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Building a Shared
Vision
Denton, D.K., (1997)
Building a shared vision. SAM Advanced Management
The ways in which leaders can master
change by defining a clear vision to organizational members is
explained.
Leaders can master change by defining a
clear vision. This vision results in a necessary tension that
leads to change. This article discusses the ways in which
tension is a necessary element that leads to change in
organizations. To change the way we work, we must believe that
the change will bring something better. The leader's
responsibility is to create a picture of what this can be and in the
process, he/she creates tension.
The comparison is made in this
article to a ship, symbolizing the organization, and the leader's
role on the ship. Some managers were asked in the article to
tell what their role on the ship would be. Most responded the
captain, some the navigator or engineer. The piece goes on to
suggest that the designer of the ship is the most important role.
The link is then made to vision. Without a vision of how the
ship will turn, no rudder will be in place to turn the ship.
The article continues to draw the comparison to organizational
design and how values and vision are an important element.
The next section addresses how to go
about imprinting the vision on members of your organization.
The Xerox example is discussed on how this copy company switched to
a document company. A vision of what the company should be was
made, and it was imprinted on members of the organization.
Results were shown in that Xerox reorganized divisions based on this
new vision.
A process called storyboarding
helped Xerox to implement these new visionary changes. The
specific ways in which Xerox personnel did this are discussed in the
article. However, storyboarding is a process of evaluating
what a change would mean, visualizing a "moment of truth"
or defining moment in the future of the organization where conflict
will arise, and creating a story on how to resolve this conflict.
The article leaves the reader with
some questions to ponder regarding planning change and implementing
vision. Some examples of these include, "What are our key
strategies?" and "What are our budget and resources
available to implement the change?" The results of these
questions are said to be even more questions that will take time to
answer. This is to be expected and is explained as part of a
good planning stage.
The article has taken an aspect of
leadership, creating a vision, and explained the ways in which this
can lead to organizational change and restructuring. One could
re-title this article "Rebuilding the Organization"
because that is essentially what is discussed. This piece
gives good strategies for leaders and organizations to implement
desired change.
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