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Revisiting the Power of Visioning

Why Positive Futuring Really Works

Excerpted from Zingermans Guide to Good Leading, Part 1: A Lapsed Anarchists Approach to Building a Great Business. Copyright Ari Weinzweig 2010. All rights reserved. Please do not duplicate. If youd like additional copies, please contact us at zingpress@zingermans.com. Enjoy!

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I know its a bit odd to place the piece on Revisiting the Power of Visioning before the original Writing a Vision of Greatness piece I did on the subject a few years earlier. But, like the 3 Cs design essay, this is another case where it seems to work better going in reverse order. So . . . here you gorevisit first, then visit! Regardless of order, by the time youre done with this and the following three essays, at the least youll be really clear on how passionately I believe in the positive power of this tool. As youll see, visioning as we teach it here is actually very simple, but amazingly (or should I say, ama-Zing-ly?) powerful.

I think its best to tell you up front that this essay is basically a sales piece. Its not really my style to put the hard sell on anyone, so Im sort of reluctant to even say it that way. But I really am selling, so why hide it? The good news though is that what Im selling wont cost you any money; it isnt something that youll find featured at a trade show, nor is it going to come one case free with ten. You wont find it cheaper online, and theres no charge for shipping no matter how often you use it. It will take a bit of time, some serious, if enjoyable, work, and an open mind. But theres really nothing you have to spend money on to purchase what Im pushing. My product here is a beliefa passion, here at Zingermans, for the effectiveness of visioning work. You might be familiar with the concept, but for those who arent, in a small, practical nutshell, visioning is the process we use to start any new projectlarge, small, and everything in between. Its the idea of beginning our work by first figuring out what we want success to look like at a particular point in the future, then working backward to the present. (For comparisons sake, this is totally different than the way most of us have been trained in life, which is to start with the present and then figure out a way to work forward.) Why sell something that brings me no financial return? Because Ive been almost overrun of late with positive examples of how well it works. Ive seen the visioning process consistently contribute very tangibly to the organizational and personal lives of those who use it. Without visioning, its so easy to be dragged down by all the pressures around us, to get overwhelmed by the ever-present problems and roadblocks. But visioning really does lift us up to a more positive level of energyits a lot more fun. So heres my sales pitch.

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R E V I S I T I N G T H E P OW E R O F V I S I O N I N G

A Look Back Its probably a good 20 years or more since I first started learning about visioning. I dont think it came up in any sort of really formal wayit was likely more just hearing about it from people like my partner Paul and others around me who had some experience working with it. And I cant honestly say I was particularly open to the concept when I heard about it. At best I was probably moderately receptive, and more than likely, almost actively resistant at first. Having been teaching it for many years now, I know that Im not the only one who struggled to assimilate this approach. While the idea of visioningor, as Steven Covey called it, beginning with the end in mindsounds great, the truth of the matter is that it runs almost completely counter to the way I naturally think. On top of which, its pretty much the opposite of the way most of the world works. So, its safe to say I wasnt an easy sell on the subject. Fortunately, Paul and others around me were. And Ive seen it in action for long enough now that, all these years later, I actually get it. I can say with certainty that I : a. Fully embrace the idea of visioning c. Teach it regularly, and b. Use it all the time in most every part of my life d. Have actually gotten to be really good at doing it. Its not just me, either. Visioning work has become almost old hat for us at Zingermansso much so that we probably take it for granted. But even so, Ive lately received an influx of positive comments about the power of the process, and how it has enriched peoples approach to business and life in general. The latest note I got on the subject is really what triggered my move to do this piece. It came from Jim Mellgren, whos made, sold, and written about specialty food for many years now (and done all of them well). A friend had forwarded him the article Id written a number of years ago on visioning. After reading it, he wrote to compliment me on the essay and to ask permission to quote from it in one of his upcoming columns. Im actually embarrassed to reprint what he said because its not my style to promote my own stuff that way, but in the interest of selling others on the value of visioning Im going to quote him here. He wrote me that it was a brilliant essay and quite compelling. And then he went on to say, You have a nice way of writing these business-oriented essays that make them not only very readable, but they give one the feeling that everything in it could be accomplished and that it would be important to do so.
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The reason Im using his testimonial really is because I think that his last statement is right onI truly have learned that anyone whos ready to learn the visioning process can use it. And I really, really think that visioning is important work of huge value to every one of us. So thanks, Jim, and thanks to everyone reading this, for taking the chance to learn about or share experiences about something small but seriously significant in terms of changing the way I (and so many others) approach our future. Buying In In case you didnt read about visioning in one of the earlier essays, at Zingermans a vision is a picture of what success looks like for us at a particular point in the future. That means its: 1. Inspiring. To all who will be involved in implementing it. 2. Strategically sound. We actually have a decent shot at making it happen. 3. Documented. You really need to write your vision down to make it work.

4. Communicated. Yes, if you want your vision to be effective you have to not only document it, but actually tell people about it. The Writing a Vision of Greatness essay that follows gets into much more detail about how to do this. But the key point here is that the work is about agreeing on what success will look like, not about whats wrong with life as we currently know it. Its about writing out something that gets us excited, that makes us want to get up each morning and work through the inevitable challenges that come up en route to getting to an inspiring long-term outcome. While most of our day-to-day work may be pretty mundane, the vision is something speciala picture of the beautiful cathedral that were all working together to build. Remember, a vision (as we define it) is not a mission statement. Neither is it a strategic plan. We do those too, but, again, theyre totally different. A strategic plan is how youll get where you want to go. But you cant really plan your trip until you know where youre going, and thats what a vision tells you. Which is why we always start with writing the vision, and only then back up to putting together the strategic plan.

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