Visioning and Vision-Based Planning
"A vision is like a lighthouse, which illuminates rather than limits, giving direction rather than destination."
-- James J. Mapes
Visioning helps guide the community through collaborative and creative processes that lead to shared community visions and values. When a community initiates a visioning approach, it should ask three framing questions (Longo et al. 1999): "What do we have?" "What do we want?" and "How do we get there?" These three questions will set the stage, guide the entire visioning process, and result in attainable, agreed upon objectives that are possible to implement.
"What do we have?" asks residents to identify those elements in their community that elicit a sense of place, what they like about the current conditions of the community, and what needs improvement. When initiating a visioning process it is a good idea to assemble a baseline of community indicators, sectoral and/or regional assessments, past and current community surveys, and education about past planning policies that can provide the community with a common history and starting point.
"What do we want?" prompts the participants to visualize the expansion of their community while retaining and building upon those elements that provide the sense and feel they want their community to embody. Through small group exercises or interactive presentations that reflect future possibilities, core values and visions for the future can emerge from the participating residents.
"How do we get there?" elicits a process by which to attain the shared visions of the community. The goals, objectives, strategies, and measurements that compose the vision-based implementation process should be clearly recorded and prioritized to ensure that the community is poised to successfully achieve its objectives.
The visioning process elicits the values the community believes it can and should pursue, while the vision-based planning process incorporates those agreed upon visions and values into a comprehensive planning process. The process involves two exercises: enabling and crafting the vision and then determining action items that reflect the direction of the vision. The two exercises should work as a whole system, each reinforcing the other. A key component to the vision-based planning process is the ability to account for evolving community attitudes and interests. Through consistent evaluation of the defined measurements and incorporation of public feedback, new and revised opinions and ideals can be included into the vision-based planning process.
“Visioning is an entirely different approach [to the usual public planning process]. Rather than being asked, “Do you like this decision?” citizens in a visioning process are asked, “What do you want?” Rather than sitting anonymously in a crowded auditorium at a public hearing, they are invited to join small group discussions alongside their neighbors. Visioning reaches beyond obligatory public hearings into creative attempts to elicit ideas, concerns, and insights into community issues.”
-- Excerpt from Visioning in The Consensus Building Handbook
Visioning is part of an open system that seeks feedback throughout the process. The figure shows the flow of a visioning process, though common knowledge and a consistent baseline must be employed when initiating the method. The following illustrates the visioning process in a series of steps.Click for Larger Model.
A community's vision articulates the desired "place" of the community in a set period of time. To accomplish this, the community must visualize the economic, environmental and social desires that will from the blocks leading to the building of a successful place.
Once the vision is set, the group must now consider the values that embody and shape the vision(s). To elaborate, the values of the group will drive the planning authority towards action and support the realization of the vision.
Examples of value statements:
* Reinforce the natural appearance of the river running through the downtown
* Welcome neighborhood activities in a safe environment
After values are recognized, goals must be set. These goals should be long and short-term, based on real and attainable steps, and prioritized to best realize accomplishment of the vision.
Within each set of goals, prioritized objectives should be developed to help realize the stated goals. The objectives should address the goal of attaining real statistics, standards, and positive trends in community indicators.
Strategies are then adopted to assist and focus the facilitating organization towards accomplishing the stated objectives.
As part of the implementation process, a method by which to measure the progress towards accomplishing the goals and objectives must exist. The measurement stage helps the community and the facilitating agency assess the overall vision implementation process. At this stage, the process can adaptively manage itself to incorporate new baselines and create new visions, strategies, and objectives to address what is not working and promote what does. Once the measurements are evaluated, a new or revised vision can be prepared based on changes in community attitudes or the surrounding environment. This process is circular, not linear, and encourages feedback and adaptation throughout in order to fully realize the community's potential.
When residents of a community are encouraged to participate in the process of collaborating on shared values, purposes, and visions, a greater sense of ownership and excitement is established. All too often, this process is disregarded during large-scale, long-term planning. The vision outlines the social, natural, and financial goals that the community strives for during the comprehensive planning process. Above all, the process can and should be used as a consensus building technique - organizing collective thought within an inter-organizational network where no one person, group, or organization has more influence than any other. The devolution of authority and power by those normally holding those positions enables the community to more openly participate in the process. In many cases, visioning implies the release of power and persuasion while welcoming creativity and progress.
Indicator: A measurement that informs about the condition of key assets that comprise our wealth. By measuring change over time, indicators tell us whether the condition of our assets is improving, declining, or remaining constant, and provide insights into the linkages between various forms of capital.
To achieve the best possible outcome, visioning should be incorporated into the initial phases of the comprehensive planning process. Conducting a visioning exercise at the beginning of the planning process serves as a catalyst, builds a foundation, a sense of inclusion, and creates goals on which to construct the rest of the process. Additionally, citizens invited to participate in the process feel that they are empowered and that their input is meaningful. A vision statement used to guide the comprehensive planning process and a set of related goals are created from the visioning exercises. This provides the rest of the planning process with the potential to move forward in a directed and action-oriented manner.
The facilitation of the visioning process remains an important aspect of how the community attends and responds to elicited help. Local residents who can relate and provide local knowledge pertaining to the community along with a neutral facilitating professional usually provide the best combination of leadership and information to facilitate a successful visioning process. Leaders that display qualities of empowerment, motivation, and personal intuition, combine for the best possible facilitation.
Ingredients for a successful vision statement:
* Positive, present tense language;
* Identify qualities that provide the reader with a feeling for the region’s uniqueness;
* Inclusiveness of the region’s diverse population, demographic and ideals;
* A depiction of the highest standards of excellence and achievement;
* A focus on people and quality of life;
* A stated time period for implementation.
(The National Civic League Press)
Results of a successful visioning process could include:
* An overall vision statement;
* Thematic vision statements that address all the elements of a comprehensive, long-term planning process;
* Improved communication lines within the community;
* Context for consideration and adoption of long-range functional goals and related policies;
* A full inventory and analysis of available data;
* Grounded discussions and decisions regarding land-use criteria and resulting policies;
* Cohesion, buy-in, and community ownership of the plan;
* A feedback loop for continued reexamination of the vision and in turn, possible modifications to the strategies, goals, and priorities.
(University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension)
