Vision is important, yet the precise nature of it is so often overlooked, undervalued or glossed over so that the “real” work of leadership can begin.
This sometimes can mean that leaders do not take the casting of vision seriously enough, or worse they misinterpret what it means to enlist and gather others around a compelling outlook for the future that can be worked towards.
That is why it is so important to have a strong understanding of this core leadership concept and the steps leaders ought to take. And even if it is something “we know already”, it is worth a fresh look (using some new metaphors!) to bring it more sharply into focus.
What is a vision?
Let’s begin with what vision is not. Vision is not simply something that is cognitive or intellectual. It is not a statement that is written or constructed by a group of people that includes lofty words and phrases that feel aspirational and motivating.
Although it is important to put words to feelings and aspirations that people have, to see vision as simply words undercuts this core leadership practice.
Vision is not purely emotive, either. An impassioned speech, a thoughtful video, an inspirational quote will certainly move people, but it will not sustain them in the long haul work of educating, or anything else for that matter.
Vision is also not a philosophical treatise, a 300-page magnum opus outlining the intricate elements of every moving part of an organisation.
Although some leaders of a particular persuasion may be inclined to work in this way, myself included, this makes vision something that is overly complicated, too wordy, too difficult for people to understand and be involved in.
So if vision is not a statement nor a 300-page book describing the cognitive outlook for the future, nor a collection of persuasive words and quotes aimed at moving people to action, what is it? How can we understand this idea well?
Vision as map-making
In his book A Failure of Nerve (2007), Edwin Friedman refers to vision as map-making. He shows how one of the core tasks of leaders is to take people from where they are now (familiar, comfortable, understandable) to places they have never been before.
In this sense, he sees leaders, when they cast vision, as map-makers: they are not people who simply take others on a journey within a known space and place – they must take people beyond their everyday experiences, beyond their current view of reality and the world, to somewhere or someplace that is yet to be charted, known or quantified.
Importantly, the work of leaders in this capacity is not like pushing followers off a cliff into the entirely unknown space with a nicely drawn map in hand – it is more like nudging people forwards on an adventure they have been longing to go on their whole lives but have never had the map (or the courage) to do it.
For a moment just place yourself in a time when people thought the world was not only flat, but that if a sailor sailed far enough, they would fall off the end. Then imagine that you heard from a friend about someone with a crew of 100 who has been commissioned by the nation to sail over it to see if there is anything there (think Christopher Columbus, Juan de Fuca or Ferdinand Magellan…).
Everything within your view of the world, your vision of reality, knows and feels as though this is completely impossible, utterly ludicrous, and wilfully ignorant of the laws of nature. But – they came back.
And they didn’t just come back. They came back and had discovered new lands, new people, new cultures. They brought all of this back with them, too, changing the way we did things here. They very quickly made new maps, too.
The metaphor of vision-casting seen as map-making exposes us as leaders to the fundamental understanding that this core practice is cognitive and emotional.
Vision as an emotional aspect of leadership practice means we are not building stronger schema or mental models when we think about this aspect of our work; when we cast vision, we are forming the imagination of our colleagues about teaching and learning; we are shaping their hearts as well as their minds, so that they might go about their educational tasks with new vigour and verve, seeing new possibilities for their students that might not have been seen before.
What does “vision as map-making” tell us specifically about school leadership?
Leaders as cartographers
School leadership should be inspired by adventure and courage
How often do you see leadership as an adventure? We commonly talk about it as a challenge or a task or a service, but rarely do we think about it as something akin to exploring or discovery.
As Friedman writes: “For a fundamental reorientation to occur, a spirit of adventure … enables new perceptions beyond the control of our thinking processes must happen first.”
When we look throughout history, the greatest leaps forward in human achievement have occurred when leaders have seen their work more as adventure and exploration than challenge and task.
The hunger of Christopher Columbus or Juan De Fuca for adventure was best seen in practice with their deep desire to go first. No map, no understanding of what may have laid beyond the horizon, they went where no-one else had gone before them.
In school leadership, once the “vision map” has been made, explained and charted, we must model to our colleagues our willingness to step into uncomfortable places and spaces for the sake of high expectations for our students, ensuring they get the very best education we can possibly imagine.
By setting the pace, doing what we say we will do, pressing out to do something in the future now, we help our colleagues to see a new horizon of possibility.
School leadership should say, feel and do vision everyday – including making mistakes
The future must be brought into reality, the now, by the leader. They are the only one who can do this. They must bring back the goods from the future to today and celebrate them. This is why highlighting great practice, sharing genuine successes, shining a spotlight on the things that truly show what excellence is made of is so important.
It helps colleagues to glimpse into what excellence should look like. Leaders who shine a light on the sorts of things they want to see that best resemble the vision they have for the future bring back tangible treasure from the vision map-making they have done.
But alongside this, adventurers of old are known for their mistakes and in many examples their happy accidents or serendipities. As leaders we need to model making mistakes and learning and growing through the process.
This in turn helps build trust, it shows that we are human and enables others to see that we are simply people striving towards a shared vision that we all collectively want to achieve for the good of our students. No one expects us to be perfect.
School leadership should make the map and chart the course
Making the map and charting the course to get there is the essence of vision. Stating, showing and explaining what the future looks like is important. But making clear how we are going to get there is equally as important. This practice expands the horizons and helps us all to see new vistas as colleagues to help our students and school community thrive.
School leadership should help overcome imaginative barriers
When leaders make vision maps for their colleagues, it should help them to overcome imaginary barriers to greater achievement for students and higher standards of teaching.
The equator for the explorers of the age of discovery was an enormous imaginary barrier. At one point in history it was thought that this was the edge of the flat earth, and no-one would ever come back if they sailed over it.
This was the position of the greatest minds of science of the day, and no one ever attempted to refute it. Yet in reality the only thing that ever held anyone back from sailing “over the edge” to see if this was true was a failure of nerve and an unwillingness to be brave.
Final thoughts
In schools, quite often, it is the leader who must break down these emotional, imaginative barriers for their colleagues; not through impassioned speeches or intricate diagrammatic vision statements, but through vision that charts the course, vision as a map, alongside going first. And when leaders come back from their adventures with evidence that greatness can be achieved it can change everything.
- Robbie Burns is vice-principal at Bede Academy in Northumberland. Read his blog via www.howthenshouldweteach.wordpress.com and follow him on X @MrRRBurns. Read his previous articles for Headteacher Update via www.headteacher-update.com/authors/robbie-burns