Key factors for effective vision planning

Strategic vision is a concept of relating a company’s ideal future to the strategy used today. A vision statement, which provides support for a strategic plan, typically outlines an organization’s overall goals and states the purpose of the company’s existence. An effective vision statement is specific and concise and should leave nothing open for interpretation. Vision statements often reflect the core values and mission of the company.

Vision statements are beneficial for any company to have, especially those businesses just starting out. To actualize the vision, however, the statement must be followed with a plan of action for fulfilling what’s declared in the vision statement. Consider the following factors necessary to form an effective vision plan for your organization:

• Cooperation and inclusion
• Two-way communication
• Creativity and innovation
• Prioritization
• Culture

Cooperation and inclusion

Vision planning is an ongoing process that requires complete workforce engagement. Your staff helps to provide insight into potential issues or challenges as well as opportunities in the process of forming the plan, and having their input considered solidifies their commitment to successfully carrying out the plan.

Two-way communication

All departments or levels of employees should receive communication regarding the intention of the company to form a plan for executing the company’s vision. This communication should include the invitation or expectation for each employee to exercise their ability to be involved in this process.

Creativity and innovation

Innovation plays a key role in organizational culture and vision planning. Some strategic plans fail due to the lack of understanding and failure to adapt. The organization must address the question of whether they’ve provided the tools and the space necessary for truly creative innovation, adapting where necessary, as often as necessary.

Prioritization

Once a strategic plan is formed, the moving parts of the strategy must be identified and then prioritized to ensure that the necessary resources are available and the team understands and is committed to its involvement in the success of the plan.

Culture

An organization is a microcosm with its own unique culture created by the commonly held beliefs and behaviors as well as the diversity of its workforce. If the common belief among employees is that change is valuable and everyone plays an important role, individual and organizational growth can happen with relative ease.

Two approaches to planning strategy and vision

Depending on the intended outcome of your company’s vision planning, there are different approaches that you can take. Here are two:

VMOSA

VMOSA stands for Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies and Action. As a ‘goals-focused’ approach, VMOSA places heavy emphasis on implementing clear goals and forming step-by-step action plans to achieve them.

There are many good reasons for organizations to use this approach, including the following:

• Provides a clear outline of steps toward success
• Includes efforts and input from all employees
• Allows for focus on both short-term and long-term organizational visions

This approach is appropriate in most organizational circumstances, including:

• Newly-formed organizations or major rebrands with a clear mission and vision statement
• Reinvigoration of past goals for future success
• Stable and seeking funding from investors or other resources

VMOSA, broken into its parts, looks like this:

Vision: Your organization’s vision describes the organization’s beliefs and ideologies, set forth in a clear, concise statement that is known and understood by all members of the organization.

Mission:An organization’s mission statement concretely communicates the actions the organization will take to achieve its goals.

Objectives: Objectives are specific milestones an organization wishes to reach on the way to achieving overarching goals. Generally, objectives are the guideposts for what will be accomplished, and when.

Strategies: Strategies are the action steps needed to reach objectives. Strategies can be very broad, with many moving parts, or very specific, in which the plan is confined to a narrow path.

Action:The action plan describes in comprehensive detail the plan’s strategies, how they’ll be implemented, changes to be made and specific actions to be taken in order to accomplish objectives.

Systems-focused planning

The systems-focused approach, an organic, intuitive approach to planning, is the most comprehensive and common form of planning and provides a big-picture perspective of the overall cause-and-effect connection within the organization’s model. This approach places equal importance on a business’s mission, customers and core values and views the organization itself as a system within a complex environment in order to build a customized process of planning, implementing and achieving goals.

This approach is suited to organizations that:

• Seek clarity on the organization’s value offerings
• Need increased transparency regarding the organization’s mission and vision in making impactful business decisions
• Have an unstable industry or business environment
• Has never developed a strategic planning process

Related:How to Hire Your First Employee

Finding a balance in strategic vision planning

Some of the most successful long-running companies in history still hold the same values and vision as when they opened their doors, but they know when to make changes in the tactics they employ to achieve their overall vision. While business environments can change quickly, there is a balance to strike between adaptability and durability when it comes to your company’s overall strategy.

Striking such a balance requires the establishment of a clear strategy, universal engagement and two-way communication. Organizations should allow for innovation in the development and execution of processes, and guidelines should be implemented to manage and prioritize objectives and the resources needed to reach them.

Related:How to Grow Your Business

Vision planning FAQs

The following questions are commonly asked about vision planning:

How can my organization overcome resistance to change within the workforce?

It’s understandable that with four different generations working together in the overall workforce that some changes will be met with more resistance than others. The key to overcoming resistance is to expect some degree of it and plan for it. Think ahead about how you’ll address pushback, be understanding of why they may be resistant and be sure that the benefits of the change, as well as any consequences, are clearly articulated and understood by every employee.