Organisations and individuals can have visions.  In my definition, Vision is our ability to dream about the impossible and make it possible.  I recently attended a conference wherein a company CEO nicely illustrated the concept of “Dreams and details”.  He said it is important for all of us to dream but it is equally important to convert the dreams into details and work out the road map to achieve it.

It is very similar for organisations and individuals.  While all of us dream big and set out almost impossible goals for ourselves but we do not reach them because we do not work on the details.  It is like our new year resolutions as an individual.  We set idealistic personal goals for ourselves and more often than not falter in the first month of the new year itself because we never bother to work on the next steps.

Let us first reflect as individuals.  We are content with what comes our way.  Mediocrity becomes a way of life. If we are born in a family with all comforts in life, we tend to become lazy and content.  Another interesting dimension is that children tend not to look beyond their parents for inspiration.  We are happy to maintain the way we have been brought up in life. 

If we move to the organisational context, the story is not very different.  Most organisations want to grow in an incremental way.  They do not want to tread on troubled waters or take undue risks.  They do not dream big or set themselves daunting goals since individuals working in the organisations cannot think beyond the obvious.

The trend is similar for countries too.  It takes a Mahatma Gandhi to think beyond the obvious.  It takes a great leader to dream big and then work on the details to make that dream a reality.  Similarly, in organisations it takes a great leader to set an impossible vision and then rally the whole organisation to realise it.  Even individuals who can think big can realise it more often than not.

I recently met an olympic bronze medalist.  She said that you need to trust yourself and your team and then work hard to realise your goals.  This is equally applicable for individuals, organisations and societies to achieve their vision.  All of us have to develop the ability to think beyond the obvious and then work on the ways and means to make that vision a reality.

It is like reaching the sun in the photo above may look impossible today but the human being is capable of it in the future if we set ourselves to do it.

Can we think beyond the obvious from today ?

S Ramesh Shankar
Oct 2016