{"id":529,"date":"2017-07-25T21:05:19","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T21:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielvlopes238992071.wordpress.com\/2017\/07\/25\/what-is-company-vision-a-picture-of-a-better-place\/"},"modified":"2024-08-08T12:02:27","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T19:02:27","slug":"what-is-company-vision-a-picture-of-a-better-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2017\/07\/25\/what-is-company-vision-a-picture-of-a-better-place\/","title":{"rendered":"What is company vision? A picture of a better place"},"content":{"rendered":"

The importance of company vision (and how to figure out\u00a0yours)<\/h2>\n
<\/figure>\n

Earlier this year, I was asked to advise an entrepreneurship class over at the Northwestern Law School here in Chicago. Students pitched business ideas to a panel of mentors, including myself. We were then asked to give feedback on these ideas.<\/p>\n

The first team of students presented an idea to use video conferencing technology to better connect legal services with clients. On the first slide of their presentation, it said something to the effect of\u2026<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cVision: To alter the delivery of legal services.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This caught my attention. The \u201cvision\u201d they\u2019d written was not<\/em> a vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo alter the delivery of legal services\u201d<\/em> describes what you\u2019re doing or what you\u2019d like to do. But that\u2019s not a vision. A vision is a place.<\/p>\n

Let me explain.<\/p>\n

What exactly is a\u00a0vision?<\/h3>\n

A vision is a picture of a better place. You see this picture in your head: It\u2019s what you want the world to look like because your product or company exists. In many ways, your company\u2019s vision is your opinion for how you think the world ought to be. A vision answers the question, \u201cWhat world do you want to create?\u201d<\/p>\n

Vision is often misconstrued with other business-y terms, like \u201cmission,\u201d \u201cpurpose,\u201d and \u201cvalues.\u201d But a vision is different from any of those things.<\/p>\n

A vision<\/em> is where<\/strong> you want to be (remember, it\u2019s a place!). The purpose<\/em> of your company is why <\/strong>you want to get to that vision.\u00a0 The mission is what<\/strong> you do en route to that vision. Your company\u2019s values<\/em> are how<\/strong> you want to get to that vision.<\/p>\n

For the team of law students that I was mentoring, their vision for their company needed to be a picture of a better place. \u201cTo alter the delivery of legal services<\/em>\u201d is not a place.<\/p>\n

Instead, a potential vision of theirs could be: \u201cA world where legal services are democratized and easily accessible to anyone<\/em>.\u201d Or perhaps another take on their vision might be: \u201cA world where people\u2019s time and money are saved by having on-demand, affordable access to legal services<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

See the difference?<\/p>\n

Why does a vision\u00a0matter?<\/h3>\n

Knowing the vision of your company is important for two reasons: (1) it\u2019s the vision the ultimate clarifying force in your business decisions and (2) it\u2019s the greatest motivator for your team.<\/p>\n

At Canopy<\/a>, I\u2019ve found this to be especially true. When I became the CEO, the first thing I did was write down what I saw as our company vision<\/a>: A world where people can communicate openly and honestly at work. <\/em>It has since driven everything we do.<\/p>\n

Vision clarifies business decisions.<\/h4>\n

Take product development, for instance. When we think about our product development here at Canopy, we envision that picture of a better place:\u00a0 How can we build a product that creates an environment at work where people communicate openly and honestly?<\/p>\n

As a result, we do not allow anonymous feedback in Canopy. We believe anonymous feedback is destructive to people communicating openly and honestly<\/a>. Anonymous feedback doesn\u2019t help us get to that picture of a better place.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve surely lost sales because of this decision. People come to us saying they want an anonymous feedback feature in the product. And when we explain that we don\u2019t offer anonymous feedback and the reasoning behind it, they\u2019ll tell us they\u2019re no longer interested in using Canopy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For us, that\u2019s okay. Upholding our vision matters more to us than turning a quick buck or two. I prefer to sacrifice a sale here and there for the sake of showing others a different way of how the world could be better off. After all, that\u2019s the only way real progress toward your vision is made. When you stick to your guns, the world you want slowly begins to take shape.<\/p>\n

Vision informs the product. Not the other way around.<\/p>\n

The same holds true for the team of law students I\u2019m advising. Depending on what they determine their vision to be, that will ultimately shape what they will build and who they will build it for.<\/p>\n

For example, if they decide their vision is \u201ca world where legal services are democratized and easily accessible by anyone\u201d, they might focus on low-income individuals who typically cannot afford in-person legal services.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if the students decide their company\u2019s vision is \u201ca world where people\u2019s time and money are saved by having on-demand, affordable access to legal services,\u201d their target customer might be busy professionals who need quick legal advice, but don\u2019t have the time to schedule an in-person appointment with a lawyer.<\/p>\n

