As a COO, it is crucial that you know how your CEO sees the future of the company so that you can map out how to get your company to grow.
You need to be clear about your CEO’s vision for the company in order to do your job. The solution to that is a thing called a Vivid Vision®.
What Is a Vivid Vision®?
A Vivid Vision® is a four or five-page document that takes all of the ideas out of the mind of your CEO and gets them onto paper. This document is essential not only for the COO, but for every single employee, vendor, and anyone else who has anything to do with your company. That includes your customers.
Your Vivid Vision® looks three years into the future, not too far and not soon. It’s enough time to plan significant growth for your company, but not so much time that too many things can change between now and then.
In short, a Vivid Vision® is all your leader’s big goals for your company’s future.
How it Benefits Employees and Customers
Leaders already possess a deep, clear vision of their company’s futures and goals, but your employees and your customers don’t. If you want the support of those people, you have to get your CEO to share their vision with them.
Blindly trusting that your leader has a vision can only take you so far. When people have a clear idea as to what that future is, others will be motivated to work much harder to get it there.
Employees want to know what all their hard work is going towards. Employees want the company they work for to be successful and to see that they’re playing a part in that and know what to do to get there. Customers want to know that they’re supporting a strong and growing business that isn’t about to fail anytime soon.
How to Write One
To write a Vivid Vision®, you have to begin by freeing yourself from the habitual thoughts of day-to-day work life. This means you must leave the office and go somewhere that inspires you. This could be anywhere–a cafe, a park, your backyard. Try writing it in a notebook first, too. A computer is too filled with distractions and you’d be surprised at how much more inspiration can spark when you write by hand. Try starting out with a mind map.
“The issue is that as a business leader, your office is brimming with distractions-emails in your inbox, ongoing phone calls, people popping their heads in the door. As a business leader visualizing the future of your company properly, you need to focus. Those interruptions can shatter your flow and drag out the process of creating your Vivid Vision indefinitely.” – COO Alliance
Let yourself think big with your Vivid Vision®. It should be inspirational as well as informational.
Once you’ve brainstormed and created a rough draft of your Vivid Vision®, it’s now time to make it into a shareable document. This should use graphic design elements amid your neatly worded plan for your company’s next three years.
Having a Vivid Vision® allows the COO to make plans necessary to make their CEO’s vision a reality. Every company needs one.
Does your company have a Vivid Vision® in place? Let us know in the comments below! Share a link if it’s posted online, we’d love to take a look.
If you have questions or would like more information, we’d be happy to help. Please send us an email, and someone from the team will get in touch with you!
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in February 2018 and has been edited for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
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