The 2nd V in the IVVSS Strategic Planning Process

In the middle of your planning process is your Vision. It isn't the "end" of what you are engaged in as a church, non-profit or commercial enterprise. As has been said so well by Thomas A. Edison:

“Vision without execution is hallucination.” 

We'll get to execution later. But if you want to jump to matters of execution in the local church there is no better source than UnSeminary a blog and podcast published by my brother Rich. 

Vision's oft quoted definition is "a picture of the preferred future your enterprise is attempting to bring about" or something thereabouts. I like what Bill Hybels said about Vision at the WillowCreek Leadership Summit this past summer:  

The 1st V in the IVVSS Strategic Planning Process

Unlike a lot of other systems (1,2,3) that see values as flowing out of vision, the Arrow IVVSS process I have adopted sees - more correctly i believe - values as shaping the culture of your organization out of which flows your vision of a preferred future. 

As a corollary of this in many ways getting a company/charity's culture right is a pre-requisite for getting the vision right.

That is a way of saying that a group's culture is MORE important than its vision. Gulp. 

That is another way of saying: Have limited time and resources to devote to moving your organization forward? Work on your culture/core values long before you devote much time to getting your vision/strategy/goals right. 

That is yet another way of saying: Your current vision/strategy/goals are being achieved by your poor or lacklustre corporate culture. Start to change the culture first and you will see greater buy-in, adoption and excitement about the new vision/strategy/goals you eventually develop. 

For those of you that don't trust me... the primacy of culture/core values is backed up by others. 

The I in the IVVSS Strategic Planning Process

As part of the re-visioning and strategic planning process our Board of Elders are going through right now I have proposed a new vision, 5 Key Strategies and 1-3-5 year goals to achieve all this. Before i post about those however, let me lay out how i understand over a series of posts how all the various parts of a strategic plan fit together.

From the Leighton Ford Arrow Leadership Course i took many years ago at Ontario Theological Seminary (now Tyndale) i was taught the following: