As you pray and give careful thought to setting vision for your small group, consider this leadership lesson from John Kotter, author of Leading Change, as he talks about the characteristics of an effective vision (with Paul’s comments behind each one):
- It’s imaginable: like we’ve already said, a picture of the future
- It’s desirable: I know that’s a Duh, but it needs to be appealing to long-term interests of the group. It should inspire enthusiasm and encourage commitment. Remember Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision speech “I have a dream”? And I’ll add here that it should be an ambitious vision that shoots for high standards of excellence, which raises everyone’s water level.
- It’s feasible: It’s gotta be realistic and attainable at some level
- It’s focused: since you will be basing decisions on it, it has to be clear enough to provide guidance. And it should fit the uniqueness of the group.
- It’s flexible: Though it has focus, a vision statement must still be general enough to allow individual initiative and alternative responses within it, in light of changing conditions. You don’t want to be re-writing it monthly!
- It’s communicable: an understandable vision should be able to be successfully articulated in 5 minutes, with an elevator speech of 30 seconds capturing the gyst of it.
