150 Strategic Leadership
for virtually every sector of the organization. As a result, the process becomes
a useful way for various offices and programs throughout a campus to discern the
meaning and possibilities of the vision for its own work. Each area of responsibility
will discover special ways that its performance will be altered and enhanced to fit
the images cast by the vision. As the analysis goes forward, the central question
becomes: Do the concepts and goals of the vision convey authentic meaning and
offer criteria that will mobilize commitment to it across the organization?
So, on their imaginary campus tour, people will want, for example, to explore
various facets of the academic experience of students. They will ask to see how
students and faculty interact in the classroom. What are the forms of teaching
and learning inside and outside the classroom that fulfill the vision? What will
be the shape of the curriculum in general education and in the majors? What
expectations will professors set and students satisfy, as illustrated in course syllabi?
What types of assignments and learning experiences will there be? How much
writing will be required? What other kinds of individual and group projects will
be expected? If we examine tests and papers, what level of rigor and quality of
work do we see? How does the total education program fit together, and to what
does it lead? What plans do students have after graduation? What contributions
do they intend to make to the wider society? When they leave, where do they go,
and what are they able to do when they get there?
Imagine that as the tour continues, the visitors follow a similar pattern of
questioning as they interact with faculty and staff in a variety of offices and
programs. They will be inquiring about and envisioning the professional char-
acteristics and achievements of those whom they encounter, especially the
contributions that faculty make to knowledge. The tour will also include an
evaluation of the facilities of the campus and its other tangible resources. The
group will spend a large amount of time as well collecting and analyzing data
concerning the strategic indicators that will tell them the conditions that must
be met for the vision to be fulfilled. They will give special attention to the
institution’s financial position and the assessment of student, faculty, and staff
performance.
When all this is done, the group will be able to choose or revise the terms
that best express what they have pictured and tested in their minds during your
imaginary walk. In a reversal of the usual phrase, here the “talk” gives meaning to
the “walk” that is going be required (Weick 1995, 182). Metaphors and symbols
will flow from the envisioning process that give color and vibrancy to the vision
and capture the institution’s identity for the future. If words like “the best,” “high-
est quality,” “national leader,” “world class,” or “superior” can legitimately be used,
they will have been tied to specific forms of attainable achievement. They must
be able to be imagined and justified with regard to the potential of the institution
to dominate the environment that it is likely to encounter. If they are only words,
however, they will do more harm than good and produce cynicism, not inspira-
tion. If, on the other hand, the envisioning process demonstrates that the vision