Headshot supplied by Bernie Haffey
In April 2024, I had the pleasure of leading a Vision and Values workshop at the Ophthalpreneurs meeting in beautiful Stresa, Italy. This short article summarizes the session, which was executed in less than one hour – a true sprint!
Vision
The subject of the session was “Why my organization should create a vision statement.” Briefly, a vision statement is a concise, memorable, and aspirational statement describing your organization’s long-term goals. It represents a visible future state, and is often written in future tense. It can present bold claims which, over time, the organization can defend and ultimately own. Vision statements can be audacious – sometimes they are written by organizations who have no present right to the claim their statement makes. But ultimately, they help to guide an organization’s decisions and actions.
We can break a vision statement down into superlative and descriptor components. The Ritz-Carlton hotel chain positions its vision, for example, as “To be the premier worldwide…” (superlative) “provider of luxury travel and hospitality products and services” (descriptor).
Why do you need a vision statement?
Briefly, a well-constructed vision statement can facilitate:
Organizational alignment. Well-constructed vision statements enhance alignment of functions and individuals to a defined future state or destination.
Employee engagement. Well-constructed vision statements engage and motivate team members and affiliates in a common purpose and direction. Employees who understand the organization’s long-term goals are proven to be more motivated and likely to remain with your organization.
Decision making. Good vision statements guide decisions and actions (for example, is scenario A or scenario B more likely to achieve our vision?)
Strategic marketing. An effective vision statement can strengthen your position in the marketplace. Here, you should think in terms of making a bold claim to own a market or segment of a market, which you will defend and, over time, own.
At the Stresa workshop, attendees sought to create a vision statement for Ophthalprenuers itself. A pre-meeting survey identified strong words in “global”, “community,” and “entrepreneurship.” From there we fashioned five options, from which this vision statement was chosen:
“Ophthalpreneurs: The global community driving business innovation and entrepreneurship in private ophthalmology.”
Values
With the vision statement accomplished, an organization should agree on a set of shared values. Having shared values will help a company to:
- set expectations for behaviors necessary to achieve your vision
- shape your culture, which can become a competitive advantage
- align teams around a common language that improves speed and efficiency
- provide higher quality products and services at lower cost
- simplify the process of hiring, firing, and awarding promotions
The session in Stresa was rewarding and enjoyable as a very rapid introduction and application of these critical elements. I am sure that Ophthalpreneurs – as it absorbs and refines the lessons above – will continue to go from strength to strength!
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