Both visions encompass the \u201caltering the delivery of legal services.\u201d But depending on which vision they choose to pursue, their business will have fundamentally different product directions, target customers, etc.<\/p>\n

Vision is the greatest motivator for you and your\u00a0team.<\/h4>\n

At Canopy<\/a>, this picture of a better place is what motivates me and gets me up in the morning. I can literally see in my mind\u2019s eye how employees, managers, and CEOs interact when they\u2019re living in a world where they can communicate openly and honestly at work.<\/p>\n

But this vision isn\u2019t just motivating to me<\/em>. When shared, a vision is the most powerful way to motivate a group of people.<\/p>\n

Why? A shared vision gives your team a common place to strive for. When each employee at your company clearly sees that same picture of a better place in their own minds\u2019 eye, each person connects to it and feels that pull of motivation to want to create that place.<\/p>\n

This means you can give more autonomy to each employee. Your employees now have a shared destination on the map, so you don\u2019t need to be ordering a series of coordinates instructing them how to get there. No more micromanaging.<\/p>\n

A shared vision also helps people get things done amidst disagreements. When people argue over how to grow the sales team or whether to acquire another business, this shared vision is a uniting force that can override seemingly irreconcilable differences.<\/p>\n

The key is that this vision is shared<\/em>. If it\u2019s purely top-down and coming from the CEO, people will see it as such. \u201cOh that\u2019s just the CEO\u2019s<\/em> vision\u2026\u201d Now, your company isn\u2019t aligned at all. You want to make sure your company\u2019s vision is a picture of a better place that everyone<\/em> wants to get to.<\/p>\n

How do you create a shared company\u00a0vision?<\/h3>\n

For your own company: Is the vision a picture of a better place? And if it is, is the vision shared?<\/p>\n

Or, like the law students in the entrepreneurship class, is the vision a bit amorphous? And perhaps a little different for every person in the company, depending on who you talk to?<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s the latter, don\u2019t beat yourself up! You\u2019re not alone. When asked to 1,385 employees across 160 companies, \u201cIf someone asked you to describe the vision of the company, would a clear answer immediately come to mind?<\/em>\u201d 30% of employees answered, \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are a few ways to figure out what your company\u2019s vision is, and ensure it\u2019s shared across your company\u2026.<\/p>\n

Commit to figuring it\u00a0out.<\/h4>\n

You can\u2019t expect your company\u2019s shared vision to be some magic phrase that hits you upside the head. A shared vision only emerges after repeated, deliberate conversations and actions toward what it could be. The key is to be genuinely committed to developing one. A shared vision comes from an real desire to cultivate a greater sense of meaning in the work that you do.<\/p>\n

Ask your employees what their personal visions\u00a0are.<\/h4>\n

Ask each of your employees: What is the picture of a better place that you want to create?\u00a0<\/em>A company\u2019s vision stems from the personal visions of each employee. After all, that is what the company is composed of: individuals. Each person must contribute to the vision in some way for it to be truly shared. You should ask each employee: Why are you here? What makes you proud to work here? What\u2019s the most rewarding part of what you get to do? <\/em>From their responses, you can identify the common thread, and begin to foster a shared vision.<\/p>\n

Interact more with those who benefit from the work you\u00a0do.<\/h4>\n

Since vision is the end result of what you do as a company, reminding yourself of that impact is key. Your company is (hopefully) making someone\u2019s life better and improving the world in some way. Ask yourself, What\u2019s the impact my company is creating right now? How can we further that impact? What would it look like to help people? <\/em>To help answer these questions, you should interact more with customers\u200a\u2014\u200athe very people who are benefiting from the work you do. Hear their stories, how you\u2019ve helped them, and how your company has made their lives better. It can help paint the picture for creating that impact for more people, and sets the foundation for a shared vision.<\/p>\n

\n

This isn\u2019t easy to think about, let alone to act on. It\u2019s understandable why fostering a shared company vision is frequently bypassed, or conflated with \u201ca mission statement\u201d or \u201cvalues.\u201d And among the seemingly thousands of things you need to do for your company to survive, a shared vision can feel more like a \u201cnice-to-have\u201d than a \u201cmust-have.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, trying to distill a clear company vision can feel so daunting that many CEOs I\u2019ve spoken with over years have said a version of this to me:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cYou know what Claire, I think it\u2019s okay that we don\u2019t have a shared vision for the company right now. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s mission-critical.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Don\u2019t settle for that. Your company\u2019s success is contingent on utmost clarity on what you\u2019re building toward. You need a shared vision to make decisions and to motivate your team\u200a\u2014\u200aand you need that clarity and motivation now.<\/em><\/p>\n

The clearer and truer that vision is for you, the more easily those decisions and motivating your team will come.<\/p>\n

Make sure you have a picture of a better place.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n\n

You might also enjoy reading…<\/h3>