Visioning

Pre-Exercise: Think for a Moment

•What organization or cause do you

deeply care about?

•Why should this organization exist?

•Who else cares about this

organization, and why?

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Inspiration: VisioningDeveloping a Practical Vision to Found Your Venture

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A good vision leads to execution

•Meet Theodore Herzl.

Journalist, Author, Organizer.

•Not the first person to

suggest a Jewish State. Not

the first one to write a book

about it. Was the first one to

bring everyone together. To

Act.

Vision is ever more important today.

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Problem is, it’s noisy out there

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Just how noisy? Meet Jonnie

•Jonnie wakes up in the morning and reviews RSS on a iPhone

•On the way to school, Jonnie twitters breakfast plans which automatically crosspost on Facebook

•During class, Jonnie opens a Google Doc to collaborate on notes

•Afterschool, Jonnie goes to a MeetUp at a friend‟s house

•In the evening, Jonnie meets the parents and downloads their favorite show, liveblogging the experience

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What’s changed since Herzl’s time?

•No top hats.

•Change in speed has led to a change in quality of life, and the very meaning of words such as „community‟ and „friend‟

•Ubiquity of media leads to hypercompetition for the individual‟s most precious resource: time

•To compete in the Attention Economy, everything must make its case for personal relevance

So how does this affect organizations?

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We are all stories:

“We inhabit a nomos - a normative universe. We constantly create and maintain a world of right and wrong, of lawful and unlawful, of valid and void...[And yet] No set of legal institutions or prescriptions exists apart from the narratives that locate it and give it meaning. For every constitution there is an epic, for each Decalogue a scripture.”

– Robert Cover, Nomos and Narrative

Narratives define experience

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•The inherent property of a story is that it is told

•The Digital Age creates multiple channels of possible experience

•In the digital age, maintaining a coherent, authentic narrative is

crucial for over all success.

The Digital Age’s Effect on Narrative

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Walzer Teaches Us to Tell Our Story

Wherever you are, it’s probably Egypt.

There is a better place, a Promised Land.

The only way to this Promised Land is

through the wilderness—there is no

way to get there except by joining

together and marching.

- Michael Walzer, Exodus and Revolution

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What’s Your Egypt?

•“Egypt “isn‟t all bad – it‟s simply imperfect

• Even Moses had to convince the Jews in Egypt it was in their interest to leave

•Without first convincing people about the imperfections of the present, they won‟t march to the future.

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What is your Promised Land?•The Promised Land is the opposite of Egypt

•Everyone needs a share in this Promised Land

•Even Moses was rebelled against when the risk seemed to outweigh the reward.

•Promised Land needs to be concrete enough to compel, and vague enough for personal ownership

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Why Should We March?

•People march (or participate in your venture) according to the value you‟re proposing to give them (value proposition)

•You need to know your people, inside and out, before you know what they value

•Marching is hard; the value need be great; the promised land needs to be reachable.

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Workshop: People and Promised Land

•Break up into groups of three

•Identify for each other your:

•Egypt (Market Context)

•Promised Land (Bottom Line)

•Reasons for Marching (Value Proposition to

Target Market)

•Keep it clear; the simpler the better

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Tool: History of the Future

•Tell the story of your Promised Land, visually and symbolically, 5 years ahead

•Center it around your People and the key Value Proposition

•Then tell the story of how you got there; the history of the future

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Workshop: History of the Future

•Break up into groups of three

•Take one project whose Egypt, Promised Land and

People you know

•Do a history of the future of that project, five years

into the future

•Make sure to map out not only what the venture is

doing, but other actors in the field and how they

interact with it

•Keep it clear; the simpler the better

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Key Questions, Broken Down

1. What is wrong about the current world? What about the

world today needs to be fixed – and why have people

been placated until now?

2. If your venture could boil down its reason for existence

into one desired future state, what would it be? What

future state will justify the long, hard process of

developing your venture?

3. Who will march? What are the target market specifics ?

4. Why will your people march? What value are you

proposing to provide your people, so that they may give

up the fleshpots and march through the harsh wilderness

towards the Promised Land?

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The Deliverable

Using any variety of media—written, video, sound

or graphics—please compose a short explanation

of your venture’s quest, expressing why your

Egypt is as troubling as it is, and getting to your

Promised Land is so important that you need to

push along. Make sure to clearly identify your

target participant—because you can only take one

People at a time to the Promised Land. The

deliverable should be less than one written page,

or 3 minutes video/audio.

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Last Thought: You Must Dream It.

•Before you can will it, you

have to dream it.

•A practical Vision is a Dream

with a Workplan.

•A business plan is a well told

story

•It might take five years, it

might take fifty – but a solid

vision will change the world.

Start-Ups are driven by dreams.