3 Tips for Translating Vision Into Action
Converting vision into action is often a workplace trouble spot. People can’t always see or clearly understand how they will accomplish their goals or do their part for bringing the vision of the organization to fruition.
While it might sound absurd on the surface, think about the last time you said or heard, “I don’t even know where to get started.” Sometimes it is difficult to get started when the task in front of you looks too big or too lofty to complete.
People might look at their desk, open a closet door or peak into their favorite storage space and think that cleaning it up or organizing the mess is just too difficult. Procrastination is at least one of the trouble spots for getting more organized or translating vision into action, but there are plenty of others.
What about you, can you translate vision into action?
Workplace Vision to Action
When your boss, the CEO, or even the board of directions sets performance goals sometimes the hardest part is getting started. Sometimes when you consider the forecasts they seem to be based on lofty aspirations, stretch goals, or to be coming from the place where unicorns live. If you don’t know where to begin, you’re not alone. Here are a few tips that might help:
- Break goals into smaller pieces. If you are looking at an annual budget you can begin by breaking things down into quarters, months, or even weeks. Keep in mind that in many cases results are not achieved in a perfect linear fashion. There might be peaks as well as valleys, and some cyclical nature to achieving results. Sometimes smaller pieces will help you to identify your initial focus.
- Jump in and get started. When it feels like you don’t know where to start, and you just can’t seem to figure it all out, try to focus on just jumping in, launch into it. Do something, move something, change something, take some kind of action. Sometimes once you are in motion some of the pieces will start to come together. Quite simply, you can’t finish if you never start.
- Focus on wins. One of the best motivators for what to do next is to remember your successes or past accomplishments. Identify and always reflect on something that was successful no matter how small it may seem. Sometimes making the decision to get started might represent your first win. Collect all of your wins together, pile them up, look at them, think about what would have happened without these and focus on achieving more.
Translating vision into action typically doesn’t require you to find the unicorn. It does sometimes require focus, persistence, and tenacity. It might be easy to claim that the goal is too big, has never been achieved before, or cannot be accomplished with current resources but those all sound like excuses to me. If you’re really going to make something happen, you’re going to have to recognize that excuses are useless.
– DEG
See also: Do You Actualize the Vision?
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and coach that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author. Some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
