Visionary Planning

I am aware of tension.  Sometimes it hurts.  Sometimes it feels good.  I am also aware that when tension relaxes, other people and I seem to accomplish less.   Commitment to a vision (a deep sense of purpose) and acknowledgment of present reality (the way things truly are) creates tension.

If you stretch a rubber band between the thumb of your right hand and the thumb of your left hand, tension is created. You feel it.  If you spread your thumbs far enough, the rubber band will break.  If you relax and bring your thumbs together, the tension will decrease and the rubber band will hang limply on your thumbs.

The tension created when a vision is held up against present reality is like the tension in the rubber band.  The vision pulls present reality forward and present reality resists.

Vision

A vision embodies a deep sense of purpose.  It captures our imagination and appeals to lofty aspirations of doing something meaningful, having an impact, making a difference.  It evokes images of personal hopes and calls for alignment and commitment.

 Present Reality

Present reality is things as they really are.  Present reality is often hidden so as to help us feel better.  A continuing task of persons who creatively vision possibilities is to see things in the light of truth so that present reality is clear.

 Creative Tension

Creative tension is good.  It is always present in settings where persons want to participate in creating movement toward a vision.  It naturally pulls present reality to new accomplishments.  Without creative tension, life is flat.  Without creative tension, bridges would collapse. Without creative tension, organizations are caught in a vicious cycle of trying to balance resources and budget.  Without creative tension, meetings plateau and decline in registration and energy. 

Creative tension always seeks resolution.  Persons who want status quo (things as they are) struggle to hold fast to present reality.  This happens with Boards of Directors and Committees in organizations that need meeting planning services. 

Persons who commit to a vision stretch toward purposeful hopes of possibilities.  Sometimes creative tension translates into emotional tension such as frustration, anger or depression.  This usually leads to a compromise of the vision in favor of present reality. 
When visionary meeting planners hold the tension, it will naturally resolve and move towards the vision.  This movement toward the vision provides the opportunity to stretch toward a new vision (an even deeper sense of purpose).  It provides the opportunity to pull present reality to new highs by tightening the tension again.  
 
Invitation, Enrollment and Alignment

Visionary planners and leaders of client organizations invite others to enroll in (commit to) the vision and help shape it into an even deeper sense of purpose.  They know that they can be custodian or steward of the vision, but they cannot enroll others.  Each person is free to (and has a right to) choose and each person freely enrolls in visions of choice.  Any attempt to enroll another person in a vision will result in complicity rather than commitment.  This is what is going on in many organizations for and with whom meeting planners provide services. Hierarchal leaders often give orders to enroll persons in the hierarchal leader’s vision.  The result is a half-hearted “yes” of complicity rather than an energizing personal commitment.

Visionary Planners

Visionary meeting planners believe in people and possibilities.  They work with their clients and companies to set up conditions through which persons are empowered to align and to be co-creators of the vision. 

They see the greatness and possibilities in other people and through continuing affirmation keep the creative tension tight.  They call forth the best from people.

Peter Senge, a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, pioneer in the field of learning organizations and author of The Fifth Discipline, sees leaders as “visionaries who see possibilities and orient themselves toward creating rather than maintaining…and instill this orientation in others.”  To him, I am greatly indebted for much of my learning in this field of visionary planning.

The Twenty-First Century Planners

 Visionary meeting planners of the Twenty First Century will need to hold a creative tension with present reality.  Organizations in the Twenty First Century will seek meeting planners who are visionary and who stretch the rubber band of creative tension and lead meeting planning with a deep sense of purpose. 

Kirk McNeill, CMP
P.O. Box 1857
West Jefferson, NC 28694 USA