By John Paschall, Servant Leader

"Turning the Dream into a Vision and the Vision into Reality"

Since the beginning of this year, in the faith community in which I participate and at the BBB of Southeast Texas, I have experienced a significant focus on dreaming about the future and on visionary thinking.  Certainly, here at the BBB, we have been pushing the envelope on this visionary thinking with the launch of our new educational initiative, TOGGLE 2.0 (Teaching Our Generations Great Leadership Ethics) and its two component programs - Laws of Life Essay Contest and the In Pursuit of Ethics video program.  We are blessed and excited to say that both programs have caught fire in the community and have the potential for tremendous growth in 2013!  Along the way, we have learned (sometimes the hard way), some pointers and lessons about visionary thinking and dreaming about the future.  I would like to share some of those with you this month.

So how do you turn the dream of what you want to become, or what you want your organization to become, into a vision and then turn that vision into a reality?  Here are some thoughts gathered from our personal experience and from a number of visionary and motivational leaders:

Get Quiet and Think

I don't believe that anyone reading this would deny that we live in a fast-paced, instantaneous, disposable world with information at our fingertips immediately and with an incredible barrage of information, music, and sound streaming into our heads 24 hours a day via internet, text, e-mail, twitter, etc., etc.. We have mastered (so we think) the skill of multi-tasking and how to fit 13 hours worth of work into our 8-10 hour (or more) workday.  We work at such a frenetic pace on a daily basis that we are able to achieve an enormous amount - probably more than any other country in the world!  However, here is a question:  are we producing increasingly better work - or just more of the same?  Are we getting closer to the goals and visions that we have set for ourselves and our organizations or have we not taken the time to think about what we must do to reach those goals or visions....or have we not even taken the time to set the goal or establish the vision for where we want to be in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years at all?  Seriously?  It is a pretty widely accepted understanding that you and I will NEVER hit a goal that we do not have or that has not been established.  Creativity seldom happens when we work at 110% of capacity every day - without taking time to stop, get quiet, reflect, and think.

In our ultra-busy, 90 mile per hour world, my guess is that you and I can go weeks at a time without ever getting truly quiet, with no phones, e-mails, music or any other interruption to focus and think on our goals and visions for ourselves, our families, and our organizations - I know I do. It is a basic understanding that the best practice for shooting a gun (or taking action in our organizations) is:  Ready, Aim, Fire!  It has also been said for years, that in our speed-of-light, drive-through world, that the practice is more often:  Ready, Fire, Aim!  I will go even further and submit to you that, just like in the video games that many young people (and adults) play for hours on end, the standard practice of many of us and many organizations is:   Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire, Aim, Ready.  Completely backwards....because we NEVER STOP TO PLAN AND THINK ABOUT WHERE WE WANT TO BE AND WHAT WE WANT TO CREATE IN THE FUTURE.  This is true for persons, organizations, families, and governments.  We are so busy doing that we don't take time to stop and think - is what we are doing getting us where we want to be going?  Pretty good question, don't you think?  Truth is, we will never be able to create the dream or see the vision - or impart it to those for whom we are responsible as leaders (family, organizations, etc.) if we don't take time regularly to do some intentional thinking, planning, dreaming, and visionary thinking.  Just like the wisest carpenters tell us, "Measure twice, saw once." 

So what do we do to fix it?  One suggestion is to schedule time every week, at least two to three times a week, where you take 15-30 minutes to get quiet and think, do some reflecting, and visionary thinking.  Now I know that some of you are saying, "Hey, if I get quiet and just sit and think with no noise for ANY length of time, I will just fall asleep!"  Maybe so, and maybe that is our body's way of telling us just how overextended we are.  Let me challenge you to do this over the next three weeks.  If you will do this and will send me your results and thoughts before November 10th, I will put your name in the hat for a drawing for a $25.00 gift card.  Hey, anything to get you to try it!  Now there are some parameters and guidelines to making this work for you:

-- Schedule the time.  It won't happen unless you put in on your calendar.  Make an appointment with yourself!

-- Get quiet, totally quiet.  No e-mail, no music, no phones, no interruptions.  When you find where that place exists, let me know, sometimes it is tough to find!  Outside the office, in the closet, in the park, up in a tree - use your creativity!

-- Turn off the smart phone, I-phone etc.  Not on silent or vibrate - turn it off.  Yes, I do know what I am asking - but it really can be done.  Do you remember the years and years we went without any portable phones at all?  It really can be done and we are only talking about 15-30 minutes 2-3 times a week.   Get someone to take messages for you.

-- This is not a time to do reading, answer e-mails, read a proposal or have any other work in front of you.  If you must have direction, have a piece of paper or tablet (a paper one - not the electronic kind) and a pencil - the more basic you get, the better this will work.  Put one sentence or thought on the top of the page like - How do we improve customer service? or How do we solve our staffing dilema?  Here are some even better ones:  What and where do we want to be in 1 year, 5 years?  How can we have a greater impact in our community?  How do we create something that will impact lives long after we are gone?

-- If you really want to be radical - get the paper and pencil, put it in front of you....and leave it blank.  See what happens.

By the way, I will be doing this right along with you.  We have done a great deal of visionary thinking and dreaming here at the BBB this year so far in groups and will be doing more of it before year's end. The results have been astounding!  We have an amazing group of creative and talented people on the Team at the BBB and on our Board of Directors.   I am not, however, an expert yet at doing this on my own.  I am very interested to see what will happen.

I encourage you to give this a try this month and see what will happen.  Let me know what dreams and visions you have created for your organizations.  Keep up the great work and keep building your better business!

Next Month: Capturing the Inspiration and Passion needed to turn the Vision into a Reality!