Leadership in Action: A New Lens on Mission and Vision

Aligning Values and the Future

When an organization is going through what has been typically understood as visioning, the values of the organization get forcefully expressed. Often there is a real discrepancy between those values and the desired future.

Here's an example: the president of a high-tech manufacturing company wanted an organization that would work in cross-disciplinary teams, be focused on customer needs, and reward innovations to core technologies. His interactions with his executive group, however, contradicted this. He set the vice presidents in competition with each other for resources and for his recognition. He excluded the vice president of marketing from key client meetings, insulating her, and thereby the organization, from ...