Making Vision Stick 11: A Final Word

So, now we’ve chewed through the meat of Andy Stanley’s Making Vision Stick… Are ya feeling stuffed? Let’s finish this adventure together with 2 things: a summary of what we’ve learned & a challenge from me to you…

A Summary…

Vision doesn’t stick naturally, so it’s our responsibility as leaders to make our vision “sticky”. Here are the key disciplines: State Our Vision Simply, Cast Our Vision Convincingly, Repeat Our Vision Regularly, Celebrate Our Vision Systematically, & Embrace Our Vision Personally. Once we’re in the habit of doing those 5 things, we must be aware that our vision will tend to slip. When it does, we have to look for Projects, Products, & Programs that distract from our vision and listen for Requests, Stories, & Complaints that reveal what people are thinking.

Remember: we should have a pretty good idea about what people are saying & thinking if our vision is sticking… If they’re not saying & thinking those things, we’ve got to get them headed back in the right direction.

A Challenge…

This comes from Pg 72-74 of the book & it’s just too awesome not to share with you. “It will always be difficult to make vision stick. After all, vision is about creating something new—something that should be, but won’t be, without someone’s dogged determination to see it through to the end. If God has given you a picture of what could be and should be, embrace it fully and refuse to allow the busyness and urgency of life to distract you... It will require you to develop a healthy intolerance for those things that have the potential to impede your progress. All the leaders I’ve met have mental pictures of what could be and should be for theire organizations, but not every leader is willing to pay the price to turn his or her ideas into reality. It takes more than imagination and passion to make what could be and should be into what is. Seeing a vision become a reality requires more than a single burst of energy or creativity. It requires daily attention. Daily commitment. If you are consumed with the tension between what is and what could be… if you find yourself emotionally involve… frustrated… brokenhearted… maybe even angry about the way things are… if you believe that God is behind your anguish… then chances are you are on the brink of something divine, something too important to abandon. Pay the price. Embrace the vision. And do whatever it takes to make the vision stick!”