| Mastering Creative Change:
Step 3 Clarify Your Vision and Develop a Strategy by Rosanne Bane Third of a seven-part excerpt of Rosanne Bane's book-in-progress Creative Change: How to Effectively Move Your Inspirations from Dream to Reality. Step 3 of the Creative Change Process is to clarify the vision and develop a strategy to achieve it. You know you need to move, to start the change journey. You have enrolled allies to help you scout new locations, pack, carry and so on to make the move. Now you have get clear about exactly where you are going and how you're going to get there. There is a temptation to rush into action at this point. The need for change is urgent, after all. But without a clear vision and strategy, you'll waste time being lost. As Yogi Berra said, "If you don't know where you're going, you might wind up someplace else." How would you know you wound up someplace else? Because you already have a vision. It may not be clear yet, but a vision is implied in the decision to make the change. You don't have to create the vision, you only have to clarify what the vision already is or select which of many visions to focus on. Clarifying your vision is like any other creative moment when you let creativity flow through you. The vision comes, not from you, but through you. Your job is not to make something happen at this stage, but to simply open yourself and let it unfold. "Because we're creative people, we have a lot of ideas and visions," reflects Laura Sommers, novelist and partner in Whole Brained Creative with her husband Scott. "We're always entertaining six or 10 ways we could build our lives, so that when an opportunity comes along, we've already envisioned it somewhat." Scott Sommers highlights the importance of knowing what isn't part of the change vision. "We knew early on what we didn't want to be. There have been opportunities to get sucked into that, so it was important to know what we just wouldn't do." Forest of resistance Like every other stage in the creative change process, there will be resistance to clarifying the vision. The feeling that you don't want to waste time or don't know how to clarify your vision is often resistance in disguise. Sometimes the resistance is more obvious. Either way, fear is at the root of most resistance. Many people are afraid they'll make a mistake, choose the wrong vision, and end up looking like an idiot. Some of us are afraid we'll be disappointed. We're afraid other people will judge us and tell us to stop being grandiose and impractical. Maybe you're worried that you can't handle the change. The clearer your vision gets, the more overwhelming it all seems. There's the subtle, uncomfortable knowledge that you'll have to leave the comfort zone, start doing things that you're unfamiliar with, become someone you're not - which is the whole point after all, but frightening nonetheless. Perhaps the biggest fear of all comes from the often less than fully conscious realization that before you get to the Promised Land, you'll have to wander in the wilderness for a while. To make the change, you have to let your old ways of thinking and behaving fall away and be willing to flounder before new beliefs and behaviors take hold. As novelist Sarah Tieck points out, "the willingness to reinvent yourself" is essential. "What was true for you 10 years ago or even a month ago may not be true anymore. You have to be open to reinventing yourself." If you feel overwhelmed by the idea of reinventing yourself, it's time to circle back to Step 1 and read your Urgency Statement daily. Remembering why this change is so important is like picking up a machete that allows you to keep moving through the forest of resistance. Into the clearing This is the time to be absolutely clear about what it is you want. There is little point pursuing a goal you're "supposed" to want, but truly don't. You'll only end up sabotaging the effort anyway. Give yourself permission to abandon what you're supposed to want. Get clear about what you do want. You have to believe in your vision. There will always be people who won't; don't waste time trying to convince them. Focus instead on your own belief and the belief your allies have in you. You have to believe you can attain the vision, that you are both capable and worthy of it. When you make your vision a reality, the doubters will come around. Belief is what separates vision from fantasy. Fantasy is using your imagination to conjure images of "Wouldn't it be great if..." without the willingness to work to attain the image. We don't really believe in our fantasies. We know there is nothing we can do to make them come true. But when you have a vision, you find small action steps you can take to "act as if" until the "as if" become the "what is." The old saying "I'll believe it when I see it" is backwards. First you believe it, then you see it. People who content themselves with fantasy never get a working understanding of this concept; they keep waiting to see it before they risk believing it. To see your vision, you have to rely on your imagination. You need pictures and images because they engage parts of your brain that words alone can't. When you combine words and images into your vision, you draw on the capacity of your whole brain. One way to clarify your vision is to play relaxing music and imagine what it will look and feel like when the change is complete. Then draw your vision, make a collage of it, or make a model of it. Keep asking, "What would I do if I knew I was guaranteed success? What would I do if I dared to be my best?" In addition to being feasible and imaginable, your vision must be communicable. You have to be able to successfully explain your vision in a few minutes. I like the health care implications of the word "communicable." You need to be able to infect others with enthusiasm for your vision. Infect your allies first. Invite them to help you clarify your vision. Often our trusted allies can see the best in us better than we can see it ourselves. Once you have a rough idea of what your vision is, journal about how the change fits your purpose in life and how it serves others. Aristotle advised, "Where your talents and the world's needs cross, there lies your vocation." Ask your allies for input and insight. Then write and illustrate (with your own drawings or with pictures cut from magazines, etc.) a vision statement that condenses what you've drawn, modeled and written so far. Your vision statement will provide clear, consistent direction to unify what might otherwise be unconnected activity over the course of the months, maybe even years, it will take to complete the change you've committed yourself to. A clear vision statement coordinates your and your allies' actions. Mapping the strategy A strategy is the overall approach you select to make your vision reality. Creative changes, by definition, allow us to do something we haven't done before, so it can be challenging to develop a clear cut strategy. But without a strategy, you shift from activity to activity, uncertain how, or if, all that busy-ness ties together, hoping that action alone will fulfill your vision. It rarely does. Strategy keeps you from being distracted. It gives you the criteria to decide which activities to invest your time and energy in and which to eliminate or delegate. Strategy unifies the actions you do take. As Alvin Taffer said, "You've got to think about 'big things' while you are doing 'small things,' so that all the 'small things' go in the right direction." The art of strategy is to give yourself enough focus to stay on track and enough flexibility to take advantage of unexpected opportunities along the way. To practice this art, consider what it will take to get where you want to go. Don't focus on specific tasks (yet), but rather on the categories of things you need to pay attention to. Brainstorm what overall approaches you could take to make the change happen. Think about who has done something similar and the overall approach he or she used to accomplish it. Talk with your allies about possible strategies that will be most effective for you. The more perspectives, information and ideas you bring to the mix by inviting a diverse group of allies to brainstorm with you, the more effective your strategic choices are likely to be. At a strategic planning session with my own Advisory Board lately, my allies challenged me to stretch into a grander, larger vision that I originally planned and suggested several innovative strategies for implementing it. Remember: Vision illustrates where you're going and strategy describes how you'll get there. A well-prepared vision statement will sustain your action and inspire you to keep making the small sacrifices that will be necessary to implement your strategy to arrive at your final destination. Rosanne Bane, M.A., is a Creativity Coach and author of Dancing in the Dragon's Den: Rekindling the Creative Fire in Your Shadow. She has been teaching creativity for more than 14 years. For more information about her coaching, creativity classes, Change Master workshops and presentations on creativity and change, visit RosanneBane.com or call (612) 722-4139. Copyright © 2003 Rosanne Bane, All Rights Reserved. |
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