Where there is no vision, the people perish

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The Thursday Thought

6 min readMar 14, 2018

“Where there is no vision, the people perish” — Proverbs 29:18

The Hebrew word paw-rah’ means “to perish”. Paw-rah’ was the word used in a biblical proverb where a woman’s hair was let flow out of its covering (hairband). Unconstrained in the wind her hair is directionless and blown in all directions.

Worldwide, only 13% of employees working for any organisation are engaged, which means 87% are not involved in, enthusiastic about or committed to their work.

Companies with engaged employees outperform their peers by 202%.

Productivity improves by 20–25% in organisations with connected employees.

There are many reasons for disengaged employees from poor management, to not being challenged enough. An extremely common problem is a lack of vision. People do not articulate this, but these are the issues which underly dissatisfaction at work.

What is our cause?

What do we believe in?

Why do we do what we do?

Self Actualisation in Work

Society has reached a stage where more people are dying from abundance than from lack. Obesity and obesity-related illnesses kill more people than starvation. People are at a point where their basic needs have been met.

We now spend more money on experiences than “stuff”. We want to understand more about ourselves and unlock our potential. We want to stand for something and make a difference in the world. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we are at the uppermost point of Self-actualisation. (see below)

Lessons from the Gym

Playing rugby (even before I became a professional), I used to visualise myself as I wanted to be every time I went to the gym and before and during every exercise. I was ultra-disciplined with nutrition, rest periods and technique. Other people were equally disciplined, but they did not get the same results.

You will know those people who get vastly different results than you. You figure they must be taking some wonder supplement or it is just their genetics. Too few of us ask what can we do to become more like the person we envy. Too few of us truly challenge ourselves and our excuses.

Our default mindset is one of defence and self-protection. That is our pre-historic brain at work, it sees anything outside the norm as a threat, it enjoys the status quo.

“The human mind treats a new idea the same way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it.” ― Peter Medawar

We need to overcome this resistance to make real change happen.

The man largely responsible for the supreme physical condition of the 2003 Rugby World Cup winning England side is Matt Lovell, a future guest on the innovation show. Matt encourages his clients to use visioning to get desired results you want from the gym. He suggests we need to get a clear vision of what we want to look like. That vision could be a former more youthful us or a role model or iconic figure we want to emulate. Matt focuses on the Greek statues as part of his vision, he also has several movie stars and martial artists on his vision board.

Corporate Gyms

In most organisations, if you were to ask a sample of people from different parts of the organisation which direction they are going, they would all point in different directions. This problem is exacerbated in bigger organisations, especially those with multiple departments (silos). The problem is acuter if there are multiple plants or sites nationally or globally.

In companies without a vision people come to work, they do stuff all day, they meet, they go home. In sports teams without a vision, people come to training, they train, the go home. In life, people without a vision, do stuff, go home and drift aimlessly in the winds of life through to death.

Many people are desperately unhappy in their jobs. As Peter Himmelman told us recently on the show: “Unengaged employees are essentially checked out. They’re sleepwalking through their workday putting time — but not energy or passion — into their work.”

When this happens we find ways to mask an unhappy reality, we bludgeon ourselves from reality at night and we sleepwalk by day. When we do that, we miss the opportunity to make a difference and we let the world take shape around us, rather than play a hand in shaping the World. Work life makes up

Vision Without Action is a Daydream, Action Without Vision is a Nightmare

Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

The Cheshire Cat: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”

Alice: “I don’t much care where.”

The Cheshire Cat: “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

(From Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)

“If you can hold it in your head, you can hold it in your hand.” — Bob Proctor

A clear vision brings focus and direction. It binds those involved in any process together, like the band would bind the hair in the wind. A clear vision.

If people are not focussed on the common goal and are all doing their own thing because of a lack of clarity of vision, you have a tough time getting to the “promised land”.

THANK YOU FOR READING

If your team or organisation is interested in a highly-engaging, fun and visual workshop delivered virtually from a professional studio, drop me a line. “The Permanent Reinvention” virtual workshop is now available, based on my book

“Undisruptable: A Mindset of Permanent Reinvention for Individuals, Organisations and Life.”

It is a workshop that examines the biases and cognitive traps that prevent us from making our best decisions in business and every other aspect of life.

“Aidan McCullen has lived a fascinating life of major change. In his book, ‘Undisruptable’; he brings us a method for making sense of the external world, and an accessible and visual approach to letting go of the past, and welcoming the future with a mindset of permanent reinvention. It is a timely, thoughtful book, well worth reading.” — Dee Hock, founder and CEO Emeritus of VISA

Book is available:

EP 91 of the Innovation Show is called “Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You with “Built to Sell” author John Warrillow, creator of The Value Builder System™ a statistically proven methodology for improving a company’s value by up to 71%.