Responding to At de Lange in LO26771 --
At de Lange, responding to Felicia Stewart's question about missions and
visions being [virtually] the same thing, points out that "A vision is
linguistically a set of declarative sentences (statements). A mission is a
set of imperative sentences (commands)." When I first read this, I
chuckled. My immediate thought was to share with this list the definition
of genius once offered me by a friend and colleague. He said, "A genius
is someone who can see the obvious." Art has pointed to the obvious:
visions are expressed in declaratives (statements) and missions are
expressed in imperatives (commands). My second reaction was to say to
myself, "Yep, At is a genius."
At goes on to point out a relationship between the two, namely, that
"...the logic of commands encompass the logic of statements rather than
the other way around." In so doing, he also points out that "...a mission
will always encompass a vision. That is why the management team of an
Ordinary Organisation (OO) has to be so careful in formulating a vision.
The commands which they may subsequently issue, may easily disrupt the
vision."
To my impoverished way of thinking, At has pointed to something we refer
to in other terms (e.g., "words" and "deeds" and "walking the talk").
A simple, obvious fact of categorization or classification is at the same
time deeply profound. I have been in this business (whatever you choose
to call it) since Hector was a pup (pardon the phrasing) and I have NEVER
heard anyone point out the obvious qualities that At did in his reply to
Felicia. Nor have I EVER heard anyone point to the relationship between
the two. Those two bits of information will provide me with considerable
food for thought (pardon the cliche) for quite some time to come.
I have another friend and colleague who used to say of me that I had
throwaway lines on which other folks could build careers. Well, I'll say
this about the two seminal points At made in his reply to Felicia: More
than one consultant, with a little effort, could build a nice consulting
practice around what would emerge from examining those two points and
their implications and ramifications for senior executives.
Hmm. Maybe I'll go back into consulting. (If I do, At, I'll send you 10%
of my billings off this little gem.)
--Fred Nickols The Distance Consulting Company "Assistance at A Distance" http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm nickols@att.net (609) 490-0095
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