Offer a Solution

Your vision is a solution to a problem. When you link a problem that people are convinced needs to be solved with a clear and compelling solution, you have the potential to capture their hearts. - Excerpt from Making Vision Stick by Andy Stanley

Maintaining Vision

Every organisation is different, even though the people in every organisation are pretty much the same. We all need to be reminded why we are doing what we are doing. We need to be reminded what's at stake. We need to be reminded of the vision. And we need it more often than most leaders realize. - Excerpt from Making Vision Stick by Andy Stanley

Taking Responsibility

When it comes to making your vision stick, here is the most important thing to remember: You are responsible. It is the leader's responsibility to ensure that people understand and embrace the vision of the organisation.
We are all tempted at times to blame the people around us for their inability to understand and act on the vision we have cast. But when the leader blames the follower for not following, the leader has ceased to lead. If the followers don't get it, we probably haven't delivered the vision in a way that makes it get-able. We are responsible for keeping the vision of our organisation at the forefront. It is up to each one of us to make sure there is alignment between the activity and vision of our enterprise. - Excerpt from Making Vision Stick by Andy Stanley

Define the Vision

Every vision is a solution to a problem. If your vision doesn't get traction, something that needs to happen won't happen. A problem will continue to go unaddressed.
To make your vision stick, your audience needs to understand what's at stake. It's the what's at stake issue that grabs people's heart. Only a clear explanation of the problem will cause people to sit up and say, "Something must be done!" If your target audience doesn't know what's at stake, the vision will never stick. - Excerpt from Making Vision Stick by Andy Stanley

Embrace the Vision Personally

Your willingness to embody the vision of your organisation will have a direct impact on your credibility as a leader. Living out the vision establishes credibility and makes you a leader worth following. When people are convinced that the vision has stuck with you, it is easier for them to make the effort to stick with the vision. Your giftedness may enable you to gather a following. But it will take more than talent to make your vision stick.- Excerpt from Making Vision Stick by Andy Stanley

Summary of Making Vision Stick-Andy Stanley

Summary of Making Vision Stick-Andy Stanley

One of the greatest challenges of leadership is making vision stick. In this book Andy Stanley gives sound advice on how to make your vision stick. Over time leaders can sometimes lose sight of the vision and get side tracked by other irrelevant issues. Success lures you into taking your hands off the wheel. Failure causes you to overcorrect. Both success and failure can lead to success.

Andy states five things that you can do to make your vision stick:

1.       State the vision simply

If your vision is going to stick in people’s minds, it must be memorable. People don’t remember or embrace paragraphs. They remember and embrace sentences. For your vision to stick you may need to clarify or simplify it. As you evaluate your vision statement you need to keep in mind that it is better to have a vision statement that is incomplete and memorable than to have one that is complete and forgettable. The bottom line is that if you want your vision to stick it needs to be easy to communicate.

2.       Cast the vision convincingly

To cast a convincing vision you have to define the problem that your vision addresses. Every vision is a solution to a problem.

3.       Repeat the vision regularly

In the third step Andy says it’s important that you repeat your vision regularly. Casting your vision once is not enough to make it stick. He says this is not a difficult task but it won’t happen if the leader doesn’t take action.

4.       Celebrate the vision systematically

The fourth step teaches us that we need to take a pause so that you can celebrate the wins along the way. Celebrating the wins does more to clarify the vision than anything else. Some leaders consider celebrations as a waste of time. But when you celebrate the right things, you are using the most effective form of vision casting says Andy Stanley.

5.       Embrace the vision personally

The final step in the process requires you to embody the vision of your organisation. When you live the vision you establish credibility as a leader. If you embody the vision people come to believe that your job is more than just a job to you. We need to know that there are those that just fabricate a vision from the beginning. They talk the talk publicly, but privately they are operating entirely from a different set of values. If you say you believe in something, live it out. And live it in a way that the people around you can see it. That’s not arrogant. It’s liberating.

Maintaining your vision is difficult, both organisationally and personally. God has called you to be what he wants you to be. Making your vision stick requires bold leadership. Seeing a vision become a reality requires more than a single burst of energy or creativity. It requires daily attention. Embrace the vision and do whatever it takes to make your vision stick.