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Ausführliche Zusammenfassung eines sehr klaren und klugen Artikels zu Begrifflichkeiten und Methodik rund um die Themen Vision und Mission, der aber - wenigstens auf unserer Seite des Atlantik - viel zu wenig beachtet worden ist.
 Dezentralisierung und das Flacher-Machen von Organisationen werfen – bei allen unstreitigen Vorteilen – ein Problem auf: "How can a company decentralize and at the same time have coherent, coordinated effort?" Die verbreitete Entwicklung von Mission Statements ist nach Meinung der Autoren ein Schritt in die richtige Richtung, haben jedoch nicht den gewünschten Effekt, weil sie die Leute nicht wirklich anrühren: "Most mission statements are terribly ineffective as a compelling, guiding force. In fact, they are usually nothing more than a boring stream of words." (S. 31) In der Regel sind sie nicht mehr als eine Beschreibung der heutigen Tätigkeit des Unternehmens.
Dieser Kritik stellen Collins und Porras ihr Visions-Konzept gegenüber. Davor jedoch stellen sie die Frage: "Who should set the vision?", die sie folgendermaßen beantworten: "Vision setting should take place at all levels of an organization – consistent, of course, with the overall vision of the corporation."(S. 32)
Nach ihrer Auffassung haben Visionen zwei Kernelemente: "A Guiding Philosophy, that in context of expected future environments, leads to a Tangible Image." (S. 33) Den Großteil des Artikels verwenden Collins und Porras darauf, diese beiden Kernelemente näher zu erklären und mit aussagekräftigen Beispielen zu veranschaulichen.
Guiding Philosophy
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"The guiding philosophy is a system of fundamental motivating assumptions, principles, values, and tenets. It can be thought of as analogous to the 'philosophy of live' that an individual might have."
Oft gehe sie zurück auf den Firmengründer oder andere frühe Leitfiguren, die das Unternehmen nach ihren eigenen Lebens- und Geschäftsphilosophien geprägt haben. "They instill the philosophy not via rhetoric, but rather through their daily actions." (S. 34) Solange diese Persönlichkeiten aktiv sind, bleibt die handlungsleitende Philosophie relativ klar. Wenn sie jedoch nicht mehr als lebendiges Beispiel zu Verfügung stehen, müssen nachfolgende Führungspersonen dafür sorgen, dass die Kernelemente der Philosophie erhalten bleiben. Sie muss dabei einerseits fortgeschrieben und den veränderten Verhältnissen angepasst werden; andererseits darf es nicht zu einem Bruch kommen: "However – and this is crucial – care should be taken to preserve the core, 'magical' elements of the original philosophy." (S. 35)
Die beiden wesentlichen Elemente der "Guiding Philosophy sind einerseits die zentralen Werte und Glaubenssätze, andererseits der Zweck:
Core Values and Beliefs. Aus ihrer Untersuchung von 700 führenden amerikanischen Unternehmen leiten Collins und Porras ab: "In outstanding organizations, the values and beliefs are deeply felt and reinforced by key individuals at critical junctures in the organization's history." (S. 35)
"In all cases where the vision is effective as a guiding force, the values are clear and authentic." Das ist nur unter einer Voraussetzung möglich: "The key question ... is not, 'What values and beliefs should we have?' Instead, the key question is: 'What values and beliefs do we actually hold in our gut?' Otherwise, rhetorical statements rather than authentic value-driven behavior will result, and people will respond with justifiable cynism." (S. 36)
Purpose. Hier geht es um Griffigkeit, um Dauerhaftigkeit und um den tieferen Sinn der gemeinsamen Arbeit: "Every organization should be able to articulate its purpose succintly – in one or two sentences. A statement of purpose should quickly and clearly convey how the organization fills basic needs. A good purpose statement is broad, fundamental, inspirational and enduring; it should serve to guide an organization for at least 100 years. A good purpose statement should grab the 'soul' of each organization member." (S. 38)
"It should avoid sterile decriptions like: 'We exist to make X products and sell them to Y customers. On the other hand, if the organization can tie its products to a more fundamental need, (naming the product in) the statement of purpose can be quite effective." (S. 39)
"Good purpose statements capture the soul of the organization." Nützliche Fragen beim Formulieren solcher Sinnaussagen seien: "What would the world loose if our company ceased to exist? Why don't we just shut the doors and sell off the assets? Why do we want to dedicate our precious creative energies to this company's efforts? What are the personal purpose we feel for our own lives, and how can our united effort fit with these?" (S. 40)
Diese Sinngebung spiele eine zentrale Rolle für die Frage, wer zu der Organisation gehöre und wer nicht: "A clear purpose attracts people whose personal purposes fit with the company's purpose and, conversely, repels those whose personal purposes are contradictionary." (S. 41)
Der "Sinn" eines Unternehmens müsse jedoch nicht einzigartig sein: "It's entirely possible that two can have the same purpose. Purpose is a motivating factor, not a differentiating factor." (S. 41)
Tangible Image
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"Tangible image, the second major component of our framework, consists of a mission which clearly focusses the efforts of the organization and a vivid description through which the mission is made more alive and engaging. We've choosen the phrase 'tangible image' to convey both a sense of concreteness – something vivid and real – and a picture of the future – dreams, hopes, and aspirations." Während die Guiding Philosophy im Hintergrund angesiedelt sei, lebt das Tangible Image im Vordergrund und richtet die Aufmerksamkeit der Menschen auf ein spezifisches Ziel. "Guiding philosophy is deep and serene; tangible image is bold, exciting, and emotionally charged." (S. 42)
Mission. "A mission is a clear and compelling goal that serves to unify an organization's efforts. An effective mission must stretch and challenge the organization, yet be achievable. It translates the abstracteness of the philosophy into a tangible, energizing, highly focussed goal that draws the organization forward. It is crisp, clear, engaging – it reaches out and grabs people in the gut. People 'get' it right away; it requires little or no explanation. A mission has a finish line and a specific time frame for its achievement. A good mission is risky, falling in the grey area where reason says, 'This is unreasonable,' and intuition says, 'but we still believe we can do it nonetheless.'" (S. 42)
"There are four approaches to setting a mission: Targeting, Common Enemy, Role Model and Internal Transformation."
