Transforming a Vision into Results: Stay on the Path and Keep Out of the Weeds

Translating a vision into the desired outcome is a major challenge for even the most skilled leaders and managers of today. Staying on the path between the vision and the desired results requires hard work, big-picture thinking, talent, and commitment. Difficulty with delivering on the vision cannot solely be blamed on the usual suspects of time, resources, and scope. More often than not, initiatives end up in the weeds as a result of the lack of a vision-centric approach.

Generally, implementation approaches are a one-dimensional series of linear steps towards the end objective. This seems logical, and in simple, short-term initiatives it can work. However, the farther away you move in time or scope from the strategic starting point where vision and passion are key, the more clouded or operationally irrelevant the ‘abstract’ vision is seen to be. This happens as real world challenges disrupt or defocus projects, teams, expectations, and relationships. As a result, the language often becomes, “It’s about the details and we’re past the warm and fuzzy stuff now!” While that may be true and essential to a certain degree, the project is most likely in the weeds, resulting in a diluted vision.

A project or initiative ‘skips off the path’ when the focus shifts from managing towards a clear vision to a disproportionate focus on the process itself, which results in losing sight of the vision. Without a strong continuous focus on the vision, initiatives can easily become technocrat-driven, and get ‘stuck in the weeds’ – regrettably, the comfort zone for many. The challenge leaders face is how to maintain energy and focus on the vision, while at the same time managing the tactical and operational aspects of the process. The answer lies in adopting practical, simple, visual approaches that frequently circle back to the vision (i.e. the strategic plan) at pre-selected checkpoints.

Oddly, keeping it simple and focusing in on the ‘fuzzy’ stuff seems to go against our belief and training that the answers lie in procedures, deep analysis, and big reports; can there really be value in stopping and simply reconnecting with the fundamental purpose of the journey? Do we have time for this? Absolutely. But it calls for some new talents. Talents that support strategic clarity, simplified approaches, visualization, determination, confidence, and the creativity needed to stay on the path and transform what started out as a concept into the desired tangible outcome.

One such talent involves understanding how initiatives transform over time and what forces are at play. The often difficult path from vision to results is one buffeted by two simultaneously evolving and interdependent forces: the role of leadership through the implementation stages, and the progressively elaborative activities across implementation stages. The two sometimes counterproductive forces drive the initiatives through three very different transformation zones: the strategy zone where the initiative is defined (conceptualization); the innovation zone where solutions are created (actualization); and finally the integration zone where results are integrated into the environment (realization). A vision-centric approach can balance the forces and keep the focus on the vision.

The transformation perspective is just one example that underscores the urgency to develop new skills, talents, and comfort with tools that complement the traditional management tool-kit that includes planning, finance, human resources, and administration. The new leader’s toolkit might include such critical assets as visual thinking, idea and innovation generation, a techno-culture foundation, and communication/team development skills that befit the demands of the rapidly evolving, hyper-connected world which leaders find themselves in – tools that keep them on the path and out of the weeds.