4.1.1. Revealing a Shared and Responsible Vision: “What We Really Want, Not What We’ll Settle for”
The most obvious place to start is envisioning, because a shared vision, once created, has embedded within it all the other elements we propose are useful for moving forward. It cradles the entire model, and prepares and sustains a group (organization, community or team) that is seeking to influence the unpredictable unfolding of the future. It is the rich soil in which the other elements are planted and with which they exchange nourishment.
In her presentation on “envisioning for a sustainable world” [
19], Donella Meadows highlighted the absence of vision as a major source of failure in addressing environmental issues and there is no evidence to suggest that this absence has since been addressed [
28]. Possibly drawing on the work of her Dartmouth colleague, Elise Boulding [
29], she went on to describe the principles and benefits of envisioning a
responsible shared vision. In doing so she inspired our current approach.
The idea of vision and of leaders being visionary is not uncommon in leadership literature, but there is a fundamental difference between that type of top-down vision that the followers “buy into” [
30], and the vision that we are describing.
One way forward begins with the co-creation of a vision that brings together all the relevant stakeholders within the system.
In a paper primarily focused on two questions—what constitutes a vision? and how does a vision work?—van der Helm identifies seven different types of vision, one of which is community based and designed to “produce a common ground from which to build programmes of action” ([
30], p. 98). The vision we are describing is of this type.
Visions, as they are understood in one way forward, are also values-rich stories, rather than the pithy one-sentence “vision statements” that have come to pervade the corporate world. They are stories, capable of reflecting complexity, that describe what we really want to experience, and because values are central to decision making and behavior, vision of this kind also stirs energy within people and prompts the translation of energy into action. It is precisely because the vision is values rich and idealistic that it moves people with a sense of “divine discontent”—compelling action and change. In this sense we argue that idealistic shared visions are the most “realistic” and “pragmatic” way forward.
As Peter Senge quotes Kazuo Inamori of Kyocera, “It’s not what the vision is, it’s what the vision does” ([
7], p. 207) and Meadows is more specific when she describes how a vision at the level of feeling (values) unites people rather than dividing them over less important “concrete” details [
19]. She observed, and our own work has consistently confirmed, that at the level of fundamental values—“what we really want”—there is a great deal in common among people who might otherwise be at odds.
The
one way forward envisioning process addresses the need for “emancipation”, one of the central focuses of critical systems thinking—“denouncing situations where the exercise of power, or other causes of distorted communication, are preventing the open and free discussion necessary for the success of interaction” ([
31], p. 141). Perceived differences in priority or “agenda”, and perceived power differentials operating outside the envisioning process, succumb to the leveling impact of story-telling, in which each voice is equally honoured and every story is “gathered up” in the process of shaping a shared story or vision that is not “consensus” or “lowest common denominator”, but tells everyone’s story in one.
Nevertheless, facilitators need to be alert at the point of invitation that perceived power imbalances do not discourage some stakeholders from accepting. Every effort should be made to encourage participation by all stakeholders—invariably, the experience is one of surprise at how little such power issues persist into the envisioning process. There are a few points in the process where established power dynamics might try to assert themselves, but this can be readily forestalled by a watchful facilitator simply re-establishing the primacy of the story-telling process, in which all voices have equal weight.
On one occasion, we facilitated an envisioning workshop for a group of about 50 diverse stakeholders in the NRM (natural resource management) space—from state government policy makers and federally funded agencies, to scientists and consulting practitioners. We had been warned to expect conflict and potential implosion, such were the perceived differences. The entity funding that research sent an “observer” (he intended to observe, but could not help participating in the process). He was unaware of the political, philosophical and personal tensions that had been at work in this group before the workshop. As he left, he observed that it was impressive how smoothly the process went in a group of such like-minded stakeholders, but it would be interesting to see how well it performed in the regions where there were starker differences of perspective!
Of course, there will still be disagreements about the actions to be taken—the “strategic experiments”—in order to bring the shared vision into being, but the common ground, established at the most basic level of meaning making, provides a constant orientation for the debate and ensures that the dynamic is one in which differences enrich rather than diminish.
A shared vision channels the collective energy for change, for trying something new. In complex circumstances where we want to assume a proactive attitude, yet cannot predict or dictate a defined path to our desired future, a vision provides a light or touchstone to orientate and guide action [
30].
The reason we seek to envision a new possible state is because we are dissatisfied with the existing one but, referring back to Kuhn, we recall that the emergence of a clearly articulated new paradigm is the trigger for change that enables most people to let go of the old and move to the new. So, in any transformational change initiative, the creation of a shared vision is important.
Without detailing here how this envisioning is most effectively facilitated, the central characteristics of the process are as follows:
- (1)
An invitation to be a part of the envisioning extended to as many as possible of the stakeholders within the system of interest.
- (2)
road participation by everyone who accepts the invitation.
- (3)
A facilitation process that by-passes the more analytical thinking and encourages more heartfelt, “feeling” responses.
