“How do you motivate people to work so hard?” is a question that I am often asked.

It’s a complex issue.  Yet there are a wealth of opportunities for leaders to positively impact the intensity of our staff’s commitment. Most people focus first on straightforward stuff like pay rates, bonuses and benefit programs. If I were to recommend one place to begin motivational efforts, it would be to start out by writing a vision of greatness for your organization.

What’s a vision?  It’s an answer to the simple – yet radical – question: “If we’re successful, what will our organization look like at a particular point in the future?”  Imagine going to a website where you could log on and view your company five years from now.  Pretend you could turn the camera to any particular element – large or small, people or product, finance or food, customers or community – of your organization’s activity.  What would you want to see on the screen?

Working with No Vision
Why bother with such esoteric exotica when there’s food to be sold and floors to be swept?  Because although the day-to-day, hour-to-hour, hands-on work we do is essential to the successful operation of our organizations (large or small), we cannot do that work all on our own.

Imagine that I asked you to prepare for a long trip but wouldn’t say where we were going? It’d be tough to get ready. Or imagine trying to plot a course at sea without knowing the ultimate destination.  In either case, hard work, commitment and all the best intentions aren’t going to be enough to attain success.  Without a clear picture of where we’re head ed, about the only chance we have to be successful is … chance. You’re completely at the mercy of forces beyond your control.  Not a good feeling?  That’s how staff members feel if they don’t have a clear vision of where the organization is headed.

A Time Frame for Your Vision
The bigger your organization, the further out you should get with your vision.  Why?  Because more people are impacted by what you ‘re doing.  If it ‘s just you and two others and there’s no major growth on the horizon, you can work with a vision that’s only a year or two out.

Vision vs. Mission?
A vision – at least as we define it at Zingerman’s – is not the same as a mission statement.  A lot of people use the two terms interchangeably, but they shouldn’t.  A mission statement is an important element of any organization’s direction.  It answers some significant questions: What do we do?  Why do we do it?  For whom do we do it?

By definition, a mission statement is quite broad.  It’s not constrained by time, geography, or economy.  To me, a mission statement is like the North Star – something we look at to get our bearings, something we move towards, all the while knowing that we will never “arrive.”  Our mission statement talks about the commitment to bringing the Zingerman’s Experience to as many people as we can.  It’s an effective mission statement but there are thousands of different paths we follow to move towards it.

A vision of greatness must support and be compatible with the mission statement. But it’s more constrained.

An Effective Vision of Greatness
There are two major characteristics of any effective vision of greatness. It should be both inspiring and strategically sound, i.e., attainable.

As you carry these two characteristics to their natural extreme, they are inherently at odds with each other.  The more exciting and unique the plan is, the harder it will be to make it happen.  A vision that says every one of us will be millionaires in the next two years while keeping our specialty food store small and family-focused, being open five days a week from 10-4 in order to enhance our outside lives, sounds great.  But it isn’t going to happen.

The idea is to get in the middle – to define a vision of greatness for the organization that gets people energized while also being achievable.

1. A Vision of Greatness Inspires
Most people – especially the most talented – want to be part of something special.  That’s why an effective vision of greatness needs to push the envelope.  There must be something that’s uplifting, even a bit spiritual. How will you know if it ‘s inspiring enough?  Ask your staff.  Does it get them excited about the future? Does it tell them that they’re part of something special?

The vision of organizational greatness should be something of a stretch; it should push us to the edge.  If there’s no chance of falling short, we ‘re not stretching enough.  So it’s imperative that we challenge ourselves to get out of the box, to create something that sets us on the path to creating something unique.

When you do map out a creative vision of greatness, you’re going to catch some flak for it.  Everyone who has ever set his or her sight on something remarkable knows that most out-of-the-ordinary ideas are met with resistance.  The trick is to distinguish between the resistance that ‘s coming because your vision is so creative, and that which comes because you’re so far off course that the idea won’t work.

