Creating a vision for the twenty-first century healthcare organization.

Management approaches used by healthcare organizations have often lagged behind other businesses in more competitive industries. Companies operating in such dynamic environments have found that to cope with the rapid pace of change they must have an articulated understanding of their organization's capabilities and consensus on where the organization is headed based on predictions about the future operating environment. This statement of identity and strategic direction takes the form of a vision statement that serves as the compass for the organization's decisions for a five- to ten-year period. This article discusses the importance of vision statements in tomorrow's healthcare organizations, presents an overview of future scenarios that may provide context for organizational visions, and suggests a process for developing a vision statement. A case study is presented to illustrate how a vision statement is created. Following the guidelines presented in this article and reviewing the case study should assist healthcare executives and their boards in crafting better visions of their organizations' futures, developing more effective strategies to realize these visions, and adapting to more frequent and more significant change.