Vision Before Direction
Learning 101 | Episode 18
Why People Need to See Where They’re Going
At A2B, we were building great software.
The team was talented.
Execution was strong.
People cared deeply about doing good work.
Yet beneath the surface, I kept noticing something.
The company was the result of two different histories coming together.
One side of the business was deeply focused on payments.
The other was focused on moving people.
In many ways, that same tension appeared throughout the organisation.
Payments were easier to measure.
Easier to report.
Easier to connect to revenue.
The feedback loop was short.
Moving people was different.
The feedback loop was longer.
The outcomes were harder to quantify.
The more time I spent at A2B, the more I noticed a subtle question sitting underneath many of our discussions.
Were we in the business of payments?
Or were we in the business of moving people?
The answer mattered.
Because where you think you’re going shapes every decision you make along the way.
The products you build.
The problems you prioritise.
The opportunities you pursue.
The trade-offs you make.
The more I reflected on that question, the more I kept coming back to something simple.
We weren’t fundamentally in the business of payments.
We were in the business of moving people.
That’s what our brand represented.
Moving people from A to B.
Only then helping them pay for the ride.
My team was responsible for the in-vehicle experience.
We owned software that powered more than 90% of taxi journeys across Australia.
That was our moat.
That was our advantage.
That was what differentiated us.
Not payments.
Movement.
The challenge wasn’t capability.
The challenge was alignment.
I needed the team to see what mattered most.
Not because I wanted everyone to think the same way.
Because I wanted everyone moving in the same direction.
So instead of talking about features.
Roadmaps.
Milestones.
Or priorities.
I spent more time talking about the future.
The experience we wanted customers to have.
The industry we wanted to help create.
The role our products could play.
Something interesting happened.
The more clearly people could see the destination, the easier decisions became.
Priorities became clearer.
Trade-offs became easier.
Discussions improved.
Momentum increased.
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The destination hadn’t changed.
The people hadn’t changed.
What changed was their understanding.
That’s when i realised something.
People need to see the destination before they can choose the direction.
Why Alignment Is Difficult
Many leaders assume alignment comes from direction.
Set the priorities.
Define the roadmap.
Assign the work.
Track the progress.
But people rarely align around instructions.
People align around understanding.
When the destination is unclear, every decision becomes harder.
Every trade-off becomes harder.
Every disagreement becomes harder.
Because people are trying to move in different directions at the same time.
Vision Creates Alignment
A clear vision does something powerful.
It creates a shared picture of the future.
People start seeing the same destination.
And once that happens, many decisions become easier.
Not because everyone thinks the same way.
Because everyone understands where they are trying to go.
The destination becomes shared.
The path remains open for discussion.
Direction Becomes Easier
Many people think vision and direction are the same thing.
I’m increasingly convinced they are different.
Vision answers:
Where are we going?
Direction answers:
How do we get there?
When people don’t understand the destination, direction often feels arbitrary.
When the destination is understood, direction becomes much easier to discuss.
Much easier to evaluate.
And much easier to commit to.
The Learning Framework
FOCUS ON
SIMILARITIES FIRST,
THEN DIFFERENCES
─────────────────
SIMILARITIES
↓
UNDERSTANDING
↓
DIFFERENCES
↓
LEARNING
↓
REFINEMENT ↺
The same principle that helps us learn can also help leaders create alignment.
When we focus on similarities first, we understand.
When we understand, alignment begins to emerge.
And alignment helps people move in the same direction.
Vision becomes a source of cohesion rather than confusion.
That’s why I keep coming back to a simple principle:
Focus on similarities first, then differences.
Final Thought
For years, I thought vision and direction were the same thing.
Now I’m not so sure.
Vision is about the destination.
Direction is about how we get there.
People need to see where they are going before they can decide how to get there.
And when people understand the destination, alignment becomes much easier to create.
Your Turn
How has having a clearer picture of the future changed the way you make decisions today?
I’d love to hear your examples in the comments.
Learning 101 is an exploration of a simple idea:
Focus on similarities first, then differences.
The first ten episodes explored how this principle applies to learning.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll explore how it applies to communication, relationships, leadership, negotiation, AI, innovation, and many other domains.
If you’d like to follow the Learning 101 journey, follow me on Medium.
