Straits International

Leadership – The Link Between a Clear Vision and Efficiency

In any organization effort can be divided into two categories. Effort that helps achieve the vision and effort that does not. It is probably impossible for anorganization to operate at 100% efficiency . When information is lacking the mind becomes creative. In a study people were exposed to a situations in ways that certain details were intentionally unknowable. When repeatedly questioned about some of these unknowable details, the subjects began to remember things that they had never seen. The subject's brains were filling in details purely from imagination.

Now think about an organization full of people with an incomplete understanding of the vision. Since a good deal of this personal vision comes directly from their imagination, it is not surprising what they create often is more aligned with their personal vision than the actual vision of theorganization. This isn't something you can stop. It is the natural way the human mind works.

If half of an individual personal view of the vision is coming just from their own imagination, it is likely that half of the effort they are expending is not in alignment with the true vision of theorganization. If everyone in the organization is doing the same thing then it is likely that half of the organization's effort is being expended toward the focused vision and the other half is pulling the organization in different random directions.

Much of the benefit of a large organization, is the efficiency that comes from having many people all putting forth effort toward the same goal. When a leader regularly communicates a clear vision, the amount of wasted effort is minimized. If everyone is heading in their own direction based on their own vision, much of the value of anorganization is lost. Many times their own vision isn't bad, but it doesn't align with everyone else. When this happens an organization begins to function as a bunch of independent units. They might as well be separate organizations each trying to achieve their own goals because there is no synergy between the different areas.

The reason for creating organizations is to reach efficiency and achieve goals that would be unobtainable otherwise. If everyone is doing their own thing, this is not possible. If you are looking at starting anorganization, take the time to make sure you can communicate your vision clearly as the organization grows. If you can't you should consider keeping the organization very small because you will get better efficiency that way.