Visualizing the future. A waste of time. Can’t be done. What’s the point? Do these sound familiar? Some common excuses for not explicitly defining a vision for your organization:

• The world will change so much our vision will be outdated or irrelevant.
• We just don’t have time to think about that. We need to stay focused on
• I’m not sure how to approach it. Where do I begin?
• It’s not really that important. After all, we’ve lived without it this long.

I hear these all the time. And I completely disagree. In my 20+ years of being a management consultant, a business advisor, and an entrepreneur I have found that organizations that take the time to develop a clear, concise long-term vision typically find that the benefits far outweigh the investment.

IT GIVES YOUR BRAND CLARITY.

Have you ever worked with a marketing agency or your marketing staff and realized that you really aren’t sure what message you are trying to send, which group of customers you are talking to? Who we are and what we are – at its core – is critical to sending the right message.

IT GUIDES DECISION-MAKING.

When decision-makers can have a backdrop of a common vision for the future they are better positioned to make clear, confident decisions that serve the organization long-term. They will know that the decisions they make will be well-aligned with the organization’s long-term goals. Without it, they are just kind of guessing. It’s difficult to figure out which way to row when you have no idea what your destination is.

INVESTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND PARTNERS WANT TO HEAR IT.

Your potential investors, employees and business partners are deciding whether they want to cast their lot with you, they are typically looking at the relationship from a strategic perspective. They want to know that you are in it for the long-haul. That you will be a stable, consistent business partner. In the absence of a long-term vision, they could begin to wonder about your stability, your seriousness, whether you will be a completely different organization several years from now (one that they may not recognize or want to be affiliated with). That uncertainty could prevent a quality partnership.

Convinced yet?

Now, I know this exercise can be hard to do. After all, we ALL hate to be wrong – and defining an organizational vision has about a 110% chance that you will be wrong in at least some aspect of what you describe. But having a confident direction, a clear destination (at least with the information you have now) will surely get things moving in the right direction. But there really is power in knowing the strategic goals of your organization – the fundamental, “why-are-we-here?” type of answers. Think of the confidence your whole organization will have. The entire organization – and those that interact with it – will benefit.