CHANGE OR CHANCE (PART 5) FORMING A STRATEGIC VISION
“Form a strategic vision”.
Note the use of the term “vision” and let’s put it in context.
We’ve created a sense of urgency.
We’ve built a Guiding Coalition (GC).
We’ve developed a hybrid organisational structure having the stable, repeatable
hierarchy alongside the innovative Creative Network (CN).
Now, we’re going to form a strategic vision.
A vision, a picture, an image of the future that people can, themselves,
visualise and buy in to, and work towards.
But they can do much more than that.
They can create it, flesh it out, innovate, let the optimal strategy emerge that fulfils that vision, the big opportunity.
The common and not so subtle thread here is “people”, and this runs throughout the phases of the entire Change process.
Without stakeholder buy-in, your Change or Transformation is dead-in-the-water.
Stakeholders are real people, with faces, families, futures, and fears.
They possess the “thrive” and the “survive” responses that are inherent in human beings.
Forming a strategic vision, and allowing the CN to formulate and realise it, imparts ownership and buy-in, and leverages the exponential value of thought, from every corner and every level of the organisation.
It also helps to balance the thrive and survive responses that are triggered by Change and that make all the difference between success and failure.
Too much “survive” and you’re running into a brick wall because you’ll kill innovation and face barriers to Change.
A balance of the two helps to stimulate the rapid thought, creativity, sense of
opportunity, enthusiasm, and excitement surrounding the Change vision.
We haven’t yet discussed the “volunteer army” that populates the CN, but we will, in our next post on Change.
The strategic vision points to the place on the horizon that the Leadership of the organisation has defined.
It’s the deliberate strategy conceived by the Leadership.
The CN is charged with working up its delivery, and it’s highly probable that “emergent” strategies will evolve during the process and can significantly enhance the original strategy definition (the “rules/policy”).
Throughout the process, the GC will be regularly and effectively communicating
CN output updates to the entire organisation.
This allows stakeholders to readily progress along the Change curve, balancing thrive with survive.
It empowers the GC to progressively respond to buy-in issues and feedback.
So, a strategic vision being evolved by a CN populated by people from all levels of the organisation?
Radical?
The evidence suggests not.
More on the CN and the Volunteer Army that populates it in part 6 of our series on Change.
Let’s discuss – what are your thoughts? Please comment below…..
Barry Eustance CMgr MCMI
Kotter Change Leader Certified
Principal Consultant – The Sixsess Consultancy
Empowering Clients to Seize Opportunity from Change
https://sixsess.org
