The Cutter Edge Resource Center
This free weekly e-mail service for qualified IT and business professionals gives information and advice that you can put to work immediately for your organization. Issues are written by Cutter Consortium's journal authors and Senior Consultants.
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Case Study: The Use of Visioning to Unite and Inspire
by Kenneth Rau, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium
Visioning allows organizations to make statements about the future as they would like to see it. Visioning became popular about 25 years ago and was codified in a technique called "visioning and mastery." It remains a powerful tool for leaders. Two oft-quoted exemplary vision statements are John F. Kennedy's "Before the end of this decade, we will land a man on the moon" and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream." Vision statements set the direction and enable choices and decisions to be made in the absence of the leader. Faced with two alternate paths, individuals in organizations with a shared vision choose the course that best supports the vision.
I work with the local Humane Society in my county. When I joined the organization about a year ago, I found it to be without purpose or direction, raising money for the sake of raising money and executing a few initiatives that had been performed annually for years. The president had recently resigned, and morale was low. So the organization had decided that it needed to develop a plan but was unsure how to proceed. I suggested we begin by drafting a new mission statement. After several iterations, the following was adopted:
"To promote and support quality health, safety, and welfare of companion animals in the county." Understand, each word had been discussed, dissected, substituted, and rearranged to produce this simple statement. From there we moved on to a vision of the preferred future and adopted the following vision of the organization after additional extended discussions:
If you were to parachute down into the county at some unspecified date in the future, you would find:
- The attitude of county citizens and elected officials is one of compassion and care for all animals.
- No healthy animal is put down.
- All companion animals who need a home find a home.
- The population of domestic animals is in line with the demand for them.
- Animal diseases that are treatable are eradicated.
- Services to treat all injured or suffering animals are available and affordable.
- Abuse and neglect of animals is reported and animal protection laws are enforced.
This is our preferred future state and the vision we will work to achieve.
A year later, the society:
- Has launched initiatives to educate third-graders on the proper care and treatment of animals
- Has published a newsletter for its members, local veterinarians, and public officials
- Is underwriting the costs of two rescue groups that remove healthy animals from the county shelter before euthanizing and place them in homes
- Has developed a brochure describing its mission, values, and vision initiatives
- Has increased its individual and corporate memberships
- Has briefed the county commissioners on the initiatives
- Is exploring ways to improve conditions at the animal shelter, including assisting the county in building a new shelter
Note how each initiative supports one or more of the vision statements. The result: morale is high, and members are enthused and active.
-- Kenneth Rau, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium
[For more information on Cutter Consortium's Business-IT Strategies advisory service, please contact Dennis Crowley at +1 781 641 5125 or e-mail dcrowley@cutter.com.]