Culture
When you’re under pressure to create strategy—whether it’s to grow, innovate, or optimize—it can feel lonely. Developing a plan is hard enough, but getting people to follow it? That is where strategy falters.
On Team Building Saves the World, Jeremy Nulik of Bigwidesky tackled this head-on. With years of experience helping organizations face uncertain futures, Jeremy focused on a fundamental understanding about strategy: People do not follow a plan. People follow a vision.
Vision cannot be only a bullet point or a directive. It’s must become a living thing, something that ignites action and brings meaning to everything that follows. Without it, even the best-laid plans fall flat.
Vision: What People Follow
The main theme in this episode was how to achieve an inspired vision. “There are so many great plans that sit and gather dust. What’s often missing is a vision that animates what that plan means.” Your role as a leader isn’t to map out every detail; it’s to ignite something in your team that drives them forward, even when (and especially when) the details are still murky.
The future doesn’t come with a manual. There are no guarantees. Instead, it’s a vast possibility space, full of the unknown. And that’s where foresight comes in. It’s not about controlling the future—it’s about seeing the paths, the threats, the opportunities. Navigating with eyes wide open.
The Boldness to Look Ahead
In the episode, Jeremy also covers how foresight leaders take a wide-angle view of the future. It creates a space for exploring possible outcomes. It shakes loose rigid assumptions and forces a conversation about what really matters. “We create artifacts from possible futures to get people talking about what’s at stake,” Jeremy explains. “The exercise isn’t about getting the future right—it’s about getting the vision clear.”
There’s something wonderfully absurd about asking a team to imagine a future 10 years down the line and telling them to make decisions from there. But that’s the point. Strategy isn’t a cold calculation; it’s a living thing, shaped by the boldness of your vision and your ability to inspire others.
The Power of Provocation
During the episode, Jeremy invokes an insight from futurist Jim Dator, “Any useful vision of the future will seem ridiculous.”
It’s true. If it feels comfortable, it’s probably not the future. The best strategic decisions come when you force yourself—and your team—to confront a future so unfamiliar, so ridiculous, that it forces you to think in entirely new ways. It’s here that alignment happens. It’s here that you stop following plans and start shaping the future.
The task of strategy is not a lonely burden—it’s a creative act. Don’t aim for a perfect plan. Set your sights on a vision so compelling, so provocative, that people can’t help but want to follow it.
In the end, it’s not the plan that matters. It’s the story you tell. And it’s the future you dare to imagine that will lead everyone else to follow.