TL;DR: This post highlights the importance of organizational vision in systems engineering and leadership. Vision, often undervalued, has the power to unify and drive innovation. Organizations, composed of rational agents pursuing individual goals, can appear irrational without alignment. Leadership helps counteract this, but in complex hierarchies, communication losses weaken its effectiveness. Vision serves as a “north star,” transcending these limitations to align individual efforts with organizational goals. By fostering cohesion and creating a positive feedback loop, vision ensures the organization functions holistically, enabling rational, collective growth and success. It is the cornerstone of unity and purpose in complex systems.

Prelude. This is the first post of a series of 3 on the topic of Vision. This post explores why vision, or more accurately effective organizational vision, is relevant to the Systems Engineering practitioner. The second post will be a review of Guiding Growth – How Vision Keeps Companies on Course by Mark Lipton and the third post will be the application of the Vision Framework (to be explored in the second post) to Fitzgerald Systems.

Introduction. At Fitzgerald Systems part of our mission is to curate cohesive frameworks that Systems Engineering practitioners can reference, tailor and use in their professional lives. It is fitting that the first framework I examine is the framework of vision.

You may be wondering, ‘What does vision have to do with Systems Engineering?’ You’re not alone. However, by the end of this post, I hope to dispel any doubts.

Organizational vision is often presented as a short paragraph on a webpage, outlining the direction an organization aims to take, its values, or its core business. Senior management frequently emphasizes the importance of the vision, but after the initial communication efforts, it is often forgotten. In my experience, vision is too often treated as an afterthought—a checkbox on the managerial checklist. Once completed, it is shelved until the next strategic review. Many organizations don’t even have a vision because either leadership lacks the skills to craft one or considers the process a waste of time and resources. Instead, they expect employees to continue performing their duties like loyal automatons.

This bleak picture of the scarcity of effective visions is unfortunate but pervasive. Yet, I believe that vision has enormous potential to fuel innovation and growth, a perspective strongly supported by the literature (Christenson, D.W. (2007). Role of vision as a critical success element in project management. ; Collins, J. C., & Lazier, W. C. (2020). Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0 Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company. Random House Business. ; Lipton, M. (2003). Guiding growth : how vision keeps companies on course. Harvard Business School Press.).

Holism, Agents and the Organization. Systems Engineering is fundamentally concerned with holism, which Dictionary.com defines as ‘the theory that whole entities, as fundamental components of reality, have an existence other than as the mere sum of their parts.’ For the purpose of this discussion, I narrow this definition to only include entities that interact with each other, directly or otherwise.

Let us consider a thought experiment with the following assumptions about these entities:

• They are autonomous agents (stay tuned for a related framework on the human model);
• They are rational in the sense that they pursue their own goals;
• They interact with other;
• They form an interaction relationship with a finite set of agents (e.g. members of a department like Engineering);
• They are interdependent (e.g., the co-dependence between Engineering and HR); but
• They operate in an environment with limited resources and opportunities (e.g funding, promotions, bonuses).

We can group these agents into a set labeled “organization.” As the number of agents grows, it becomes impossible for each agent to interact with every other agent. This lack of interaction fosters the perception that the organization has a behavior of its own. Moreover, because this behavior is not always understood, it may appear irrational.

Paradoxically, an organization composed of rational agents may seem irrational because each agent is pursuing their own goals. This observation demonstrates the concept of holism: the collective behavior of the organization emerges from the interactions of its parts.

Unfortunately, this perceived irrationality often motivates agents to double down on their pursuit of individual goals, as the relationship between cause (an individual agent’s action) and effect (the organization’s collective behavior) becomes obscured. This creates a negative reinforcing loop, driving the organization toward disorder and, eventually, failure.

Leadership. The anarchic fate described above is not universal, as it is counteracted by a critical element I have yet to introduce: leadership.

Leadership, as defined by Dictionary.com, is ‘the ability to guide in direction, course, action, opinion, etc.’ I extend this definition to the ability to persuade others to pursue a goal that is different to their own.

Through leadership, agents can be persuaded to align with a higher goal. If this alignment occurs throughout the hierarchy, it follows that the organization itself will appear to rationally pursue the goal of its highest leader (e.g., CEO, president, or chairman).

In small organizations, such as start-ups, the highest leader can personally ensure alignment with the organizational goal. However, in larger, more complex organizations, this becomes impractical. Hierarchical structures introduce communication losses at each level, and the further an agent is from the highest leader, the greater the loss. This loss can result from poor articulation, miscommunication, misinterpretation, or the dilution—or even subversion—of the organizational goal by individual agents.

To achieve unity of purpose, organizations require something to complement hierarchical leadership and mitigate these inevitable communication losses: vision.

The Role of Vision. An effective organizational vision acts as a north star for all agents, guiding them to strive toward a common purpose, even at the expense of their individual goals. The result is a greater alignment of the organization with its overarching objectives. Agents can infer a causal link between their individual sacrifices and the rational behavior of the organization, creating a virtuous reinforcing loop that drives growth.

By deploying an effective organizational vision, an organization enhances its ability to rationally pursue growth and innovation. Leadership alone is insufficient in large, complex organizations. However, when leadership is complemented by a clear, effective vision that transcends hierarchical layers, the organization moves closer to achieving unity of purpose to rationally pursuing its ultimate goals.

In conclusion, the role of vision within an organization cannot be overstated, particularly when viewed through the lens of holism. Just as holism emphasizes the interconnectedness of parts in creating a cohesive whole, an effective organizational vision serves as the unifying element that aligns individual agents toward a shared purpose. Vision transforms the seemingly disparate goals and actions of rational agents into a harmonious pursuit of organizational success. By providing a clear, overarching direction, vision not only mitigates the risks of fragmentation and aggregated irrationality but also reinforces the organization’s ability to function as a synergistic whole. In this way, vision is not merely a tool for guidance—it is the cornerstone that ensures the integrity and growth of the system itself.

– Terry in Quebec as the fresh snow falls in 2024

Read the 2nd post in the series where I review Mark Lipton’s Guiding Growth.