Welcome to another week of Transformation Leadership Series. Last week we began a teaching on “vision”.
Etymology and Definition
The etymology of the word vision is as follows:
“c. 1300, "something seen in the imagination or in the supernatural," from Anglo-French visioun, Old French vision "presence, sight; view, look, appearance; dream, supernatural sight" (12c.), from Latin visionem (nominative visio) "act of seeing, sight, thing seen," noun of action from past participle stem of videre "to see," from PIE root *weid- "to see." The meaning "sense of sight" is first recorded late 15c. Meaning "statesman-like foresight, political sagacity" is attested from 1926”.[1]
A vision transcends natural sight. It involves seeing the things that be not as if they were. It involves what the etymology describes as supernatural sight-seeing with spirit eyes what is not yet perceptible to natural sight.
Stewart D. Friedman is the Practice Professor of Management at the Wharton School and he writes concerning vision in the Harvard Business Review, “Leadership vision is an essential means for focusing attention on what matters most; what you want to accomplish in your life and what kind of leader you wish to be. A useful vision has to be rooted in your past, address the future, and deal with today’s realities. It represents who you are and what you stand for. It inspires you, and the people whose commitment you need, to act to make constructive change towards a future you all want to see”.[2]
In the book, The Servant as Leader by Robert K. Greenleaf, vision is spoken of thus, “The word goal is used here in the special sense of the overarching purpose, the big dream, the visionary concept, the ultimate consummation which one approaches but never really achieves. It is something presently out of reach; it is something to strive for, to move toward, or become. It is so stated that it excites the imagination and challenges people to work for something they do not yet know how to do, something they can be proud of as they move toward it”.
A vision captures the impact an organization intends to make. Vision statements are easily communicated, broad, often shared, ambitious and inspiring statements that describe the overarching ideal result an organization wants to achieve. Examples of vision statements are as follows:
- “we save people money so they can live better.” – Walmart
- “the maintenance of international peace and security.” – United Nations
- “improving people’s lives through meaningful innovation.” Philips
- “to create a better every-day life for many people.” – IKEA
- “to remain the most authentic, connected, and distinctive brand.” – NIKE Inc.
Teachers as Servant Leaders is a book by Joe D. Nichols and states that, “Leadership is about creating a vision, working with those both outside and inside the organization and inspiring others. In contrast, management is about executing the vision.”
Vision and Development
Why is vision important especially to what has been dubbed the developing world? The lack of vision is why modern Africa, once a prosperous, creative, industrious continent, rich in science, technological innovation and abundant natural resources, has not led the globe much in recent history. As Stewart D. Friedman noted concerning vision, it must be “rooted in your past, address the future, and deal with today’s realities”.
Africa of today, in part because of revisionist history, cannot root its leadership vision in its past because it inherited much lies. Its people have inherited a poor vision of themselves and their predecessors and thus it makes it difficult to dream BIG. Most Africans today believe their ancestors were brutes and savages as portrayed by some Western media. Few know that one of the leading Universities of Ancient times was located in Timbuktu, or that Africans built the most amazing structures such as the pyramids of Sudan and Egypt, the rock-cut monolithic churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia and other such architectural wonders such as building in fractals in the ancient Benin Kingdom located in Nigeria.
It is said that, “The Guinness Book of Records (1974 edition) described the walls of Benin City and its surrounding kingdom as the world’s largest earthworks carried out prior to the mechanical era. According to estimates by the New Scientist’s Fred Pearce, Benin City’s walls were at one point “four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops” … Benin City was also one of the first cities to have a semblance of street lighting. Huge metal lamps, many feet high, were built and placed around the city, especially near the king’s palace. Fuelled by palm oil, their burning wicks were lit at night to provide illumination for traffic to and from the palace. In 1691, the Portuguese ship captain Lourenco Pinto observed: “Great Benin, where the king resides, is larger than Lisbon; all the streets run straight and as far as the eye can see. The houses are large, especially that of the king, which is richly decorated and has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so well governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security that they have no doors to their houses.” Benin City’s planning and design was done according to careful rules of symmetry, proportionality and repetition now known as fractal design. The mathematician Ron Eglash, author of African Fractals – which examines the patterns underpinning architecture, art and design in many parts of Africa – notes that the city and its surrounding villages were purposely laid out to form perfect fractals, with similar shapes repeated in the rooms of each house, and the house itself, and the clusters of houses in the village in mathematically predictable patterns. As he puts it: “When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet.””.[3]
When a people cannot think BIG, as a result of a poor conception about themselves and their history, it affects their ability to dream BIG and envision a prosperous today or future! The aforementioned Benin Kingdom could not have been built without vision. When this is corrected, African children will begin to dream BIG again. Currently 6 out of every 10 Africans is under the age of 24. These need to be taught how to dream again. They must be reminded of the positive exploits and achievements of their predecessors. The principle of scripture is we can attain anything we can SEE.
Genesis 13:14-15 (AMPC)
14 The Lord said to Abram after Lot had left him, Lift up now your EYES and LOOK from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;
15 For all the land which you SEE I will give to you and to your posterity forever. [Act 7:5]
