What are we aiming for?

by Neil Kennett-Brown

Vision is a commonly used word in management theory, but how often are we truly inspired in reality. As a manager, but also as an employee seeking work-life balance, one of my main challenges is to ensure that my day-to-day role doesn’t distract me from achieving the long term strategic goals of the organisation, or, more likely, take up so much of my time that long-term and strategic are not even part of my day-to-day thinking.

A leader needs to be forward thinking, capable of creating a compelling vision of the future – the “big picture”, the long-term goal. A team can only be effective if it knows what it’s aiming for. However, the vision is only useful if the leader can effectively communicate so as to engage their employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders in delivering the vision.

The often missed point is involving others in the creation of the vision, so that a shared purpose results. This is far more likely to get buy in than a stand-alone effort presented as a fait accompli, or some fine words on a poster. The often under-valued skills of listening and engagement come into play here.

I work as a manager for the NHS in North East London. The NHS is the 3rd largest organisation in the world (No.1 and 2 are Chinese Army and Indian Railway!). The NHS celebrates its 60th birthday this year, and has seen an enormous amount of change. Is a fresh vision needed? Well, across the whole of London there is a consultation on a new model of healthcare. This is the NHS in London sharing its vision for the future – local services, specialist hospitals, new community services with care closer to home. Have you heard of this change? Have you participated in the consultation? Do you agree/disagree – have you made your views known?

The world around us is changing, have you got a view or how it should be? What is your organisation’s vision – do you know what it is, do you support it?

If the world didn’t change, if the goalposts never moved, then perhaps we wouldn’t need vision, perhaps we could play football with our eyes closed. In today’s rapidly changing world, however, we need to understand what is changing now, how, and have a vision of what we want to achieve.

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