Vision Compass: how clear is your company vision really?

A future picture is not the sentence on the slide but the image everyone carries when that sentence is spoken. The difference becomes visible the moment two departments are asked to describe the same future independently: if two different stories come out, the vision exists as wording but not as a shared picture. This is exactly where GUSSMAGG VISIONPICTURES starts — abstract strategies are translated into visible images, because information alone no longer suffices at this point.

Orientation is the link between the future picture and what is in this week's calendar. It is high when running projects connect clearly to the strategic goals — and low when that connection can only be made on request and only by the management team. Weak orientation alongside a strong future picture is one of the most common patterns: everyone knows where things are heading, nobody knows what that means for their own area.

Identification measures whether people understand why change is necessary — not whether they agree with it. The difference matters: agreement cannot be forced, understanding can be created. Where identification is missing, transformation is experienced as something that happens to the company rather than something it does. High identification with weak implementation power produces the landscape “The Blocked Mountain Pass”: people want to, the system will not let them.

The hardest test of this dimension is a time limit: can your strategy be explained in under three minutes? What takes longer does not get retold — and what does not get retold does not exist in daily work. Weak communication alongside a strong future picture produces the landscape “The Echo in the Valley”: leadership knows the direction, the message loses its effect on the way down. The lever is rarely more communication but a different form — images, stories and symbols instead of more slides.

Visibility is the most underrated dimension. It does not ask whether a lot is happening but whether what happens is noticed. If it drops below 3.0 the landscape “The Hidden Base Camp” already applies: a lot is moving in the organisation, but progress and successes stay invisible. The result is a climate in which transformation feels endless, because nobody can see any interim state.

Implementation power asks whether the strategic goals influence daily action — not whether they are achieved. It is the dimension that decides whether future clarity turns into movement. Two patterns are especially common: a high future picture with low implementation power gives “The Summit in the Fog” — the goal is visible, the path is not. High orientation and identification with low implementation power gives “The Blocked Mountain Pass” — then it is structural obstacles, not missing clarity.