- (4)
A vision of how we want to experience sustainable living—for example, how we want to experience working together—rather than the concrete details of what everything will actually be like (that is, a dynamic and evolving state—there is no definitive, concrete end point).
- (5)
Articulating individual visions through conversations about what we really want, and progressively generating shared visions that are also responsible (e.g., recognizing the physical limits of our resources).
- (6)
An inclusive conversation that gathers up everyone’s heartfelt desires and does not leave anything or anyone behind, ensuring that the end result is truly reflective of every participant’s vision—not a process of consensus, compromise or lowest common denominator.
- (7)
A story rather than a sentence, that details a rich picture of how we really want to experience the environment or the activity under consideration.
- (8)
Pictures or other art that help to bypass our habits of analysis may prompt and accompany the story.
Most of these characteristics are consistent with practice emerging within the discipline of
future search since the 1990’s [
30].
In the case of forming sustainable communities or organizations, we would suggest that there is an additional reason for the importance of creating a shared vision. Envisioning what we really want consistently produces shared visions that appear to be inherently interconnected, integrated and “sustainable”. It may be that these heart-felt stories reflect an innate capacity to respond systemically to a complex environment.
When we began our own journey of experimenting with groups of people and facilitating envisioning processes for sustainability, we anticipated that the act of envisioning would be “adaptive”, as proposed by Heifetz [
23], since people reprioritized values aligned with their current way of experiencing life to those required for a newer sustainable way in the future. But our observation of people engaging joyously, without hesitation or confusion and, on nearly every occasion, without serious disagreement, suggests that the work is more “technical” in nature—there appears, both through observation and interviewing participants after the envisioning, to be no reprioritization of values taking place, just a spontaneous and unselfconscious re-cognition of how people really want to experience their lives and work—a rediscovery of what they already know.
This notion that people have an innate understanding of how to act and live best in complex environments is consistent with Hämäläinen and Saarinen’s notion of
systems intelligence [
32]. Systems Intelligence is the product of eons of human evolution. Humans are born with it and may develop it further as they live out their lives in complex adaptive systems. Viewed in this light, it makes sense that people already have a “feel” for how to engage with complex systems and indeed have “knowledge”, at some level, of the conditions in which they are most likely to thrive. Through this innate understanding, the paradigm shift to a sustaining state is available to us, even if our dominant mental models reflect the existing or old paradigm (“Sustaining” is a term coined in the organizational literature by Dunphy
et al. [
33]. It describes an organization that has moved beyond reducing harm, to one that nourishes and nurtures the environmental and social ecologies in which it is embedded. It also reflects the paradigm shift). And so it is that
one way forward’s envisioning process, appears to display the characteristics of “technical” work—at some level, we already “know” all that we need to know in regard to the new paradigm.
Although the process of envisioning does require careful introduction and framing to put some participants at ease in revealing and sharing “what I really want”, within the one way forward model, envisioning presents as one of the easier activities.
4.1.2. Embedded in the Vision: Values Expressed as Core Messages
Because the vision is about the things we care most about, it is a values-rich story. Once the group has revealed its shared vision, it is possible to identify the values already embedded in the vision as core messages. As with the envisioning, this is a collaborative exercise.
Values are important because they direct our individual and collective actions and participating in a process that makes the shared values explicit provides a stronger foundation—both in awareness and social bonds—to undertake the tough decisions that a group will need to make. These values or core messages, once identified, can be used to build a bridge between the vision and actions on the ground that seek to bring the vision into being.
From a facilitative perspective, this process is gentle on both facilitators and participants. It is possible that this reflects prior participant experience of working with values—it is not unfamiliar territory in a “strategic planning process” or in “team building” work. What is worth noting in the one way forward model, however, is that the values are identified directly within the vision, not separate from it. This ensures that they are relevant to the future state—the values identified are “strategic” in themselves.
Our practical experience suggests that having the participants aggregate the core messages into a workable number, between five and seven, helps to crystallize and clarify their thinking, and to focus the efforts of the group in identifying the indicators of progress.
4.1.3. Indicators of Progress: A Concrete Reflection of the Core Messages of the Vision
The core messages extracted from the values-rich, co-created vision provide a springboard for identifying indicators of progress—what will we observe as we successfully bring our shared vision into being?… “lovingly” into being, as Meadows describes it [
18].
In undertaking any action, it is natural to seek to understand if what you have done has moved you towards your desired future or not. Traditionally, managers employ a range of quantitative measures—founded upon a received wisdom that “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”. Measures lag outcomes. They are about what has already happened.
Indicators, on the other hand, monitor what is unfolding—they lead outcomes. They tell us how much progress we are making—whether we are on track. They focus on what we will observe in the tangible world as our vision is coming into being. As the vision is by its nature heart-felt and does not come with its own definitive pathway, complete with measurable milestones, the indicators of progress are also usually (although not necessarily) qualitative and unapologetically subjective, but they are observable, and the group is able to review whether they are seeing more of this particular indicator as they act to bring their vision into being.
