What is the essence of a vision that creates great impact? ( Requirement #3 of a good vision)

In my last article, I talked about one of the requirements for a good vision is “KOKOROZASHI, not ambition” and the importance of “integrating inner energy and KOKOROZASHI”

In this article, I will discuss the last point of the requirements for a good vision. This requirement is especially true for visions that have a significant impact, such as those that drive change.

The essence of good visions

Let’s consider some examples of what might be called a good vision or a good mission. Some of these examples are expressed as missions, which are purposes that a community or individual pursues in perpetuity, but for the discussion we are going to give here, there is no significant difference between a mission and a vision.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
(Martin Luther King, Jr.)

“Our mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
(Google)

“By providing comprehensive financial services, empowering the poor to realize their potential and break out of the vicious cycle of poverty.”
（Grameen Bank)

I’m sure you may have all heard of these visions and missions at one time or another. You can feel firsthand that all visions and missions are very appealing and have the energy to mobilize the power of many people.

Now we come to the heart of the matter. One of the requirements for good vision is that it must be accompanied by a transformative change in consciousness. I would like to explain what I mean by “involving a transformative change in consciousness” by using these specific examples.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
→It is an appeal to make a transformative change in the consciousness of American society as a whole, which has accepted the reality that there are many situations in which people are judged by the color of their skin, to one in which the world described in the dream above is taken for granted.

“Our mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
→It implies trying to break the stereotype that it is difficult to organize all the information in the world, or that such information can be accessed by a limited number of people, but not by everyone.

“By providing comprehensive financial services, empowering the poor to realize their potential and break out of the vicious cycle of poverty.”
→The implication is to change the mindset that it is possible to break out of the vicious cycle of poverty by making financial services available to the poor, instead of accepting the reality that financial services are mainly for the wealthy and that it is difficult for the poor to access such services and escape poverty.

Thus, we can see that the common element of these visions is “ a transformative change in the consciousness of society as a whole, or of many people.”

The three cases mentioned here are examples that have had a great impact on society as a whole, so they imply a change in consciousness of many people to the extent that common sense (knowledge and values that people have in common or are expected to have in society) is changed.

However, it is NOT always the case that when we raise a vision, we must intend to change the consciousness of so many people that common sense changes.

For example, we may have a vision for our company or business to change the common sense in the industry. Another way to set a vision for a department or an internal project is to “change the common and fixed concept of XX” in a company.

As we can see, the scope of the target depends on the intention of the person or organization who sets the vision, but one of the requirements for a good vision is that it includes “ a transformative change in consciousness” as the intention of the vision.

Why is it important that it involves a transformative change in consciousness?

Why is a transformative change of “consciousness” so important as a good vision? It is because the root of the phenomenon is in consciousness.

Phenomenon
↓
Structure and background of the phenomenon
↓
Behavior
↓
Decision
↓
Thoughts and feelings
↓
Mental models (Belief systems)
↓
Intuition (Subjective truth)
↓
Self (The subject of self-consciousness)

As I mentioned in a previous article, the causes of various phenomena include actions, the causes of which include decisions, the causes of which include thoughts and feelings, and the causes of which include mental models. To put it simply, the causes of phenomena have consciousness.

A good vision is not only a description of the future as a phenomenon, but also implies a transformative change of the consciousness that is the cause of the phenomenon.

When a change in consciousness is implied, the phenomenon that the change in consciousness brings about becomes more impactful. The impact is greater when the consciousness that causes the phenomenon is changed than when the phenomenon itself is changed.

Imagine if Google’s vision was to “make search useful”. If Google’s vision was to make search convenient, I don’t think Google would be where it is today with services like Gmail and Youtube.

By implying a transformation of consciousness, not only will the vision have a greater impact, but it will also have the breadth and depth to be able to overlap with the subjective truth of each individual.

For example, let’s imagine someone whose main truth is to “improve the lives of the poor.

Let’s compare what this person would think if Google’s vision was “(A) to make search useful” with “(B) Our mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

If the vision is to “(A) make search convenient,” he/she may think, “That’s for the rich, and the poor can’ t search for information in the first place. In such a case, it would be difficult for this person to feel the connection between Google’s vision and his or her own subjective truth.

However, if the vision is “(B) make it universally accessible and useful,” then he/she might think that “being able to know the price of goods being bought and sold in the market for poor people is very important”, and he/she may find an alignment with his/her subjective truth.

In this way, by implying a transformative change in consciousness, the vision can have a great impact, and at the same time, it can have a breadth and depth that allows it to be superimposed on the subjective truth of each individual, and as a result, the vision becomes “one’s own issue for many people.”

Summary of the requirements for good vision

In this article, I discussed the third requirement of a good vision, which is that a good vision involves a transformative change in consciousness. Finally, let’s summarize the three requirements of a good vision that have been discussed in the previous articles.

The Requirements for Good Vision
・Connectedness with the subjective truth: Connectedness with the subjective truth of oneself and team members, drawing out their inner energy.

・Not ambition, but KOKOROZASHI: Not just for oneself (ambition), but for others including oneself (KOKOROZASHI). And inner energy and KOKOROZASHI are compatible.

・Implications of a transformative change in consciousness: This implies not only a change in phenomena, but also a transformative change in consciousness.

Here are the quests of the day. (If you’d like, please share your thoughts in the comments.)

・Imagine one vision that you think is a good one. What kind of a transformative change in consciousness is implied in that vision?

・How does the implication of the transformation of consciousness in that vision affect the magnitude of the impact of that vision, and the breadth and depth with which it is possible to overlay the subjective truth with each person?

Bunshiro Ochiai