 | I recently sat down with my friend and The Savvy EdTech Leader co-author Diane Doersch for the first episode recording of her new podcast series, Beneath the Water. We expected to talk about our book, leadership, our careers, and some of the experiences that shaped our work. We did. But the conversation went much deeper than I anticipated. We talked about vision: Not simply the kind of organizational vision we write into a strategic plan. I mean the picture we hold of who we are and what could be—even when what we see around us doesn’t look anything like it yet. And perhaps that is where leadership vision really begins. |
Diane’s premise is that what we see in another person is only what exists above the waterline. We see the position, accomplishments, confidence, decisions, relationships, and results. What we don’t see is everything beneath the water—the experiences, people, mistakes, beliefs, lessons, aspirations, and choices that helped create the person standing in front of us.
A Savvy EdTech Leader reflection on seeing what could be—and giving vision form.
Before We Build the Future, We Have to See It
This idea takes me directly back to Chapter 1 of The Savvy EdTech Leader, “Beyond Vision Statements.” We begin the book with vision intentionally. The chapter challenges EdTech leaders to move beyond simply crafting a statement and instead “Paint a Picture of the Future”—a future compelling enough to create passion, clarify direction, and inspire others to help make it real.
During the podcast, that discussion became more personal. We began talking about the question underneath every organizational vision:
Who are we trying to become?
That question has followed me throughout my life.
At one point, my vision was raising three independent, confident daughters who would be willing to take risks and pursue their passions. I eventually realized I couldn’t simply tell them to live that way. I needed to model it. If I wanted them to believe they could build meaningful careers, take chances, and create lives they loved, they needed to see me attempting to do the same.
The same principle applies to leadership.
Vision isn’t merely describing a future. It is seeing a possibility clearly enough that we begin leading toward it before it fully exists.
That distinction matters.
Because leaders spend much of their time looking at what is: today’s budget, today’s staffing shortage, today’s cybersecurity risk, today’s technology environment, today’s organizational structure, today’s performance data.
All of those things are real. They deserve our attention.
But leadership requires another capability: seeing what could be.
During the podcast, that discussion became more personal. We began talking about the question underneath every organizational vision:
Who are we trying to become?
That question has followed me throughout my life.
At one point, my vision was raising three independent, confident daughters who would be willing to take risks and pursue their passions. I eventually realized I couldn’t simply tell them to live that way. I needed to model it. If I wanted them to believe they could build meaningful careers, take chances, and create lives they loved, they needed to see me attempting to do the same.
The same principle applies to leadership.
Vision isn’t merely describing a future. It is seeing a possibility clearly enough that we begin leading toward it before it fully exists.
That distinction matters.
Because leaders spend much of their time looking at what is: today’s budget, today’s staffing shortage, today’s cybersecurity risk, today’s technology environment, today’s organizational structure, today’s performance data.
All of those things are real. They deserve our attention.
But leadership requires another capability: seeing what could be.
What Lens Are We Looking Through?
We know this: Two people can look at the same circumstances and see very different futures. One sees an obstacle; another sees a possibility. One sees an ending; another sees the beginning of something new. One sees a seed buried beneath the ground; another sees something already growing.
That isn’t an argument for ignoring reality.
Great leaders don’t pretend that constraints don’t exist. Especially in EdTech, savvy leaders understand budgets, risks, politics, workforce limitations, technical debt, organizational culture, and everything else that makes change difficult.
But they also refuse to let today’s reality automatically define tomorrow’s possibility.
Reality tells us where we are. Vision helps us decide where we are going.
And that requires leaders to examine not only what they are looking at, but the lens through which they are looking.
That isn’t an argument for ignoring reality.
Great leaders don’t pretend that constraints don’t exist. Especially in EdTech, savvy leaders understand budgets, risks, politics, workforce limitations, technical debt, organizational culture, and everything else that makes change difficult.
But they also refuse to let today’s reality automatically define tomorrow’s possibility.
Reality tells us where we are. Vision helps us decide where we are going.
And that requires leaders to examine not only what they are looking at, but the lens through which they are looking.
- Are we viewing the future through the limitations of what has always been done?
- Through a past failure?
- Through an organizational structure created for a different era?
- Through assumptions about what our people, our students, our technology, or even we ourselves are capable of?
Vision Is Built Beneath the Water
My conversation with Diane reminded me that our ability to see possibility doesn’t appear from nowhere.
It develops beneath the water.
For me, part of it came from my mother. She never compared me to anyone else. When I wanted to pursue something, her message was essentially: Somebody has to do it. Why can’t it be you? Her belief in possibility eventually became part of the way I learned to see possibility for myself.
Part of it came from NASA. After the Challenger tragedy, I became involved in performance excellence work and learned about systems, processes, measurement, standardization, key performance indicators, and continuous improvement. I didn’t know then that those ideas were becoming part of the leadership operating system I would carry into K–12 education for decades.
And part of it came from mistakes. Big ones.
Mistakes taught me to acknowledge what happened, fix what I could, learn from it, and keep moving. More importantly, experiencing failure myself gave me greater compassion when someone else failed.
All of that was beneath the water.
