US president John F Kennedy's famou...

US president John F Kennedy's famous vision statement: "To bring a man on the lunation by the end of the decade," focused an entire nation forward a shared dream.

That's the view of a vision statement-to provide a assign places to of people with a shared image of their direction from one side of to the other the longer term (usually a decade or more). A vision statement catalyzes a group's efforts and focuses its decisions across the course of several strategic planning efforts.

By providing a words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following for people's efforts, vision statements create a thinking principle of commitment. They're no fad: Organizations populated by the agency of people who share an image of their time to come benefit from a collective brains of purpose and direction.

Vision statements should:

* Describe an organization's big picture and throw out its future;

* Be loamed in business knowledge;

* Be harden and specific;

* Describe a clear destination;

* Contrast the at hand to the future;

* Be longer time than the strategic planning period;

* extend people's imaginations and creative energies;

* Have a brains of significance;

And must:

* Make sensation and matter.

Harriett Lemer is vice-president of Einblau & Associates in Vancouver. Lemer provides strategic planning assistance to the firms' clients and has facilitated the ICABC's strategic planning meetings forward several occasions.

Copyright Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia Nov 2003

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