DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL VISION IN GENERAL-PRACTICE

Vision is a fashionable but ill defined term in management circles. Ne vertheless, it embodies a significant concept related to guiding an or ganisation from present realities, through opportunities and hazards, to a viable future. Until recently a typical general practice could as sume a stable external environment, but now it is caught up in the unc ertainties stemming from the NHS reforms. For such a practice to under take effective strategic planning it will have to develop a vision con necting the present with aspirations for the future. While vision is u sually considered to be an individual talent, it is possible to develo p a collective organisational vision within a general practice, and th e small size of general practices makes this relatively easy. The visi on needs to be broad; it needs to be continuous; and its capacity to p redict the future needs to be monitored.