Culture Care Technologies
  Human Resource & Organization Development Specialists in Company Culture

The Preferred Future

A vision is a results-oriented picture of a preferred and possible future that the members of an organization collectively aspire to and intend to realize. Whereas a mission statement explains why an organization exists, its raison d'etre, a vision statement describes what the organization aspires to become. These two statements provide the basic strategic foundation for the organization. From them are derived the other two strategic foundation documents — the core values and core beliefs required to accomplish the mission and realize the vision.

The vision statement and strategic plan are complementary documents; the former captures the preferred future while the latter ensures that the forecasted future is effectively addressed. As the vision remains constant, it provides the long term (i.e., 15+ years) anchor point for the succession of (typically 1-3 year) strategic plans.

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Visioning is “where the rubber meets the sky”; it is primarily a social-psychological process. It taps a voluntary source of energy and helps provide a sense of identity – drawing individuals beyond a ‘me' towards an ‘us'. The technical process of strategic planning is “where the rubber meets the road”. It identifies the priorities and provides the objectives and concrete action plans that guide day-to-day operations.

The strategic plan along with the statements of mission, vision, core beliefs and core values comprise a set of complementary but separate documents that need to coalesce. Ideally they coalesce in culture, the system of shared, taken-for-granted beliefs and values that organization members see the world through and think from. When the learning of culture is properly managed, culture becomes the ‘glue' that binds members together as they strive to implement the strategic plan, accomplish the mission and realize the vision.