Why You Need a Why: The Importance of Vision
“Without a clear vision, everyone has to wait around and see what happens next. They have to get assignments and read smoke-signals to see which way to go. It creates a slowness, a kind of wait-n-see-ness to everything.
Vision is the Why. Without it, organizations rely on the What. As in, we do this what, and then that what. Work becomes a series of tasks when WHATs are the main course. A diet of WHATs rely on management assigning tasks to make sure all the parts of the business are covered. Why’s don’t. Why says that as long as you are clear on the goal, work with each other to get shit done. Having a good WHY allows power to be shared, for momentum to be built for stuff to happen without having to check back in. Without it, you travel in circles, covering a lot of ground but not necessarily going anywhere.”
Read the full article by Nilofer Merchant
Ola! Drwool,
In addition to your post I was wondering, The visionary founder of WalMart said, “Capital isn’t scarce; vision is.” How true and apropos that statement is as it applies to both business and organizational leadership. In training and developing leaders for more than three decades, one of the major concerns (excuses?) given by many of those who ascend to leadership positions is the challenges related to finances (both revenues and costs). However, most of those same people never truly seek alternative approaches, nor do they prioritize based on most pressing needs. They seem satisfied (or complacent) with the status quo, and either fear addressing changes or lack a thorough enough understanding of the issues.
I look forward to your next post