Today’s Morning Buzz is brought to you by Jorge Valens, Innovation Manager for Miami-Dade County’s Information Technology Department in Miami, Florida. Follow Jorge on LinkedIn, BlueSky, and Threads.
- What I’m watching: “Andor” on Disney+ over and over again.
- What I’m listening to: “American Dream” by The Strike
- What I’m reading: “Abundance” by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
Organizations, teams, and even communities need a guiding light — a clear vision that illuminates the path forward. As local government leaders, we’re experts at managing the daily grind. Still, sometimes, we forget the most essential part of leadership: setting a clear, inspiring direction for our teams, communities, products and services.
A Shared Vision Is A Foundation Upon Which Anything Can Be Built
The most successful initiatives weren’t born from a checklist of tasks or a series of reactive decisions. They came from a compelling vision that everyone — from the county manager to the newest hire — could understand and rally behind.
A unifying vision is more than a mission statement or cheesy motivational posters gathering dust on the office wall. I’m talking about a clear, inspiring picture of what success looks like. It’s the difference between “processing permits efficiently” and “building a community where every resident can thrive.”
A strong, clear vision is a foundational element of success. It enables projects, decisions, and programs that support that vision. It also creates alignment across teams and departments to ensure we all go in the same direction. Most importantly, it’s something we can use to hold ourselves accountable and measure the impact of our solutions.
When Vision Goes Missing
The absence of a clear vision is like trying to navigate without a compass. When an organization lacks direction, problems begin to emerge. Teams will tend to work in isolation, each following their own agenda without consideration for the bigger picture. Resources become diluted as they’re distributed across competing initiatives without clear prioritization.
Additionally, staff morale suffers as employees struggle to connect their daily tasks to a meaningful purpose. Innovation also takes a hit—without a clear direction for improvement, organizations often maintain the status quo rather than pushing boundaries.
Creating Your North Star
Developing a meaningful vision begins with residents and end users to understand what they want. During a recent design sprint, we asked participants a simple but powerful question: “Where do you see this program in two years?” Their inspiring responses formed a foundation for our teams to build solutions that met the vision head-on.
Forming a grand vision shouldn’t be limited to communities or organizations. Before you scope out a new project or onboard a new program, bring together all the stakeholders and establish that vision. With that, you will build something delightful.
Making Vision Stick
Here’s the hard truth: creating the vision is the easy part. Making it stick? That’s where leadership comes in.
It requires constant communication that connects daily work to larger goals. Leaders must make decisions that align with and support the vision while ensuring resource allocation matches stated priorities. Teams need recognition and celebration when they advance the vision.
Most importantly, it requires courage — the courage to say no to good ideas that don’t serve the vision and the courage to keep pushing forward when the easy path would be to retreat into comfortable routines.
Ultimately, our communities deserve more than competent administration — they deserve inspired leadership toward a better future.