It’s one thing to develop new Vision and Mission statements. It is quite another to realize them.

The whole purpose is to take an organization to a new place. Unfortunately most people aren’t ready for change and it is much easier for them to stay on the same comfortable path.

I was recently reminded of this challenge along with an author who I consider the authority on change – John Kotter. His books on leading change throughout an organization are still timely today. I often refer to his concepts when guiding companies into the future.

Kotter developed a number of steps for an organization to achieve transformational change. A recent Facebook survey on his steps offered the following feedback on why transformational change is challenging for an organization.

•    27% empowering others to act on the vision
•    20% establishing a sense of urgency
•    13% institutionalizing new approaches
•    13% creating a vision to guide the change
•    10% communicating the vision
•    9% forming a team to lead change
•    7% creating short term wins
•    2% producing still more change

The biggest takeaway for me from these stats is that it all comes down to leadership. Great leaders guide and get out of the way by empowering others. Unfortunately too many leaders let their ego get in the way and feel they have to control everything. If they actually let go and empowered people, it is amazing the type of momentum that can occur, build and grow.

This relates back to an organization’s culture as well. Culture is often underestimated. When a thriving culture is in place with a clear purpose and vision, amazing things can happen.

From my experience this is the formula for turning a vision into a realization in a corporate setting. Do you possess a different view? Whether you agree or disagree I would like to hear your thoughts as they can help us turn vision into reality.

Tags: brand culture, brand positioning, corporate culture, empowering others, new vision, ryan rieches, vision and mission statements, vision statement, vision statements

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 9:33 pm and is filed under Execution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.