A number of companies are unable to reach their peak performance due to dilution in the unity of purpose laterally between their departments and vertically at various levels of management and operations.

People get so engrossed with their group and departmental objectives, priorities and petty rivalries that the congruence of the overall direction tends to get overlooked. This degree of divergence affects the concerted effort, reduces the overall synergy and, consequently, the overall performance of the organisation.

The reason lies in the organisation’s failure to link its vision, directly or indirectly, all the way vertically down to the operations at the lowest level. The link between the vision and operations is provided through the mission statement, strategy and operational plans — all parts of the chain of strategic management. It harnesses the collective energy of the people by giving it a direction and leveraging it in a synergic manner towards the common goal.

To achieve unity of purpose in an organisation, it is necessary to forge each of these links into a strong chain of strategic management.

Vision and realisation

The perception about the ‘vision’ as applied to an organisation, is as varied as the proverbial six blind men describing their respective perceptions of an elephant. As the originating concept of an organisation, its culture base and, indeed, its very soul, vision needs to be comprehended in the perspective of its purpose and realisation.

Vision is a perception of future developments, a dream and an insight that does not exist in the visualised form at that point of time. To the visionary, the percept appears as a realistic, credible opportunity in future with intense inspirational force.

He firmly believes in making use of that opportunity proactively to transform his dream or abstract idea into a reality. It tends to be imaginative and idealistic comprising spiritual, emotional and intellectual aspects on which an organisation is to add and develop its materialistic purpose.

Vision is not a mere wish or a pipe dream but a distillate of deep, pragmatic thought process of careful consideration of various relevant aspects. It is perceived holistically on the basis of anticipated developments of the future, review and learning from the past and the latest current developments in the related environments. It also takes into consideration the capability needed to realise the dream.

The value of vision lies in the staunch faith in its value, achievement and the challenge it poses for turning it into a reality. For that challenge to be accepted, the dream has to be prized, credible, appropriate, simple to comprehend and most importantly, capable of being  shared across the organisation.

Motivating others

It should move the imagination and emotions of every individual in the same manner and intensity of inspiration as it did for the visionary. It should carry the call of a cause that would galvanise and fascinate the people leading to a synergised passion and drive for its realisation. A vision should meet these criteria.

Vision provides one focal point to the whole organisation. It raises and crystallises aspirations of its people, makes demands on their capabilities, canalises their inspirations into a coherent effort and gives a deeper meaning to their collective effort.

The aspiration becomes a quest for self-actualisation covering the common aspiration of the entire organisation. A question that should be posed at the articulation of the vision is whether it provides a compelling cause to the people, is credible and creates aspirations to reach great heights.

Starting point

Articulation of vision is followed by drawing up of a roadmap leading to the dream realisation with suitable milestones enroute. Every milestone, successively, forms the basis for the next mission.

A mission addresses that part of the road map which can be foreseen and is reachable within the organisation's existing and potential capability at that time. The milestone or the intermediate destination, so selected, becomes the mission and the strategic goal of an organisation.

Mission shows people the way to actualise their aspirations raised by the vision and sounds the clarion call to charge ahead for its accomplishment. It seeks to crystallise the 'what' and 'when' of the vision by specifying the goal as a stepping-stone on the climb to achieve the ultimate purpose.

It links the envisioned future with the ground realities of the present. Determination of mission requires careful and deliberate consideration since it translates the dream into achievable and sets viable goal for action. Any mistake in determining the mission would adversely affect the vision accomplishment; howsoever hard the people may have worked.

Strategy and goal

A mission statement is not a rhetoric or procedural formality. Apart from providing the launch pad to a phase of the strategic action, it has enormous motivating power and should be formulated emphasising upon its inspirational value as a follow-up of the vision. While the mission provides the goal, the direction and the time-frame ('what' and 'when'); the strategy deals with the 'how' to go about the accomplishment of the mission. The strategy determines the manner in which the mission would be best accomplished, keeping pace with the existing and anticipated business developments. Strategy is the main thrust of an organisation that optimise the effectiveness of its performance.

Based on the strategy, a strategic plan is prepared that would accomplish the mission in the most effective manner. It takes off from the existing performance and devises ways to move ahead to reach the next goal. It is essentially the determination of the method for maximisation of the value for the effort put in towards the goal accomplishment.

A strategic plan, like a master plan, is comprehensive and all inclusive. It is designed to harness the entire resources and core competencies of an organisation. It covers the performance of the organisation as a whole as also that of each of its major parts, groups, individuals and utilisation of material resources. 

The plan aligns and synchronises the actions of every group along with that of the overall goal for performing in unison.  Any individual or resource left out of the plan and not utilised should be considered surplus to that organisation.

Operational plans

While a strategic plan covers the performance of the whole organisation, operational plans cover the action required to be taken at various lower echelons. These are derived from the strategic plan and relate to the planning and execution of the task assigned to a department and its part going down to the smallest team.

These deal with the 'nuts and bolts' details for the accomplishment of respective operational plans. They are meant for 'troops in action'- people who actually produce results.

It is the cumulative sum of the implementation of all operational plans that achieves strategic goal which, in turn, accomplishes the mission. The mission accomplishment directly serves the vision realisation in the most effective and synergic manner.

The writer is a consultant and trainer in organisation development. Email: uberoy@ushus.net.