Some days over the past year, did you felt like giving up?

As I write this, it has been almost exactly one year since “The Great Pause” as the world shut down to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past year, we’ve seen mental health challenges, food insecurity, evictions, business bankruptcies, sickness, and an estimated 2.6 million deaths from COVID-19 worldwide.

It has been tough – and continues to be tough – for millions of people who are struggling with the shocks and setbacks that the pandemic has brought.

So if you felt like giving up, why didn’t you?

Take a minute to think about that question. It’s not an unimportant question – it’s a profound one. For many of us, this time may be like nothing we’ve ever experienced before. What we knew to be true was suddenly pulled away from us, leaving us with grief and loss.

If you felt like giving up, why didn’t you?

No matter your response, the answer to this question comes down to vision. You didn’t give up because even though so much of your mind and body may have been preoccupied with the uncertainty and setbacks, some part of you saw the way forward and had the determination and life force to find that path.

Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl wrote about these ideas in his memoir Man’s Search for Meaning. Having lived through the most difficult circumstances possible, Frankl concluded that we seek meaning from three possible sources: purposeful work, love, and courage in the face of difficulty.

This is vision.

We need vision to have hope and, at its most extreme, keep living. The idea behind vision is that what we do in the world makes a difference and contributes to our life force.

Like all of us, nonprofit leaders hit challenging circumstances this year. It was inspiring to watch so many leaders stepping up rather than giving up. They realized they were in the moment and how the hard work of their organization could literally save lives. These leaders were able to envision better days and see how the organization’s services could bring people towards those better days.

With a swift reaction to the pandemic as things were happening, few of us were capable of taking a pause to recalibrate. We simply had to forge ahead and adjust on the fly. The vision might have been nothing more than a glimpse at a potential outcome – and here we sit, a year after the beginning of it all, able to look back at the arduous journey to get us to today. Those brief glimpses ended up shaping the vision of our efforts and organizations. I encourage you to take a deep breath and few minutes to consider your vision for the future.

Four steps to build a vision statement:

Step 1: Bring the right people in the room.

As we have written, equitable strategic planning starts with the idea that the people closest to the problems are weighing in on the solutions. As you plan to build your vision statement, make sure that people with the lived experience to weigh in are part of the process.

Step 2: Set aside time

Creating a vision statement takes some focused reflection time — at least 90 minutes to two hours of dedicated conversation . If possible, work with a trained facilitator, who will bring a productive structure and keep the group on task.

Step 3: Discuss

In strategic planning, creating a vision statement is coming together to explore: what is the ideal future that we are working towards? 

A vision statement focuses on the future. A strong vision statement answers the question: what future state would the world need to be in for us to know that our work was complete?

In order to develop a vision statement, it may be helpful to consider:

• What are our hopes and dreams?

• What problem are we solving for the greater good?

• Who and what are we inspiring to change?

The vision statement promotes growth, both internally and externally. A strong vision helps teams focus on what matters the most for their organization. It also invites innovation. A purpose-driven organization envisions success as a whole, because they know what success means for their company. On the flip side, when organizational leaders do not know where they are headed, they struggle with the alignment for everyone to move forward.

Step 4: Refine

From our experience working through the process many times with nonprofit organizations, a vision statement needs some time to breathe. Sometimes the large group will create a draft, and then a smaller group wordsmiths, creates the final product and shares it back. You should build this time into the process of creating a vision statement.

As I write this, it has been almost a year. Our older people and our essential workers are getting vaccinated, and more of us soon after that. The reality of COVID-19 continues. And we see a light to the other side.

Bring your people, together, towards the future that you hope to create.

This is the third part of a five-part series on Strategic Planning:

Part 1: How much can we plan in moments of intense uncertainty?

Part 2: Why values matter more than ever

Part 4: How one organization went from identity crisis to focus

Part 5: How to take the important last step of strategic planning