Visions have their roots in the past
In the previous articles, I have talked about the visioning process. The following is a summary of what we have done so far.
Visioning process
(1)Start with subjective truth
(2)Focus on the gap between the natural flow of consciousness and the partiality of consciousness
(3)Develop “quests” and use one’ s intuition
(4)Co-creating visions through dialogue and mashups
This is the final part of the Visions series. As the last article in this chapter, I would like to share with you that visions have their true source in the past.
Are the visions disconnected from the present or the past?
Vision is an image of the future, so it must refer to the future. What does it mean that it has its true source in the past?
I’m sure many of you may have felt this way. As you said, a vision is an image of the future, so a vision itself is a concrete representation of what we want to be in the future. However, if the vision is disconnected from the present, even if it is set forth as a vision, it will have little connection to our daily activities.
What is the vision of the company, department, or team to which you belong?
What recent events have brought you closer to that vision, or made you feel that it is partially realized?
When you are asked this question, what image comes to mind? It may be difficult for you to recall your vision, or even if you do, it may be difficult for you to connect it to a specific activity or event.
If you are experiencing this difficulty, it is possible that the vision has become disconnected from the present or past.
It would be wonderful if we could go into today’s work feeling connected to our visions. And it would be fulfilling to feel proud of past work that has a connection to the vision, and to feel that it is piling up.
Visions are connected to the present and the past
What are the most important things when envisioning or reinterpreting a vision?
It was the subjective truth, or the connection to one’s inner energy.
When we are connected to our subjective truth or our inner energy, our visions are not only about what we want the future to be, but they are also connected to the present and the past.
This is because the subjective truth or the emanation of one’s inner energy is in the present as well as in the past. The concrete form of it may not be what you want the future to be, as indicated in the vision. However, there must be similar events in the present and in the past in terms of the outpouring of one’s own subjective truth and inner energy.
Let me explain with a concrete example. My company’s vision is “to become a top player in the domestic training market for large companies, based on the concept of focusing on the outcomes of training.” At this point, we are not yet top players, and we are still on the way to focusing on the outcomes of training, so this is where we want to be in the future, and there is a gap between this and our current status.
At the same time, I feel that this vision is closely connected to our company’s present and past. For example, in terms of “focusing on the outcomes of training,” the following initiatives are connected.
▼Our training service, 100 Fungos, was based on the idea that “there is a big gap between inputting knowledge and developing skills in terms of producing business results.
▼We are persistently confirming each customer’s development goals for each customer and each project.
▼We have developed our own questionnaires to improve training based on student satisfaction and effectiveness.
▼In order to produce training outcomes, it is necessary to address not only technical challenges, but also adaptive challenges (challenges that involve changes in belief systems), and we are creating solutions to these challenges.
It is important to note that these past efforts were not always explicitly linked to the realization of the current vision. Each of these initiatives may have been explicitly connected to the ideal state and past visions of the time, but they may not have been explicitly connected to the current visions.
It is a sense that in retrospect, we appear to be connected. From the perspective of the inner energy and subjective truth that is at the root of our current vision, we appear to be connected in a backward looking way. It can also be called a reinterpretation of past experiences.
From another perspective, the question, “What are the past events and what are we doing now that are connected to the current vision at its root? is a very good question for reinterpreting the current vision and giving more meaning to the past events and what we are doing now.
If we don’t see much of a connection on this question, then we might need to ask ourselves if there is a connection between the vision and the inner energy in ourselves or our team.
If we can find connections with past events and what we are doing now, we can work on realizing our visions with the sense of “enlarging what already exists” rather than “creating something completely new from scratch.”
This sense of “enlarging what is already there” dramatically increases the possibility of realizing the vision, and also brings a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment from the connection between the vision and the work and efforts in front of us.
Living in the vision from now
When we can feel that we are enlarging what is already there, it is not as if “we are working hard in a world that is not currently realizing the vision”, but more like “we are living in the vision right now.”
If we compare it to climbing a mountain, the vision often describes the state of being at the top of the mountain, but we can have the feeling that we have not yet reached the top, but we are on a wonderful path of climbing to reach the top.
If you can have this feeling, don’t you feel like your days are more enjoyable and your visions are already coming true?
I would like to recommend the following to you in order to have this feeling: organize and be able to talk about past and ongoing episodes that connect you to the inner energy and subjective truth at the root of your visions.
By being able to tell stories that are connected to the vision, that have already been realized or are being realized, you can reaffirm the sense of “living the vision now” in yourself, and by telling these stories to the people around you, you can encourage them to work with the same sense.
I am always thinking about how past and present efforts are connected to our vision, and then I talk about it with the employees in the morning meetings, and through their responses and feedback, I notice new connections between the past or present activities and the vision.
The more I talk about it, the more I feel that I am living in the vision, and the more I feel that the number of people who feel the same way is increasing.
This is the last article in the Vision series. Thank you very much for reading this far!
Here are the quests of the day. (If you’d like, please share your thoughts in the comments.)
・How is your team’s vision connected to your or your team’s past events and current efforts?
・If you were to tell a new member of your team about the connection between the vision and the current effort, what would be the story you would tell?
Bunshiro Ochiai
