place for food?  You could have easily ended up at a grocery store or a fast food place, got some “fuel” for your body and moved on to the next thing to do. While it would have met your physical needs at the moment, there is nothing memorable about that.  Compare that experience to the vision you just created—vastly different outcomes, right?

For my favorite food dining experience, I imagined a place on the banks of a river in Northern Thailand—somewhere near Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai. It might look something like the picture to the right. In my vision, I traveled there with a great friend, arrived as the sun was setting and twilight turned to starlight as we shared a variety of freshly prepared Thai dishes. The spices and flavors went Ka-Pow!! in our mouths with every bite from the curry, noodles, peppers and sauces.  Panang Gai would likely be one of the dishes: red curry paste fried with chicken in a coconut cream with chopped kaffir lime leaves on top.  Some of the items were really hot, which was a great excuse for a taste of ice-cold local Singha beer before trying the next dish.  Two musicians playing Thai music added to the moment; we didn’t understand the words and that didn’t matter because we got the feeling. The moon glistened over the river as we ate dessert—fried bananas with coconut ice cream in a rum butter sauce. It was magical.  Who wants to go?!

Once you have your vision, you can begin planning and executing to make it real. For your food vision, that means passport, flights, hotel, friend(s) to join in, reservations, packing, budgeting and more. Because a vision doesn’t matter until you DO it.  Until then, it is just a dream.  Now it is time to build your plan and make it happen.  Make sure your plan is specific on what is to be done, who is going to do it, and when the actions and results are to be completed.  Otherwise, you are still daydreaming.

Measure What You Treasure

One of the key ingredients in making your vision more than a dream are metrics to track your progress from vision to reality. Metrics create accountability, anticipation, course corrections when needed, and confidence as you get closer to making your vision real.  The right metrics need to be defined based upon your unique vision. You are not going just anywhere, are you? So you need to have specific metrics that are perfect for measuring progress to your destination. Just like GPS coordinates tell you when you’ve arrived at the intended spot on your map and let you know you are getting closer every step of the way.

If you don’t have a vision and metrics to track your progress, what happens the next time you get hungry? You will likely end up accepting whatever you have in the fridge, or running out to get “something quick” from the grocery store or other “fuel source.”  Without metrics you could easily get lost along the way, even if you’ve decided where you want to go.

Compare that experience to the magic that can happen if you dream big, get clear on what you want to achieve, figure out how to measure your progress and get some other people to help you make it real.  Which path will you choose: a clear, compelling vision or whatever you happen to come across that is convenient?  What do you want for yourself? For your team? For your business?

Before you begin your journey, decide where you are going (vision) and figure out a way to track your progress there so you stay on course (metrics).  Otherwise, you could end up going somewhere truly mediocre—or go nowhere at all. Don’t just step outside your front door and take the path of convenience–go somewhere great on purpose.

Vision—it’s the beginning of making Want happen.  Where do you Want to go?

Are you hungry now? Bet you know what to do about it.