1. Visioning
Pre-Exercise: Think for a Moment
•What organization or cause do you
deeply care about?
•Why should this organization exist?
•Who else cares about this
organization, and why?

2. Visioning
Inspiration: Visioning
Developing a Practical Vision to Found Your Venture

3. Visioning
A good vision leads to execution
•Meet Theodore Herzl.
Journalist, Author, Organizer.
•Not the first person to
suggest a Jewish State. Not
the first one to write a book
about it. Was the first one to
bring everyone together. To
Act.
Vision is ever more important today.

4. Visioning
Problem is, it’s noisy out there

5. Visioning
Just how noisy? Meet Jonnie
•Jonnie wakes up in the morning and reviews
RSS on a iPhone
•On the way to school, Jonnie twitters
breakfast plans which automatically crosspost
on Facebook
•During class, Jonnie opens a Google Doc to
collaborate on notes
•Afterschool, Jonnie goes to a MeetUp at a
friend‟s house
•In the evening, Jonnie meets the parents and
downloads their favorite show, liveblogging the
experience

6. Visioning
What’s changed since Herzl’s time?
•No top hats.
•Change in speed has led to a change in
quality of life, and the very meaning of
words such as „community‟ and „friend‟
•Ubiquity of media leads to
hypercompetition for the individual‟s most
precious resource: time
•To compete in the Attention Economy,
everything must make its case for personal
relevance
So how does this affect organizations?

7. Visioning
Narratives define experience
We are all stories:
“We inhabit a nomos - a normative universe. We
constantly create and maintain a world of right and
wrong, of lawful and unlawful, of valid and void...[And
yet] No set of legal institutions or prescriptions exists
apart from the narratives that locate it and give it
meaning. For every constitution there is an epic, for each
Decalogue a scripture.”
– Robert Cover, Nomos and Narrative

8. Visioning
The Digital Age’s Effect on Narrative
•The inherent property of a story is that it is told
•The Digital Age creates multiple channels of possible experience
•In the digital age, maintaining a coherent, authentic narrative is
crucial for over all success.

9. Visioning
Walzer Teaches Us to Tell Our Story
Wherever you are, it’s probably Egypt.
There is a better place, a Promised Land.
The only way to this Promised Land is
through the wilderness—there is no
way to get there except by joining
together and marching.
- Michael Walzer, Exodus and Revolution

10. Visioning
What’s Your Egypt?
•“Egypt “isn‟t all bad – it‟s
simply imperfect
• Even Moses had to
convince the Jews in
Egypt it was in their
interest to leave
•Without first convincing
people about the
imperfections of the
present, they won‟t
march to the future.

11. Visioning
What is your Promised Land?
•The Promised Land is the
opposite of Egypt
•Everyone needs a share in
this Promised Land
•Even Moses was rebelled
against when the risk
seemed to outweigh the
reward.
•Promised Land needs to be
concrete enough to compel,
and vague enough for
personal ownership

12. Visioning
Why Should We March?
•People march (or participate
in your venture) according to
the value you‟re proposing to
give them (value proposition)
•You need to know your
people, inside and out,
before you know what they
value
•Marching is hard; the value
need be great; the promised
land needs to be reachable.

13. Visioning
Workshop: People and Promised Land
•Break up into groups of three
•Identify for each other your:
•Egypt (Market Context)
•Promised Land (Bottom Line)
•Reasons for Marching (Value Proposition to
Target Market)
•Keep it clear; the simpler the better

14. Visioning
Tool: History of the Future
•Tell the story of your
Promised Land, visually
and symbolically, 5 years
ahead
•Center it around your
People and the key
Value Proposition
•Then tell the story of
how you got there; the
history of the future

15. Visioning
Workshop: History of the Future
•Break up into groups of three
•Take one project whose Egypt, Promised Land and
People you know
•Do a history of the future of that project, five years
into the future
•Make sure to map out not only what the venture is
doing, but other actors in the field and how they
interact with it
•Keep it clear; the simpler the better

16. Visioning
Key Questions, Broken Down
1. What is wrong about the current world? What about the
world today needs to be fixed – and why have people
been placated until now?
2. If your venture could boil down its reason for existence
into one desired future state, what would it be? What
future state will justify the long, hard process of
developing your venture?
3. Who will march? What are the target market specifics ?
4. Why will your people march? What value are you
proposing to provide your people, so that they may give
up the fleshpots and march through the harsh wilderness
towards the Promised Land?

17. Visioning
The Deliverable
Using any variety of media—written, video, sound
or graphics—please compose a short explanation
of your venture’s quest, expressing why your
Egypt is as troubling as it is, and getting to your
Promised Land is so important that you need to
push along. Make sure to clearly identify your
target participant—because you can only take one
People at a time to the Promised Land. The
deliverable should be less than one written page,
or 3 minutes video/audio.

18. Visioning
Last Thought: You Must Dream It.
•Before you can will it, you
have to dream it.
•A practical Vision is a Dream
with a Workplan.
•A business plan is a well told
story
•It might take five years, it
might take fifty – but a solid
vision will change the world.
Start-Ups are driven by dreams.