Other than building a network of trusted advisors, or trial and error, there’s no great way to help you tell the difference.  But if no one ‘s saying you’re crazy, or at least telling you you’ve pushed the envelope a little too far, then you probably haven’t stretched yourself enough in creating your vision.

2. An Effective Vision Is Strategically Sound
If you create a vision but don’t believe you can get there, all you have is a great fantasy.  Good for getting people excited, but not when it comes to paying the bills.

A vision of greatness in sports might be winning the World Series.  In science it could be a Nobel Prize.  But “ultimate achievements” like those are not the only worthwhile visions.  If they were, almost every one would be a loser for life.

To be sound, the vision must be true to who and what we are, building on our strengths, staying true to our personalities and principles.

There’s far more to an effective vision of greatness than that final, and outwardly visible, sign of success.  It’s just as important (if not more important) that the vision detail what we do each day, or what our relationships will be like, than it is to focus all our energies on some external measure of success.  It’s important to look at what day-to day life will be like when our vision has been attained.

Look at things like: What will we be selling?  Who will be selling it, and to whom?  What will make us stand out in the marketplace?  What will our customers’ experience be like?  What will it be like to be a staff member?  How will customers and our community view us?  All of these are essential elements of an effective vision of greatness.

Creating the Vision
The vision needs to come from the leader or leaders of the organization.  It’s not something that emerges spontaneously from a group of 100 staff members at the company picnic.  The “out of the box” thinking that it takes to create an effective vision will not come from a large group.

Once you have a draft of a vision, get input from others.  Talk to staff members, peers, customers, community leaders, or industry experts.  Each will have some thing to offer that will help shape your vision into a more effective document.  But the vision will be best when it originates with, is owned by and introduced by the leadership of the organization.

Vision is critical.  Although there are hundreds of reasons why we don’t have time to develop a vision of greatness on any given day, the reality is that there are few more effective uses of our time and creative energy.  Why?

1. It has a positive impact on others.
You may have heard the tale of the men doing masonry work in Milan a few hundred years ago.  Asked what they were up to, the first worker says, “I’m laying stone.”  But the second worker looks up and around, then says, “I’m building a cathedral.”  Equally accurate, but much, much more rewarding.  When we provide an effective vision of greatness, our staff can see that their work is all about building a great cathedral.  And, let me tell you, building cathedrals is a lot more fun, inspiring, interesting and exciting than day after day of simply “laying stone.”

2. It attracts good people.
We need our staff members far more than they need us.  They can choose where they work, where they spend their time, how much emotional and intellectual energy they will spend on, and in , our organization.  And where would you rather work? Somewhere you can lay stone all day, day after day after day?  Or somewhere you can be part of building a beautiful, world-renowned cathedral?

3. It allows us to “create reality” instead of just reacting to problems.
A good vision sends the message that we aren’t satisfied with what’s currently going on.  It brings our fears, concerns and needs out in the open.  With effective vision we are moving towards the future we want, not just reacting to the present-day reality.  If we do this well, we keep competitors reacting to what we ‘re doing.

4. It’s a statement of optimism in the future.
Laying out our vision says that tomorrow will be better than today; that if we work together we can make great things happen.  We are not passive victims; we have the ability to create a future of our choosing.

5. It forces us to realize there is no safe path.
Risk and change are a way of life.  When we put our vision of the future out in the open, we’re modeling this behavior for our staff.  To not create a vision – or to create one but not tell anyone what it is – allows us to protect ourselves from disappointment; to play it safe. But playing it safe has risks.  Trying to stand still in the rapidly moving stream of life is more dangerous than swimming with the tide.

6. It forces us to hold ourselves accountable.
Putting the vision in writing and actively sharing it pushes us to be accountable.  Once it’s out there for everyone to see, it’s a lot harder to turn a blind eye when we’re not upholding our obligations or honoring our commitments.

7. It tells us what we will not do.
For example, because our vision for Zingerman’s specifically says that we are committed to staying in the Ann Arbor area, it’s clear that we aren’t going to open in Chicago.

