As a visionary, one of the greatest challenges is communicating that vision.  I know what it is.  I know what it looks like and have spent time with it, examining it, processing it.  When I share it, not everyone has the same frame of reference to understand as I do.  Thus, the challenge comes in communicating it fully so that my team can absorb it to the point they can develop and execute a plan to make it real.  At this point I do not have a set process or magic formula to make this happen.   I do have two perspectives that may serve as measuring sticks for vision communication.

The first comes from a concept presented by Andy Stanley.  He speaks of emptying your cup.  This perspective sets the standard of communication of sharing everything I know on a subject so that my team knows as much as I can possibly convey.  If I cannot come up with anything else to share on a topic, then maybe I have emptied my cup effectively.  There is also an aspect of my team learning to ask probing questions to gain clarity.  Maybe there is a little bit left to share that I have missed and the right question could draw it out.

The second comes from Habakkuk 2:2 which says “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets so he may run who reads it.”  From this perspective I see that the vision is adequately communicated when it is plain enough so whoever receives it knows exactly where they are headed and has the confidence to run in that direction.  Not only do they clearly understand what to do next, they are prepared to go fast.

So, as with most vision statement, I don’t yet know how to get there, but I have a pretty good idea of where I want to go.