Visions need nurturing. To start, they need visionaries. Part of the process of describing the "wonderful future condition" is a flash of insight that takes the realities of the current condition, the future possibilities offered by technology, and the future context supplied by societal and market trends and, based on that incomplete and contradictory data, leaps to a simple picture five years out. Second, visions need to be visualized, or captured graphically. Third, they need to be restated, over and over, until your most junior developers can recite the vision word-for-word. Finally, visions need to be refreshed and updated .

Every organization needs clearly articulated and commonly accepted values from which to work. Their absence guarantees inconsistent behavior and perceived injustice in reward and punishment, both of which will have a negative impact on productivity, staff retention, and user relations. To avoid making every decision yourself, you must teach your staff your decision process: how you gather data, how you identify alternatives, and what values and principles you apply. Without this empowerment, you can't trust your organization to "do what's right" without your micro-management.

Victories are the milestones along the way to the vision. They can be small (a feature added to an existing application), big (ERP installed), or external (collaborative forecasting). They can be at the start of a project ("We got the money!") or at the end ("System is up and running!"). Whatever they are, celebrate them! --Wes Melling