Building shared vision.Peter Senge starts from the position that if any one idea aboutleadership has inspired organizations for thousands of years, ‘it’s the capacity to hold a sharepicture of...

Building shared vision.





Peter Senge starts from the position that if any one idea about






leadership has inspired organizations for thousands of years, ‘it’s the capacity to hold a share






picture o


f the future we seek to create’ (1990: 9). Such a vision has the power to be uplifting –





and to encourage experimentation and innovation. Crucially, it is argued, it can also foster a


sense of the long-


term, something that is fundamental to the ‘fifth discipline’.









When there is a genuine vision (as opposed to the all-to-


familiar ‘vision statement’), people






excel and learn, not because they are told to, but because they want to. But many leaders have


personal visions that never get translated into shared vis


ions that galvanize an organization…


What has been lacking is a discipline for translating vision into shared vision -


not a ‘cookbook’






but a set of principles and guiding practices.

What are your thoughts on building shared vision?