By reflecting upon the presence or otherwise of specific indicators of progress as a group, there is some reassurance to those who are more comfortable with measures, that these subjective assessments do not reflect only one person’s perspective. In all this work, “bringing the system together” in conversation is a fundamental principle [
10] and in the context of identifying indicators of progress, the group provides a system wide and “responsible” perspective.
Of utmost importance is the recognition that the measures and indicators we choose may actually influence the system of interest and create potential for perverse outcomes—we must choose indicators wisely [
34]. This is especially true if our indicator is, in fact, a measure—measures tend to measure the outputs in one or other
part of the system, whereas qualitative or subjective indicators can attempt to capture the behaviour of the whole system, without submitting to the reductionist assumption that the whole is merely the sum of the parts. A numerical Key Performance
Indicator (KPI) for example, may focus the energies of the organizational system on delivering that particular number in that particular part of the system, without regard to the “side”-effects on the system as a whole. The number—the measure—might be achieved, but there may be unexpected and unwelcome impacts in regard to creativity, collaboration, the success of the whole, and so on. A measure often constrains, rather than liberating, the self-organizing power of the system.
The lure of the measure is in great part a product of its accessibility and our collective, deeply socialized belief in the supremacy of “the objective” over “the subjective”—if something can be measured, it is tempting to convince ourselves that the measurement will be useful and important—like the driver who searches for his car keys under the street light, even though he dropped them somewhere else, because it is the only place with enough light to make searching easy! The forgoing is not to denigrate all measures—some are systemically useful, but measures should be “handled with care” because of the reductionist assumptions that often ignore their unseen systemic impacts.
Identifying indicators of progress appears to be
adaptive work as there is “unlearning” and new learning to be grappled with [
35]. This is the time when the group of stakeholders needs to identify what they might observe if the vision were being realised in the here and now. The identification of indicators can be seen as building a bridge between vision and action. These conversations are crucial and need careful facilitation to ensure the adaptive work is undertaken and not “avoided” by the group. It is tempting and easy to slip back into familiar “technical” solutions [
23], such as existing approaches, or mechanical measures, that require no new learning… and risk the health, or wholeness, of the system.
We should also expect the process of developing good and effective indicators to be one of continual adjustment and refinement… learning which indicators are most effective to monitor progress in bringing the vision into being—indeed the vision, itself, may be refined as more is learned about the larger system and as the larger system itself evolves.
4.1.4. “Strategic Experiments”: Indicators Prompt Concrete Action and Learning
In a complex environment, marked by “irreducible uncertainty” [
18], where the shared vision orientates us, but the path only emerges as we tread it, we are dependent on a process of continuous learning, but the challenge is to decide on which pathways to try next. Indicators of progress based on the core messages of our shared vision help us to monitor our success in bringing the vision into being, but they are also, themselves, prompts to action. They provide another way to keep the vision alive, so that choices, decisions and actions remain informed by and connected to the vision. The indicators of progress prompt a group to experiment with different activities on a strategic basis to see what works and what does not—
what can we do that might give rise to the progress we are seeking?—and to learn more about the complex system with which they are engaging. It is
strategic experimentation, because these actions are taken to explore the most important and challenging facets of the vision—the core messages—as identified by the group.
Because we cannot predetermine or dictate outcomes, each next step is an experiment to learn what works within the context of our current experience of the complex system. The process is an iterative cycle of action and learning. The learning phase is a critical reflection upon what has eventuated as a result of the action, with reference to the shared vision, its core values and the indicators of progress (recognizing that long feedback loops may constrain a complete appreciation of the outcomes).
Importantly, the first phase is observing and learning—rather than action. Before rushing in to act, the initial learning involves gaining a collective understanding of, or feel for, the whole system and its possible leverage points, where interventions achieve the most impact for effort [
35]. Meadows called this
getting the beat of the system [
18]—sensing, without analysing, the underlying dynamics and rhythms that are driving the behavior of the system. In the same way, the surfer sits on the beach and gets a feel for the surf, gets a sense of the frequency and shape and direction of the “system”, before seeking to intervene. Organizationally it is not uncommon to hear managers talk about the quality of “energy” in their group—this is one example of “getting the beat” of the system.
The next steps are a continuous process of learning. In an ongoing iterative cycle, the action taken informs future strategic experiments, and is also likely to feed back into the vision, which evolves as more is learned—the model is dynamic and the vision is never final. The process of iteration is an important one as, in the non-linear world, it allows the system to fold back upon itself, amplifying novel ideas and unsettling the status quo. As Margaret Wheatley explains, “iteration helps small differences grow into powerful and unpredictable effects”. ([
10], p. 122). The process of iteration is not a “clean” one—it is a process that brings the system to the edge of chaos from which the new order emerges, and it will be experienced as “messy”.