How to Develop Visions: A Literature Review, and a Revised CHOICES Approach for an Uncertain World

This paper reviews the visioning literature along five key dimensions: analysis of an organization's current situation, assessment of the external environment, identification of desired future vision, connection of the future to the present state, and testing the vision. It then describes one particular participative visioning methodology, which has largely been used in the public sector, the CHOICES approach. The paper then analyzes the CHOICES approach along the five key dimensions identified earlier. Gaps in the approach are identified and a revised methodology is outlined. The paper ends with a summary of results from a pilot study which tested the revised methodology.