Manage your vision

A lot of us are visionaries, not all you can say but many. Of people I have met in my life quite a few have been visionary.. They had Vision to grow, Vision towards various things.. they inspired me, they got me think of how to become one. I learnt from them and then tried to do the same.... but then over my last discussion with one of the developer I realised that vision is like a stray dog.. it can be a good guard of your neighborhood, but if left alone it can be one hell of a menace...

Yes.. I mean it.. like your dog your Vision needs a caretaker. Vision needs to be managed too, like our finances, like our spouses, like our expectations.. Vision also need to be managed and that too with more care... You very well know what happens when you don't manage your finances.. you are one bankrupt person end of the month isnt it?

Non-Managed vision is creator of bigger problems. It leaves the implementers and the visionary un-satsified. A while back I got a chance to work with a Sr. Executive had a vision to do something really good in field of technology and open source market. He kept on bombarding his thoughts on himself "I need to do this" "I need to do that".. this lasted for quite some time before he realized that he cant do it all alone and he had to rely on others to convert his vision to reality.. he chose the best ones that were available, formed a small start up unit and tried to get his vision on track... In a span of 1 year his creative team of five was left with 2 including him. The only person left believed that they could achieve everything they thought. Great ideas, Exceptional vision.. yet the path and approach screwed it up... when he gave up he told something in one word "Never carry luggage of ideas on your journey, you will not be able to decide which ones to keep and which ones to throw up and in the end you will be left with just luggage"

So to bring you back on track... today I had a chat with a Developer who is involved in a Knowledge Transition on one of the legacy products along with our Architect. During the discussion we discussed the approach and how to handle the transition. We started discussing and discussing and perforated our vision to smoothify the whole transition... in process we started adding things that would smoothen the life of the product to some extent.. soon I realized that visionary thoughts had taken over the plain and immediate needs and we started asking
"I want this" , "Like this" , " By this period" blah blah blah... the confused developer looked at me and said "I surrender"

Yes.. its very important if your vision is not managed.. so how does one manage his her vision...here is my view...

1. Snap a grid of your vision, split it into major sections.. work, personal, technology and so on.. every single concept, phenomenon, idea or thought put them into the bucket..

2. Keep on adding comments and keep your vision in a evolving mode.

3. Dont just throw your excel sheet at some poor soul.. Vision is easy to cook, hard to digest.

4. Find the right time to bring the right elements. You will not want to think of building your muscles when you are down under high fever..

5. Put a review date to each of the items in your vision list / lists. Visit it religiously.

6. Dont hesitate to strike them off.. A huge list may give you a feel of visionary but in reality it will also make you look a non-organized executor.

7. Vision is futuristic , but has to be linked to present tense.. so dont burden your present or future.

Now if you too are a visionary or have some or the other items in your vision.. check your vision, form it well, organize it and better "MANAGE IT" before you destroy what exists.