Vision Statement · The statement · Component
The vivid description
What it looks and feels like on arrival — the half people can act on, as distinct from the headline they can remember.
The deliverable
What it is
Collins and Porras pair the ambitious goal with a vivid description precisely because the goal alone is too abstract to guide anything. The description is what a person can picture and therefore work towards.
It should be concrete to the point of feeling slightly presumptuous. Naming what a customer says, what a day looks like, what has stopped being difficult is what makes it usable.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
The picture
A concrete description of the arrived state.
3 attributes: Description · Word count · Written
LearnThe changes
What is different for each group when the vision is reached.
3 attributes: For whom · What is different · Observable
LearnThe honesty check
Whether the description would embarrass anyone who read it in five years.
3 attributes: Defensible · What is overstated · Checked by
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Write the picture in the present tense as though it had happened. It is a device, and it works better than any other framing.
The other components in the statement
The future state
What will be true when the vision is reached, in terms someone outside the organisation could verify.
LearnThe horizon
When the vision is expected to be reached, and why that date — because a vision with no date cannot be missed and therefore is not pursued.
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