The Guiding Star: Why Vision is Important for Effective Strategy Implementation
- Martin Haley | Normaraties Limited
- Jun 6
- 3 min read
Organisations frequently find that their well-crafted strategies fail to achieve their intended outcomes. While strategy formulation defines where an organisation wants to get to and how; its true value only emerges when it is successfully implemented. This gap between strategy design and delivery is a persistent challenge. A fundamental element repeatedly highlighted in studies as crucial for bridging this gap and driving strategy implementation is a clear and compelling vision.
Vision, within the context of strategic planning, is defined as what the organisation wants to be. It's a concise statement that defines the mid- to long-term goals, typically covering a three- to ten-year horizon. A well-considered vision has two major components: the core ideology (including core values and purpose) and the envisioned future, which includes a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG). This BHAG is a stretch goal that challenges the organisation to become much better.
While strategy provides the roadmap, the vision provides the destination and the compelling reason to undertake the journey. Here's why vision is critically important for effective strategy implementation:
Provides Direction and Clarity: A good vision makes clear and simple the general direction for change. It clarifies how the future will be different from the past. This clarity is essential because a significant challenge in strategy implementation is that many employees are unaware of, or do not understand, the organisation's strategy. Research suggests that fewer than 10% of employees understand their strategy. If employees are unaware of the vision and strategy, they cannot possibly help to implement it effectively.
Drives Alignment: Building a visionary company requires 1% vision and 99% alignment. Vision helps drive this crucial alignment. When the vision is clear and understood, it coordinates the actions of many different people in a fast and efficient way. It helps ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction towards a common opportunity.
Motivates and Inspires Action: Vision paints a picture of the future, with compelling reasons why people should strive to create that future. It motivates people to action. Transformation efforts, essential for strategy implementation, require great cooperation, initiative, and willingness to make sacrifices. A compelling vision helps employees understand that this transformation is in their long-term best interest. You cannot appeal to people with data and facts alone; you must also account for how people feel, providing greater meaning and purpose. A strong vision resonates with both the head and the heart. Without a clear sense of purpose related to the vision, transformation projects will lose impetus.
Enables Effective Communication and Understanding: The real power of a vision is only realised when most of those impacted have a common understanding of its goals and direction. This necessitates consistent and clear communication. Undercommunicating the vision is identified as an error in change management. Leaders must actively overcommunicate their vision and ensure their actions send the same message as their words. Employees need to understand how their daily tasks and jobs need to change to align with the new strategy. Vision helps them understand the big picture and how it all fits.
Guides Decision-Making and Empowers Employees: Vision enables employees to understand how their actions fit with targets. It empowers them to decide how they do things, guiding them to choose the approach that best fits with the strategy. Vision is also central to empowering employees for broad-based action, which may involve changing the organisation, providing training, and adjusting systems to align with the vision. It helps identify where managers might be preventing initiative.
In essence, vision is not just aspirational rhetoric; it is an action-orientated principle. It must sound good and have a BHAG to get people out of thinking too small. Vision is a critical step in developing the strategy itself and should be integrated into how the organisation is run. While simply communicating a strategy doesn't equal implementation, a clear, well-communicated vision provides the essential context and motivation needed to translate strategic intent into coordinated, purposeful action across the entire organisation. It serves as the guiding star that keeps the implementation effort on track and ensures strategy becomes embedded in "business as usual".
