adminWhen I answered the phone I did not realise that it was on speakerphone. My students persuaded me to keep the phone on speakerphone so that they could judge whether what I discuss on the phone is strategic in any way.
I agreed under protest. Oh my God! Unknowingly my wife began explaining how she was finishing preparing the bass fish for supper. She told me about how crispy and brown the fish was. She started stuffing me with details of the lemon she was sprinkling on the fish and the garlic soup. I started salivating in anticipation so were my students. I could not wait to go home and eat the fish. A vision should be like the brown and crispy fish. One should be excited about the vision and look forward to it.
It is the manager’s responsibility to ensure that subordinates are excited and do not pay lip service to the vision. The vision must remind one of inexperienced pleasure ahead. It should motivate you to look forward to a better experience that you have not yet seen.
Visionaries can create things that don’t exist at the present moment. They give you advance experience.
A visionary is like an African Jackal (gava) that does not mind the distance as long as there are bright prospects of getting a fruit called Tsubvu. (Kure kwegava ngekusina tsvubvu)
Visions give energy, inspiration and direction. However, in Zimbabwe most companies’ visions are generic.
They are not original and do not energise. Once you see the vision of one company, then you have actually seen most visions. Mission statements and values support visions.
Visions
Dreams, crisis, momentous events, and even funerals can trigger a vision.
Weddings or tragedies give you the opportunity to start afresh. After such events one can decide not to repeat the negative path or emulate and build upon positive things.
These events afford one the opportunity for soul searching. It is only when one soul searches that one finds his/her purpose of life, why one is here and what one can contribute to the betterment of mankind.
Visionaries and dreamers
The similarity between a visionary and a dreamer is that both dream.
The two personalities start with a dream. Dreamers find it hard to convince their inner selves to implement the dream.
They have in-built defence mechanisms which always tell them it can’t happen, they have seen it before, it can’t work or dreams must not be taken too far or seriously.
Visionaries have a burning desire to question and change the status quo. They have the capacity to convince their inner selves to see beyond reality and act driven by a future promise. Their desires enable them to convince their followers to buy into their dreams.
The desires enable them to absorb the shocks and suffering during the period when they are working towards attaining the vision.
Most visions are driven by the desire to solve a burning problem, which can only be solved by the thinking out of the box.
Visions are dreams that are grounded on current circumstances which are modified or transformed to create a better tomorrow.
For most mortals it might not appear real. Once they appear real from onset they become short-term goals and not visions.
When Bill Gates talked about a desktop in every household he could have been labelled a dreamer. During the time he announced his vision computers were very big and at times could fill the whole room and no reasonable person could visualise the world ever having rooms in every household full of computers.
During the first four years of its launch, Econet employees were kept together by a strong and powerful vision.
The company was struggling to pay salaries while they were having teething problems.
I have seen many people volunteering their services to people who have powerful visions with the hope of benefiting somehow in the future. The same volunteers ask for cash upfront when offering their labour to people with visions they don’t relate to.
The ruler of Mapungubwe was a visionary par excellence who started construction of the Great Zimbabwe around the 11th century.
The construction was for improved security for the iron and gold traders at a time when security was provided by vegetation and caves.
The realisation was that the richer his state became the more vulnerable to external attacks it became.
However, a fortified city is more difficult to attack. The people identified with this vision.
The walls would assist them to protect their own wealth, which they treasured very much.
The visionary did not just construct a wall but a beautiful wall. Going round the walls today shows there was serious attention to detail in terms of shape, stone size and no cracks are visible today despite the fact that there was no mud and cement which were used during construction.
Construction of Great Zimbabwe was carried out over 300 years. This means the vision was powerful enough to energise future generations to complete the project over three hundred years.
This implies that the pictorial impression of Great Zimbabwe was successfully transmitted without the actual architectural, weight calculations nor structural drawings over many generations.
It is amazing how the shape of Great Zimbabwe was maintained and successfully executed without any fusion of mud or cement.
This is a classic example of a vision that transcends generations and forces successors to remain focused to the original intentions of the visionary .
Martin Luther King Jnr fought vigorously using non-violent means, for the total emancipation of the black folk with his “I have a dream” slogan. He continued to fight against the oppressive system despite the abolition of slave trade about 100 years earlier.
Despite apparent personal and family risks Martin Luther King Jnr could not be deterred from his vision.
His efforts motivated fellow blacks like Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama to run for the US presidency. When Obama launched his presidential campaign with his famous “the change we can believe in” analysts gave him no chance given the colour of his skin and his relatively low bank balance for a US presidential aspirant.
Up to the polling day in 2008, the political analysts were still thinking that voters were borrowed and would change their minds on the voting day.
“The change we can believe in” vision energised Obama’s supporters to create networks to support the vision.
The supporters and financiers and other well-wishers always support someone with a strong vision.
The “change we can believe in” is now used throughout the world as a campaign tool even in countries that are dominated by Caucasians.
l The writer is a managing consultant at CLC Training International.
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