Defining project vision: a meeting point and a destination

Managing complexity through vision

Large infrastructure projects are increasingly complex. They involve ever larger numbers of stakeholders with conflicting interests over long periods of time. Public governance has evolved, and it is now up to the project promoters themselves to enlist a coalition of supporters to ensure success.

Increasingly projects risk trying to deliver everything to everyone, at the expense of their long-term viability. Instead what is needed are simple, clear guidelines that can inform decision-making without compromising support, from project design to implementation planning.

This consistency in decision-making derives from a clearly-articulated vision: Why this project? What are we really trying to achieve? What are its expected long-term benefits?

What does a vision look like?

The vision is a short sentence that encapsulates the raison-d’être of the project. It says in a few words why it is worth doing the project, in simple terms that will make sense to everyone.

It must be bold and rich enough to generate support, simple enough to be memorable and repeatable, but also specific enough to define a clear direction.

It takes time and effort to bring together all dimensions of the project to articulate a this sort of forward-looking statement. It is a collaborative work that engages project promoters and also outside stakeholders.

Based on this the group can formulate a vision and further support it with practical actionable ideas.

From data to insight

We review all available data and question assumptions, leveraging external expertise through field interviews and other primary and secondary research. We explore a multiplicity of dimensions to enrich the contextual analysis and understand the dynamics of potential support (and opposition).

Insight-based strategic alignment and visioning

We bring together learnings from the field with the project experts’ experience during one or several visioning workshops. These sessions act as a sort of forum to build shared understanding of the project, and generate a strategic alignment that transcends specific fields of expertise. One this basis, the group can formulate a vision and imagine practical, feasible ideas to support and implement it.

For whom?

• Authorities planning a new infrastructure and preparing a RFEI/RFP
  • Better articulate the policy objectives and the infrastructure project requirements to maximize benefits and gather support
  • Encourage innovation among bidders through clarification of policy objectives
•  Companies answering a RFEI/RFP
  • Identify key policy objectives supported by the project
  • Align technical, commercial and financial designs and implement targeted innovation to better serve these objectives