Developing a Vision Statement
Your vision, or context, sets out what you need to be happy and satisfied in life. It is yours and it is personal to you.
If you are managing land and/or a business, then you need to create a vision for the land/business, and everyone who’s involved in it. So, for a farm it might be the husband and wife and the kids working the business. The farm business needs to be able to satisfy the needs of all the people involved. It probably won’t be the only thing each person needs, but it needs to fit their vision – collectively.
The following ‘The Golden Circle’ framework by Simon Sinek provides a process to support you in developing your vision. It provides a way of moving from the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of your business, to focusing on the ‘why’ of your business. It also aligns with Allan Savory’s Holistic Management framework for creating a Holistic Context.
The Golden Circle1
Once we have identified our why, we need to consider our vision, or what we need to do to support our why. We focus on this in four key areas:
People: what do we want our relationships and interactions with the people around us to be like?
Community: what do we want our community to be like? How do we want to interact with different parts of our community?
Environment: what do we want our environment to be like? What does out land look and feel like?
Infrastructure: what infrastructure do we need to support our why? This can be our house, our land, and even our community.
Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses and Strengths (TOWS) analysis
Another important aspect in preparing for your journey is to complete a Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses and Strengths (TOWS) analysis. The TOWS model below2 supports thinking through some practical and readily applicable strategies, so you will better understand how to use your strengths to mitigate your weaknesses and seize your opportunities while avoiding the threats!
| External Opportunities (O) | External Threats (T) | |
|---|---|---|
| Internal Strengths (S) |
SO "Maxi-Maxi Strategy" Strategies that use strengths to maximize opportunities. |
ST "Maxi-Mini Strategy" Strategies that use strengths to minimize opportunities. |
| Internal Weaknesses (W) |
WO "MIni-Maxi Strategy" Strategies that minimize weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities. |
WT "Mini-Mini Strategy" Strategies that minimize weaknesses and avoid threats. |
First Nations Perspective
When First Nations people envision the future, they’re not just looking short-term or even medium-term, such as succession planning for your children. Rather, First Nations people, in general, look seven generations into the future to ask, what kind of future am I leaving my great-grandchildren’s great-grandchildren, and what kind of future do I want to see.
This idea is not just about thinking sustainably, it’s about knowing our time here is short and what will we do to ensure we are setting a good example and being a good ancestor to our descendants. However, it’s also reaching seven generations into the past and learning from those who came before and ensuring we are doing our own ancestors proud.
Importantly, we need to be visionary when looking seven generations into the future. And you need to ask, am I currently on trajectory to achieve this seven-generation vision? What are the small challenges I can address in my lifetime, and what are the grand challenges I need to begin addressing, that I will never see come into fruition, but I’m setting up for my descendants?
References
1. Source: https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/online-value-proposition/start-with-why-creating-a-value-proposition-with-the-golden-circle-model/
2. Source: TOWS Matrix © 1982 Heinz Weihrich, Ph.D.
