How to choose your future

It is easy to think that the future is thrust upon and we have little control over how it will turn out.  But this is only partly true. A vision, linked to a strategic plan can define what we want our future to look like, and how to get there.  

The key words here are “we” and “our”.  The task of the leader is to lead her people into agreement on their vision (what they want for the section, corps, region or division) and the strategy (the overarching plan of how to get there), so she must engage as many as possible in the development process. 

The vision and strategy are not made up of the the pet-subjects of one person or even a small group of people.  Every stakeholder should be invited to take part in the conversation.  Collectively you are trying to understand what the Spirit of God is saying to the whole group and no one has the monopoly on that!  So a process of prayer, sharing ideas and discussion will lead to the development of the best vision and the strategy.  

But before beginning the process, there are two fundamentals that must be in place. 

Fundamental #1: High-level* buy-in on the Mission Objectives

First of all it is essential that you have a concise statement of the mission objectives and strong buy-in from the stakeholders.  The mission objectives are the raison d'etre for the group.

A corps may adopt the territorial mission objectives, in fact I believe it is best if it does (more on that in a future blog perhaps), or it may develop its own, but they must be congruent with those of the broader organisation, and preferably a local expression of them. 

(For examples of mission objectives go to: http://www.salvationarmy.org.tw/sa/modules/tadnews/index.php?nsn=33, and http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/en/Who-We-Are/vision-and-mission/. )

The mission objectives will form the overarching framework for the vision and the strategy.  In other words, they will be fleshing out the mission objectives over the next few (I suggest three to five) years. 

Fundamental #2: Almost the whole group buying-in on the need for a vision and strategy 

The second stage is to get your group members to buy-in to the need to a vision and strategy.  This requires some work on the leader’s part.  She needs to research and prepare material that shows progress (or lack thereof) in recent years, and “sell’ the idea that a focused approach is required to achieve those things that matter.  She will probably draw on some of the many scriptural injunctions for visionary thinking and behaviour. 

And then . . .

Only after we have established that there is general agreement that a vision and strategic plan are required and that they should be based on the mission objectives, can we begin work.  Essentially, the role of the leader is to ask the question, “What do we have to do to successfully carry out the mission objectives?” 

Key questions that can drive this conversation might be: 

• What does God want us to do over the next five years?
• What will our preferred future look like?
• What do we have to do to meet the needs of the mission?
• What do we have to stop doing in order to have time and resources to do meet the needs of the mission?
• How will we know when we have been successful?

The overall goal of the vision and strategy development process, is to collect a mish-mash of ideas, organise them into something that will work for the group, and get buy-in for a final version of the vision and strategy.  So I am going to make the methods of achieving these things the focus of my next post.  After that, I will explain about communicating the strategy and implementing the strategy, two critical elements for it to work.  Stay tuned!

----------------------------------------------------

*A note about buy-in:  For anything new, you will never get 100% buy-in.  There will always be those that are keen from the beginning, hungry for change, the radicals.  There will be those somewhere in the middle that will range from ready for change if it appears to be well thought-through (the progressive)  to being persuadable if there is a high chance of success (conservatives).  And there are the traditional, who will resist all things new, no matter how good they are.  

So the take-home message is high-level buy-in in the early stages of a project in reality means about 2/3 to 3/4 of your group, but for something like well-established mission objectives it should be much higher – around 90% or more.