8. It tells everyone what’s in it for them.
The vision needs to show the opportunities available to those in the organization.  It should make clear what possibilities there will be, how they stand to benefit, how they can contribute.  Therefore, it should be easy to explain.  Everyone in your organization needs to know it so that they can support it (or in some cases so they have the freedom to leave consciously having decided that our future and theirs are not aligned).

9. It creates positive movement.
Once you’ve laid out your vision, people’s energies can be confidently directed towards an agreed upon and highly desirable future.

Laying out a vision can create short-term conflict between various components of the organization.  As hard as this is, ultimately it’s positive conflict because it gets the real issues out in the open where we can deal with them.  It forces us to confront the reality that we and our partners/managers/peers/staff don’t always agree on what the future should look like.  Working through this disagreement can be very difficult, even painful.  But arriving at some mutual agreement on our future is the only waywe’re going to get there.

10. It helps us keep good people.
In the recent book “First Break All the Rules,” Marcus Buckingham and the Gallup Organization show that the single most important element of retaining the best staff members long-term is to give them a clear set of expectations.  Although an organizational vision isn’t enough to get all the day-to-day expectations out in the open, it’s a good start.  If it helps us hold onto a few good people each year, it ‘s a worthwhile investment of our energies.

Changing Vision
You can change your vision but not too often.  If you’ve mapped out a vision that takes things out five years, and then you drastically alter it every 12 months, you will confuse everyone in the company.

Though it may be relatively easy for you to personally change direction, every time we shift focus the rest of the organization is trying to keep up.  Yet, to stick with something blindly that no longer makes sense isn’t effective either.  So revisit your vision every year or so and make sure you can stand by it.  If you still believe it to be inspiring and strategically sound, then don’t turn tail too quickly.  If it was truly a vision of greatness, it will take fortitude to fight through all sorts of resistance to make it a reality.

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A List for Creating a Vision of Greatness

Let’s say you’re creating a vision for your organization.  Look out three to five years (pick a date) into the future.  Give your best shot at describing how things would look.

• How big is your business?  Physical size?  Number of locations? Sales volume?
• What are the most important factors by which you will measure success?
- relative rank in the industry?
- organization’s financial success?- personal financial success?
- contribution to the community?
- product or service quality?
• What are the most important lines or services you sell?
• What makes the shop ping experience unique?
• What special products or services are you offering?
• What sort of customers shop there?  Where do they come from?
• If customers listed three noteworthy things about your business, what would they be?
• How many staff members work in the business?
• How would you describe your management style?
• How do people in the business relate to those around them?
• What do you do?  How much do you work?  How much do you make?
• How does your community view your business?
• What do your suppliers say about you?
• What do industry experts say about you?

The list above is far from complete.  It’s meant to get you started in creating your vision.

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What To Do with Your Vision

1. Communicate It.
A great vision that no one knows is not very effective.  Tell people about it.  We have to actually, and actively, sell our vision to our organization.  Just as the products on our shelves never sell them selves, neither will a vision – no matter how inspiring or strategically insightful – ever sell itself.  How do you sell it?  The same way you sell anything.  Talk about it.  Teach classes on it.  Make flyers for it. Put it in you r newsletter.  Get it o n your website.  Show you r customers – in this case your staff – what’s in it for them.  Get excited about it.  Make it something that people can remember.  Display it.  Promote it.

For the vision to be effective, it must be put in writing. There ‘s something solid, something serious, an increased consistency that we get when we put something on paper.  The vision will be clearer, easier to pass on to new arrivals, harder to deviate from, and more likely to keep us on course .

2. Do it.
The vision becomes the finish line towards which all energies are directed.  Every major decision should include the question, “Is this going to help us move closer to our vision of the future?”  Decisions come in 15 shades of gray – not in “black and white,” “good and bad” answers – but our strategies, behaviors, actions, and words should all move toward the vision.  A strategic plan then is merely a map that shows how we can arrive at our vision of the future from our present day reality.

>>Create your own Vision of Greatness for yourself and your business in our intensive 2-day Small Giants Seminar with Zingerman’s co-founding partner Ari Weinzweig and Bo Burlingham (author of Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big).