Shared Vision
I attended a learning programme titled
“Leadership Coaching and Organisational development” by Dr. Bernd Schmid of
Germany. During the 3 day programme a lot of concepts were discussed. One
of the concepts, which I found very striking impressive was about having a
“Shared Vision”.
So what is the difference, between
“Vision” and “Shared Vision”? Let us explore.
We have always been looking at Vision as
something which is driven down from the top management to the bottom. A leader
or the founder of the organisation has a vision, which is explicitly expressed
as a Vision Statement for the whole team to follow. It is quite common to see
Vision boards, placed at important locations at Corporate offices today, but
how much of it have the people in the organisation imbibed is a question that
needs to be asked. So the limiting factor here is that the Vision is that of
the leader’s and the team members just expedite the roles they are expected to
perform.
On the other hand “Shared Vision” is much different to the existing paradigm, of leader imposed vision. In the context of “Shared Vision”, the leader has a vision, which he explicitly shares with the entire team, so that everyone understands his vision and see if they find an alignment with the same. Those who find alignment of their personality or personal vision to that of the organisational vision, commit to work towards realization of this vision. By doing so they take part ownership of the vision, rather than looking at it as someone else’s vision. They develop personal affinity to the vision and identify themselves with the vision. In other words, they become role models of the Vision. When a person chooses to work for an organisation, wherein he finds this alignment, it will in turn enhance his level of commitment and contribution to the organisation. This is the power of “Shared Vision”.
If the Vision of an organisation is clear, everything will fall into its place. There will be less reasons for disputes among team members. So, when the vision of an organisation becomes the second skin of the people working towards it, they instantly know what is to be done, keeping in mind the vision.
If we look at organisations that have
lasted over 100 years, we will find that most of these organisations have
a shared vision. This makes the organisation continue
to thrive irrespective of change in leadership, change of employees/ team
members or change in economic and market conditions.
In yet another programme I attended, I had the opportunity to listen to a speaker from Bosch India. He told us, how seriously their company takes it founder’s vision, when making any decision, big or small. He said that the founder, Mr. Robert Bosch, was by nature a perfectionist with an eye for detail. He was a highly quality conscious person, who will not compromise on quality for any other factor such as cost or time. He was also constantly looking at ways of improving upon his existing products. This temperament of the founder, became the guiding principles based on which the company formed its Vision, “Creating Value - Sharing Values”. This he said is the reason that the company is successful for over 125 years in over 50 countries.
The idea of “Shared Vision” is now being practiced in many companies abroad and which looks idealistic in the perspective of how organisations in India, can function in the future.
Another classic example is Walt Disney. The vision he shared is to “Make People Happy”. All his creations right from the cartoon characters, theme parks, hotels, retail stores and movies have created the magical experience to it’s customers, because of its single minded vision of making people happy.
So, it becomes obvious that if the
company succeeds, it means that its vision has succeeded and if a company
fails, it means that its vision has failed.
D. Senthil Kannan,
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