The Vision Thing

What is the connection between vision and strategic thinking? In some respects, strategic thinking is about seeing - - be it Napoleon, Churchill, Ford, or Buffett - - how you see and what you see shapes your strategic thinking.

Henry Mintzberg offers his valuable insight into the different ways you can see the strategic landscape - -

• Seeing Ahead - - Almost everyone would agree that strategic thinking means seeing ahead. In the 1930s, Churchill saw ahead better than any other world leader. But seeing ahead is not predicting the future - - strategic flexibility is also needed, especially in the world we live. Remember the axiom of strategic fate - - "How the unanticipated leads to the inevitable by way of the unavoidable."
• Seeing Behind - - You cannot see ahead unless you can see behind, because any good vision of the future has to be rooted in an understanding of the past. There are times you will set at your desk when time collapses and the past seems very near. Experience plays a role, but experience alone is not sufficient for developing winning strategies. Indeed, misapplying experience is perhaps the surest route to failure in combination with the sharply diminishing returns of experience. In a rapidly changing world - - "I know how to do this, I've been there," - - needs to be replaced with a focus on critical analysis skills and insight at the institutional level.
• Seeing Above - - Seeing the "big picture" - - the helicopter view of the world. The goal is to distinguish the forest from the trees. But can anyone really get the big picture just by seeing above? The forest looks like a rug from a helicopter, or even worse from a satellite. Anyone who has taken a walk in a forest knows that it doesn't look much like that on the ground. Forestry executives who stay in their helicopters don't understand much more than strategists who stay in offices.
• Seeing Down -- The diamond hunters. Looking for and finding the diamond in the rough. Strategic thinkers have to find the gem of an idea that changes their organization. But that comes with a lot of digging, dirt, mud, and hard work. There is no big picture ready for seeing: each strategist has to construct his or her own. Thus, strategic thinking is also inductive thinking - - seeing above must be supported by digging for diamonds.
• Seeing Beside - - The creative and lateral thinkers. They challenge the traditional norms of your industry - - they don't like conventional wisdom, standard recipes, or the traditional approach. Many of our best minds, blinded by optimism and confusion, are using out-of-date and unrealistic models of the world. A key point to remember - - the diversity of strategic input helps with the quality of the strategic output.
• Seeing Beyond - - Creative ideas and unconventional thought must be placed into a context, to be seen in a world that is to unfold. Seeing beyond is different from seeing ahead. Seeing ahead foresees an expected future by constructing a framework out of the events of the past - - it intuitively forecasts discontinuities. Seeing beyond constructs the future - - it invents a world that would not otherwise be. Apple Computer takes the "seeing beyond" component of the vision thing and places it on steroids.
• Seeing It Though - - What is the use of all this seeing - - ahead and behind, beside and beyond - - if nothing gets done?

This is not the time or age to be a visionary minimalist. The world is in a state of constant flux and dangerous change - - marked by visions of many sidedness. A smorgasbord of offerings and views - - with the role and duty of leaders establishing a strategic view with a shared content.