Do the Vision Work Before the Crisis Arrives

technique — attributed to Amy Calvert

The EIC's board completed its visioning work in fall 2019. Six months later, the pandemic arrived and dismantled the industry. Calvert's assessment is direct: the pre-crisis vision work saved the organization. When everything else was stripped away, there was something to anchor to. The technique is not complicated. Commission serious inquiry before the emergency, not in response to it. Ask the hard question of why the organization exists rather than what it does. Then hold that answer as a fixed point during the period when everything else is in motion. Organizations that run vision exercises in the aftermath of a crisis are reconstructing identity after the fact. Organizations that run them before are navigating from a known position.

Calvert's account of commissioning visioning work with chair Paul and past chair Tina after arriving at EIC in April 2019, six months before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the global events industry.

strategic-planning, institutional-resilience, crisis-preparedness, vision