Why Vision Statements are Important
Proclaiming what an organization believes in is a form of vulnerability, which builds trust with an audience, and alignment with a team
When I left the 9-to-5 world, which was really 24/7, I was burned out, frustrated, disappointed, disenfranchised, and a few other dis-words that don’t immediately come to mind. The point is, I had had enough. Enough of the way business was being done at the time and had been for so many decades prior.
When my father was less than two years from passing and steadily declining from the far too common affliction of Alzheimer’s, I was visiting him in an assisted living home. Maria and I were sitting with him on a patio on a beautiful sunny day in southern California. At that stage of his disease there was not much conversation to be shared as he was too far gone. It was more Maria and I in conversation while just being in his presence and attending to his needs.
Then at one point he spoke up, “I’m getting out of here soon.”
Knowing not to argue with someone with memory issues I simply said, “Oh, where are you going?” Then he said, “I’m getting back in business.”
I tried to encourage him to accept retirement and comfort, thus asking him why he wanted to return to business. Which is when he held up his right hand and rubbed his thumb and forefinger together — the universal symbol for money.
That was it. Just money. That had been the primary focus of his life. That’s what drove him and was much of what he still thought about as he slowly lost his memory.
But times are changing. They changed from twelve years ago when I could no longer do the job I was doing because the company I was working for had lost its purpose. I took the job when the company was deeply purposeful, and over time it lost its way.
But it’s not only me. Most people want more than a mere paycheck. When we don’t give people something meaningful to strive for then it’s just about doing this thing that is boring or uninteresting or soul-crushing and in exchange you give me this income.
But we need to make money to survive, you might say. Of course we do. Which is the justification that far too many employers and industrialists have used to exploit the labor class. But let’s look at this word: exploit. It means, “to use (a situation or person) in an unfair or selfish way.” Labor unions came about because of exploitation. Health and safety laws in the workplace came about because of exploitation. Affirmative action came about, regulation of industries came about because of exploitation.
What those who exploit do not understand (what they have never understood) is that by winning they lose.
Maybe a company is so large they dominate a labor market in a particular region, and they can set the rates, the terms, the hours. They can read the desperation on the faces of workers and exploit it to their advantage. They may think they’ve won, but they don’t realize they’ve already lost.
They could have people join their team who would march to the end of the Earth to ensure the success of the company. Instead they acquire people who care for themselves and the person next to them, but rarely for the company. People who fulfill the minimum requirement, who require constant supervision, who feel like so much is being taken from them that they do not feel motivated to go above and beyond.
In the white-collar environment we call this not being “engaged.” The analytics company Gallup has been researching employee engagement for some 50 years and their findings consistently show a high percentage of workers that are not engaged, and an alarming amount are actively disengaged, meaning they are working to undermine the companies they work for. Recent numbers show that only 32% of full and part-time workers are engaged, while 18% are actively disengaged.
At the risk of repetition let me say it again, this research has been going on for 50 years. You would think that as a society we’d be having ongoing conversations at all levels to address the problem, but we don’t. Gallup, a handful of large consulting firms, and a small army of individual consultants have been working on this issue for years, but with no appreciable effect on the level of engagement. CEOs and C-Suite executives are well versed in the need to stimulate more engagement. It’s on the minds of many, but I would argue that few truly understand what it takes to cultivate a more engaged workforce.
Enter vision statements. They often sound philosophical, lofty, and a little meaningless. Many times companies will bring consultants in to help craft vision and mission statements. They’ll conduct surveys, explore the values, workshop the language, and leave a tightly written philosophical sounding vision statement. What happens next is what’s most important.
Usually it’s placed on the website. There might be a little hoopla surrounding its announcement, but then it’s back to work, shove it in a drawer, and get on with business.
Simon Sinek came on the scene in 2009 with a viral TED talk and followed up with the seminal book Start with WHY: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. His vision and writing are awesome. The notion of starting with WHY is incredibly important and he single handedly affected a shift in the way brand strategy work is done.
But . . .
Even Sinek didn’t really know how to actually create vision statements that clearly articulate a WHY. His second book, Find Your Why: A Practical Guide to Discovering Purpose for You or Your Team came about not because he had the answer, but as a response to two of his readers who figured out a sort of process for crafting WHY statements. They reached out to Sinek and the three co-authored the practical guide to discovering purpose.
Six years hence and the needle hasn’t moved. We still have a business climate espousing vision statements like, “We’re dedicated to being number one in our industry . . .” or “We strive to provide the most innovated products and services . . .”
We’ve heard all that ad infinitum. It’s boring. And there is no such thing as “best.” Best for who? Best based on what criterion?
They’re not true vision statements and they fail to have any appreciable effect on the culture of a company, to say nothing of employee engagement.
So why bother? Why do we need vision statements anyway?
Truth be told, we need them more than anything. But we need real vision statements. Ones that boldly and clearly state what we believe, that speak to the essence of a company.
True vision statements are aspirational. We don’t say we believe in something unless we truly do. By proclaiming it we may not always get it right — but it’s what we strive for.
Stating it also means we’re making a bold proclamation of what we stand for. Which means we’ll be held accountable when we fall short. That’s taking a risk.
So let’s ask ourselves the question: what enables us to come to a place of deeply trusting an individual? When they allow themselves to be vulnerable with us, when they own their mistakes and seek to make things right. Why should it be any different for an organization?
Proclaiming what an organization believes in is a form of vulnerability. Admitting when they fall short is also vulnerable. Taking sizable steps to make things right solidifies the trust we have for them.
Vision statements talking about how great a company is are hollow and meaningless. Vision statements that state a belief are infinitely more compelling and build trust with an audience.
But vision statements are not just important for marketing — they’re important for the culture of a company. But not if they’re shoved in a drawer. Rather when we feature them on signs in the office, on the website, on meeting agendas, and when we constantly remind ourselves of it and invite conversation and even debate around them.
This is when vision statements begin to truly activate within an organization. And it’s in the activation that people begin to align around a statement — which is a belief, which is also an aspiration.
The true importance of a vision statement is that it gives people something to believe in that aligns them with an organization, so they feel a part of, so they feel belonging, and in belonging there is meaning.
The “good news” that Gallup is reporting about their most recent round of research is that while overall engagement is falling, “there are organizations that have more than doubled this percentage [of engagement].”
This is huge. Because it validates what we’ve been sensing, which is that a small (but growing) number of companies are being conceived, led, and run by people with more expansive visions, because people are craving more than just a paycheck — more than profit and material wealth.
This is a simple, but not so easy shift that changes everything — moving from more money to more connection, more belonging, and more meaning. Vision statements are the starting point for alignment which leads to connection, belonging, and meaning.
To be fair to the company I left twelve years ago, they were struggling financially. Event marketing is one of the first places companies slash budgets when times are tough, and the 2008 financial crash signaled a slow decline for this boutique event production company I was working with.
How that translated is that it was no longer about a vision of sustainability and cultivating a family environment. Instead it was how can we find more revenue, even if it means sacrificing some of our values. In other words, it becomes about survival instead of vision, making payroll instead of joining around values and vision.
This is the age-old quandary we must all face. But the truth of it is that the more of us take the bold and courageous step of aligning around a real vision statement, we change the way business is done one company at a time.
And if you’ve read this far you are likely wondering, Okay Glenn, so how do you craft a “real” vision statement? And if Simon Sinek, the patron saint of WHY can’t provide a clear path for crafting them, then how do we do it?
Stay tuned for part two: How to Craft a Meaningful Vision Statement.
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