The vision vacuum is one of the most pervasive and frustrating challenges I’ve seen in over 25 years of leading change.
You’d think that with all the talk of “North Stars” and “purpose-driven transformation,” we’d have nailed this one by now. But time and again, I meet teams who simply don’t know what their leaders are trying to do.
Recently, I was running a training session on how to jumpstart stalled programs. We were talking about outcomes, alignment, and how to make the “North Star” real. A participant — with no corporate or transformation background, from a frontline defence environment — raised their hand and asked, “Is it really that common that nobody knows what they’re trying to do?”
It was such an honest question, and the answer was equally honest: yes, it’s that common. Despite endless mission statements, glossy strategy decks, and town halls full of buzzwords, the gap between executive intent and team understanding is vast.
So why does this vacuum exist?
1. Words are part of the problem
We overestimate how clearly words communicate and underestimate how differently people interpret them. Too many words, and people stop reading. Too few, and meaning gets lost. Then add the corporate tendency to reach for whatever language is fashionable — “AI-powered,” “agile,” “product-centric,” “customer-obsessed” — and suddenly every vision sounds like every other one.
The truth is often buried beneath layers of positive spin. There’s nearly always an ugly truth behind a transformation — cost pressures, capability gaps, political tensions — that no one wants to say out loud. So we get a polished “vision statement” that sounds great but means little. And the result? A vacuum between what leaders believe they’ve communicated and what teams actually understand.
2. Words alone aren’t enough
That’s where storytelling — and particularly visual storytelling — comes in. One of the most powerful exercises we run in our Jumpstart Labs is a simple one: draw your vision. Literally, with pens and paper. Every time, senior leaders raise an eyebrow at first, but within minutes the room transforms.
When people share their drawings, the differences in understanding become instantly visible. What takes hours to debate in a slide deck becomes clear in 20 minutes of sketching. It’s proof that a picture doesn’t just paint a thousand words — it clarifies them.
I learned the power of this early in my own career. When I was going through the process of becoming a Partner at Deloitte, I took a risk. Instead of another word-heavy business case, I told my story through pictures — photographs, visuals, and even music. It felt risky and unconventional, but it cut through the noise. The partners could see and feel who I was and what I stood for. It was proof that when you tell a story visually, people don’t just understand it — they remember it.
3. The courage to be creative
We don’t use creativity enough in corporate life. The irony is that the bigger and more complex the change, the simpler the story needs to be.
I once helped a major Australian organisation navigate a tough cost transformation. In their presentation to their Board, we had a 120-slide business case and a single cartoon — a visual of the future state technology organisation. When the CEO saw it, he said, “Let’s lead with the cartoon.”
It was terrifying. I stood before 15 board members with nothing but that picture — and it worked. In a room used to thousand-page packs, clarity and simplicity cut through. The board could instantly see what was changing, why, and what the future looked like. We won their support not because of the data, but because of the story.
4. The evolving vision
A final reason for the vision vacuum is that our visions don’t stay still — but we treat them as if they should. The pace of change means that a six-month-old vision is already out of date. Yet we rarely revisit or re-energise it.
The idea of a fixed Target Operating Model is outdated. The reality is that operating models are in continuous evolution — adapting as markets, technologies, and expectations shift. The real art is not setting a single destination, but building the muscle to re-ignite alignment every few months. Transformation is no longer a linear journey from A to B; it’s a series of adaptive leaps.
5. Blueprinting the bridge
Finally, we need to bridge the gap between vision and delivery. One of the best concepts from the UK’s Managing Successful Programmes methodology is the blueprint — the design for how the future will work.
We’d never build a bridge or a house without a blueprint. Yet organisations constantly launch transformations without one. The result is confusion, duplication, and often a “Frankenstein” organisation — stitched together from half-finished initiatives.
Blueprinting doesn’t need to take months. With a clear problem statement and a shared vision, you can co-create a high-level design in weeks — enough to align teams and sequence delivery intelligently.
The call to leaders
If you’re leading transformation, ask yourself:
- Does everyone truly know what we’re trying to do?
- Do they understand the why as well as the what?
- Have I told the story in a way they can see, feel, and repeat?
- Is there and executable blueprint bridge to the future?
The vision vacuum doesn’t close with another PowerPoint or memo. It closes when leaders choose clarity over cleverness, courage over caution, and storytelling over spin. Because when people can finally see the same picture, that’s when transformation truly begins.
Final Thought
Transformation is a test of imagination as much as execution. The best leaders don’t just define the future — they paint it. They help others see it, believe in it, and build it together. If your teams can’t describe the same destination in their own words, you’re leading in fog. But when the vision is clear — when people can see what success looks like — momentum follows. Because clarity, not complexity, is the real catalyst of change.