Vision plays out in a specific context and via a specific organization, under the auspices of a specific leadership configuration. Context is messy. Organizations are complex. Leaders are not perfect in judgment or execution. Combined, these forces collude, often unintentionally, to prevent vision from finding its way.
This is why we must be relentless with vision.
RELENTLESS.
How about some additional words and phrases to drive the point home?
Bull-dogged Dug-in Stick to the knitting Un-fazed Chained to it Persistent Geeked-up Our North Star Anchored Fuzed
Without the courage to consistently return to vision, to draw upon it, to let it open and shut the gate to what you will do next and defend the why of a thing, the vision disappears. We will think we remember something about a vision we once developed, but it will cease to operate as the leading light.
This is why we work through complexity to express vision in the starkest terms possible. It helps us sort the the messy context, the complexity of developing an organization and the inconsistent waffling of being human. Entrepreneurs, especially when completing original business plans, need to develop clarity of vision and the disipline to use it. CEOs, especially because they move in and among all of an organization's components and constituencies, must be absolutely relentless about communicating and holding to vision--even if it means not doing other important things.
Perhaps you have heard someone talk about the traps leaders sometimes fall into, making use of the ready--aim--fire metaphor, and describing some leaders as "ready-fire-aim" or "ready-aim-aim-aim." What this post intends to convey is that whether steady, all too ready, or stuck in an eddy, a leader with a commitment to be relentless about vision puts on clean glasses before they ever pick up the gun.