"Targeting means setting a clear, definable target and aiming for it (e.g., the NASA moon mission). Target missions can be quantitative or non-quantitative." Wobei quantitative Missions zwar den Vorteil der Überprüfbarkeit haben. "However, they are often not as compelling as qualitative missions - missions that create vivid images of what success would look like." (S. 43)
"Typically, these non-quantitative missions are defined in terms of taking the company to an entirely new level of overall prestige, success, dominance, or industry position." (S. 43/44)
Die große Gefahr dieser Art von Mission ist das "Wir sind am Ziel"-Syndrom. Häufig bekommen dies gerade kleinere Unternehmen zu spüren, die ihr erstes Ziel der Überlebenssicherung erreicht haben. Wenn sie es nicht schaffen, die Organisation durch eine neue Mission zu refokussieren, drohten sie in Schwierigkeiten zu kommen.
Common Enemy. Gemeinsamer-Feind-Missionen finden sich häufig in Organisationen, die sich bemühen, Nummer Eins zu werden, dies jedoch noch nicht erreicht haben: "They play nicely into a David versus Goliath motivation." Die Autoren glauben, dass sie sich sehr gut eigneten, Unternehmen zu motivieren, die mit dem Rücken zur Wand stehen: "People don't like to 'just survive', they like to win." (S. 44) Als negativen Aspekt nennen sie, dass es schwierig sei, das ganze Leben in einem Kampf zu verbringen. "And what do you do when you've defeated the enemy and become number one? What happens when you are no longer David, and have become Goliath?" (S. 45)
Role Model. Damit ist gemeint, sich ein Vorbild in einer anderen Branche zu suchen, etwa: "To be the IBM of the real estate industry." Die Autoren meinen, dass sie in dem Ausmaß effektiv sind, in dem das Vorbild des ausgewählten Unternehmens für die Mitarbeiter ein "powerful image" erzeugt. (S. 45)
Internal Transformation. "Internal transformation missions tend to be effective in old organizations that need to dramatically change themselves in order to remain competitive and healthy (or, sometimes, to regain their health)." (S. 45) Dieses Muster wird häufig von Großunternehmen benutzt, die anstreben, die Initiative, Effizienz und Flexibilität mittelständischer Firmen anzustreben.
"The guiding philosophy of the organization becomes operationalized in the tangible image, but it becomes so taking the organization's expected future environment into account. In this sense, environment serves a moderating role in the translation process of purpose into mission. By its very nature, guiding philosophy is generated relatively free if current environmental conditions – it comes from within people. Missions, on the other hand, will be affected by the environment – they are affected by timing, trends, technology, and other external factors."
"A mission should walk the boundary between possible and impossible; setting a mission requires an intuitive sense for that boundary." (S. 46)
Vivid description. "It represents a vibrant, engaging, and specific desciption of what it will be like when the mission is achieved. It provokes emotions and generates excitement. It transforms the mission from words into pictures - it's a way of conveying the mission so that people carry around a clear, compelling image in their heads. The vivid description brings the mission to life. We call this 'painting a picture with your words'." (S. 46/47)
"Passion, emotion, and conviction are essential parts of vivid description. Some managers are uncomfortable with expressing emotions about their dreams, but it's the passion and emotion that will grab others." (S. 48)
Purpose vs. mission. Because a specific mission can be so compelling, some organizations make the mistake of thinking that their mission is their purpose. For these organizations, the problem eventually becomes: what does the organization do once it has completed the mission? Without a broader, more enduring purpose from which to derive the next mission, there will be a crisis of direction once the mission is accomplished." (S. 48)
Charisma?
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"In conclusion, we'd like to dispel one of the great myths of modern management: the myth that building a visionary organization requires the presence of a charismatic leader who is somehow blessed with almost mystical or super-human visionary qualities. ... Charisma's role in setting vision is vastly overrated. In fact, attempting to substitute charisma for substance is destructive. The function of a leader - the one universal requirement of effective leadership - is to catalyze a clear and shared vision of the organization and to secure commitment to and vigorous pursuit of that vision. This can be accomplished with a variety of styles and does not require charisma. The key is to build an organization with vision, not simply to have a single charismatic individual with vision as the CEO. And without vision, organizations have no chance of creating their future, they can only react to it." (S. 51)
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