As I ticked through the elements of this change formula, I thought about that Vice President, and some questions I should ask him. The real estate business in my suburban Washington, DC neighborhood is not doing well. Housing starts and sales are well off the glory years of the 1970's and early '80's. Prospects for the near future are not great. I can understand the Vice President's dissatisfaction with the way things are.
Dissatisfaction can start with the company's external environment.
But if people are unhappy only about uncontrollable things, they will quickly feel paralyzed about the possibility of changing anything. A clear and relatively simple statement of what the organization will be like in the future. The vision focuses on both internal and external aspects of the company's existence. Externally, it describes what the customer will be getting or experiencing from contact with the organization. Internally, it depicts how the organization operates to deliver what the customer wants.