Purpose:

A challenging yet achievable vision embodies the tension between what an organization wants and what it can have.
 
 

Approaches:

The organization develops a description of what it should look like once it has successfully implemented its strategies and achieved its full potential. This description is the organization's "vision of success." Most organizations typically will not be able to develop a detailed vision of success until they have gone through several iterations of strategic planning - if they are able to develop a vision at all. 
 
 

John M. Bryson, Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations:  A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement, rev. ed. (San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass, 1995), 35-36.