That vision thing

Abstract

As a quarter of the new year passes, one's thoughts naturally will, on occasion, turn to a review of those pesky New Year's Resolutions: how many of them, born by the allure of a clean slate, are still being fol-lowed? One of the most common resolutions, after the standard pledge to reduce food, alcohol, and nicotine consumption , seems to be the vow to lead a more organized and purposeful life. The inviting structure of a blank, new calendar stimulates the urge to finally get a grip and to start doing things "right." In true capitalistic fashion , striving to profit from every conceivable need, planning has become a commodity. Numerous "systems" propose to help individuals better manage their time and thus their aspirations. Countless books cover topics ranging from organization to daily meditation as a means of achieving lifetime goals. Industry has business plans; academia has charters. Across all these approaches, a key concept appears: the mission statement, a vision, some declaration of intentions and direction. The concept has been both lauded and mocked. While Fortune 500 CEOs credit their success to a clear vision of what the company should be and where it should go, web page critics devote entire sections of their books to dissuading designers from inflicting a company's detailed, karmic, political, and worst of all obvious mission statement ("We aspire to be the best !") onto the rest of society (Flanders and Wil-lis, 1998). What it seems to come down to is this: having a clear statement of purpose can't guarantee success, but it can greatly leverage your efforts so that whatever activities you engage in, they bring you closer to where you truly want to be. While it's possible to survive in a making-it-up-as-you-go mode, definite goals can serve as an ultimate arbitrator, guiding difficult decisions regarding which options to take and which avenues to follow. Rather than following the path of least resistance, which has been defined by someone else, you get to set the agenda. However, vision alone is not a panacea. Developing a vision and following through on it are two different tasks, requiring greatly different levels of effort to enact. Enacting your vision (or even figuring out how to enact it), can make New Year's resolutions look easy in comparison. At the same time, a vision needs to be seen as a set of guidelines, rather than mandates, so that …