The Information Services Vision

The Information Services/Systems/Technology vision in your organization may look something like this:

To support the [your company's name here] vision through responsive delivery and management of information and systems of the highest quality.

What do you think?  Is this a good vision?  A useful vision?  What are the properties of a good/useful vision?  

How would you state the vision for the data/information resource in your company?

Alternative Vision(s)

Much has been written about vision statements in the last two decades. Juran, Deming, business ethicists and a host of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) gurus have told us repeatedly that:

The purpose of a vision statement is to provide a sense of the future as seen by an organization. In order for the vision to apply to an entire organization, it must have a visceral appeal to all members of the organization. It must appeal to the organization with a feeling of rightness and it must be a touchstone for organization members whenever they have doubts about a particular course of action. The vision statement must be the basis for all decision making.

From time to time, members of [your company/organization here] may look to our vision statement for guidance. If the needed guidance is not there, what can we do? In the spirit of continuous improvement, please make a note of what is missing and suggest it.

While we do need the guidance of a common vision in order to maximize the effectiveness of IS/IT as a team, there is no point in having a vision that we can't use.

In order to get the ball rolling, I have had a few experiences in which the official [your company here] vision statement was something less than useful. The missing pieces have been:

1. It forces me to refer to and understand yet another vision.
2. The [your company here] Vision represents the vision of physicians/clinicians. While I work for the same company, I sometimes find it hard to insert the needs of the patient into decisions that I must make. Many (if not most) of my decisions are several levels removed from the patient or affect the patient only indirectly.
3. Most importantly, the vision seems to rule out any initiative on my part.

Suggested improvement:

We will deliver the best available information when and where it is needed throughout [your company here].