A few years ago a friend and I were attending a fancy conference in Atlanta, Georgia – with all that GSE AV equipment and a super buffet menu. We had spent the whole weekend immersed in learning and great conversations. However, we never had the chance to get a good breakfast during the weekend because of the busyness of our schedule. On the way home after the conference we wanted to get a much needed meal at a real restaurant, so we determined to find an IHOP. The only problem was we didn’t know our way around town and certainly didn’t know where to find an IHOP nearby. But we were determined to only eat at an IHOP. We decided to ask SIRI, our iPhone guru, where the nearest IHOP was located. She assured us that it was only “a little ways from us.” So we trusted her navigation and drove around and around following her every turn-by-turn navigational direction. As we were supposedly approaching IHOP we realized that we were in the middle of an upscale sub-division that had an apparent minimum limit of four stories for each home. Thinking we were going to eat at the fanciest IHOP we had ever been to, our anticipation grew and our stomachs growled. Finally we made our final turn into the last calculated stop on our route. Looking up with the expectation of being greeted by the Ritz of IHOPS, we were shocked to find ourselves in the driveway of someone’s home. There was no IHOP in sight, actually there were no restaurants at all. We both looked at each other and realized we had been had by SIRI! My friend and I had no clue where we were going, and as a result, we ended up nowhere. We did however get a friendly wave from the family starring at us through their window as they were sipping coffee. It saddens me to say that we never found an IHOP. We settled for fast food instead. We learned an important lesson that day…make sure you know where you are going if you plan to get to where you need to go.

Where there is no vision there is no cohesiveness. If a leader is unsure about where they are going, they will not be able to inspire others to take the journey with them. My friend and I didn’t know where we were going and ended up exactly there…nowhere. Zig Ziglar said, “If you aim at nothing you will hit it every time.” There is a famous verse in the Bible from Proverbs 29:18 that says “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Vision is the glue that holds an organization together. It is not that vision is powerful in and of itself, it is what vision does to people that makes it a powerful force.

Here are 3 things vision does to people:

1. It Gives Clarity

The more clearer the vision is the more productive people will be. When your team knows what they are working towards they are better equipped to make it happen. However, if a team is unclear about the vision they will not know how to properly use their time and effort.

2. It Brings Unity

Vision is a teamwork adhesive. Vision brings about a common bond that creates unified effort. Synergy comes into effect when there is unity among a team. The sum of the whole is greater than the individual parts. Fragmented organizations produce fragmented results. When vision is strong the team becomes stronger.

3. It Inspires Hope

Vision brings hope. When people are not sure of where they are going and what they are working for hope can begin to diminish. The more hope diminishes the less motivated people are. Hope thrives off of great vision. The greater the cause the more people are inspired to make it happen.

4. It Produces Results

An organization will never reach its potential without vision. If an organization is failing to grow it could very well be because the vision is not powerful enough. A worthy vision will produce high impact results. How can individuals on a team know if they are winning when there is no vision to measure their effort. As the book of Proverbs said when there is no vision people cast off restraint, meaning there are no results because people give up.