And that is why vision is more than imagination. The future we are capable of seeing is influenced by everything we have experienced, learned, survived, questioned, and come to believe.
What lies beneath the water doesn’t just shape who we are as leaders. It shapes what we are able to see for the future.
It develops beneath the water.
For me, part of it came from my mother. She never compared me to anyone else. When I wanted to pursue something, her message was essentially: Somebody has to do it. Why can’t it be you? Her belief in possibility eventually became part of the way I learned to see possibility for myself.
Part of it came from NASA. After the Challenger tragedy, I became involved in performance excellence work and learned about systems, processes, measurement, standardization, key performance indicators, and continuous improvement. I didn’t know then that those ideas were becoming part of the leadership operating system I would carry into K–12 education for decades.
And part of it came from mistakes. Big ones.
Mistakes taught me to acknowledge what happened, fix what I could, learn from it, and keep moving. More importantly, experiencing failure myself gave me greater compassion when someone else failed.
All of that was beneath the water.
And that is why vision is more than imagination. The future we are capable of seeing is influenced by everything we have experienced, learned, survived, questioned, and come to believe.
What lies beneath the water doesn’t just shape who we are as leaders. It shapes what we are able to see for the future.
See It. Believe It. Build It.
See it. Believe it. Build it. The words are simple, but the leadership behind them is powerful. Vision moves through three distinct stages: imagination allows us to see what could be, belief creates the commitment to pursue it, and action gives the vision form.
See it. Leadership begins with the ability to imagine a future that doesn’t exist yet. What would extraordinary look like? What would world-class EdTech leadership, operations, services, and student success look like? What could this organization become? What would be possible if we weren’t confined by the assumptions that created our current reality?
Believe it. A vision that the leader doesn’t genuinely believe is possible will never survive contact with organizational resistance. Belief creates commitment. It keeps the destination in view when the evidence around us still looks like the old reality.
Build it. This may be the most important part. Vision without action remains an idea. A blueprint may be powerful, but a blueprint isn’t a building. Leadership gives vision form through strategy, people, resources, processes, measures, decisions, and persistent action.
That is also where the title of Chapter 1—Beyond Vision Statements—matters. In the book, we emphasize that vision must move beyond words. Leaders make the picture come alive, communicate it repeatedly, build shared ownership, and connect it to the teamwork, consistency, systems, and community required to turn aspiration into results.
That connects directly to something I said at the end of my conversation with Diane: Savvy EdTech leaders must have a leadership system. A sustainable leadership system connects vision to strategy, workforce, operations, customers, measurement, and results. Otherwise, we risk moving from one good idea to another without building the organizational capacity needed to make the vision real.
See it. Leadership begins with the ability to imagine a future that doesn’t exist yet. What would extraordinary look like? What would world-class EdTech leadership, operations, services, and student success look like? What could this organization become? What would be possible if we weren’t confined by the assumptions that created our current reality?
Believe it. A vision that the leader doesn’t genuinely believe is possible will never survive contact with organizational resistance. Belief creates commitment. It keeps the destination in view when the evidence around us still looks like the old reality.
Build it. This may be the most important part. Vision without action remains an idea. A blueprint may be powerful, but a blueprint isn’t a building. Leadership gives vision form through strategy, people, resources, processes, measures, decisions, and persistent action.
That is also where the title of Chapter 1—Beyond Vision Statements—matters. In the book, we emphasize that vision must move beyond words. Leaders make the picture come alive, communicate it repeatedly, build shared ownership, and connect it to the teamwork, consistency, systems, and community required to turn aspiration into results.
That connects directly to something I said at the end of my conversation with Diane: Savvy EdTech leaders must have a leadership system. A sustainable leadership system connects vision to strategy, workforce, operations, customers, measurement, and results. Otherwise, we risk moving from one good idea to another without building the organizational capacity needed to make the vision real.
What Is Beneath Your Water?
That brings me back to Diane’s question.
People looking at us today may see a title, an organization, a project, an accomplishment, or a decision. They cannot see every person who believed in us, every failure that humbled us, every experience that strengthened us, every lesson we carried forward, or every moment when we quietly decided that something more was possible.
Yet those things are there.
Together, those experiences shape the lens through which we lead.
And somewhere beneath the surface is also the picture we are carrying of what comes next. Perhaps that is one of the most important responsibilities we have as leaders: to become conscious of that picture.
What future are we seeing for our organizations? What future are we seeing for the people we lead? What possibilities are we seeing that others cannot see yet? And what future are we seeing for ourselves?
Because vision isn’t prediction. It isn’t pretending obstacles don’t exist. And it isn’t waiting for the future to reveal itself to us.
Vision is the discipline of looking beyond what is visible today, seeing a greater possibility, and then doing the work required to bring more of that possibility above the waterline.
Yet those things are there.
Together, those experiences shape the lens through which we lead.
And somewhere beneath the surface is also the picture we are carrying of what comes next. Perhaps that is one of the most important responsibilities we have as leaders: to become conscious of that picture.
What future are we seeing for our organizations? What future are we seeing for the people we lead? What possibilities are we seeing that others cannot see yet? And what future are we seeing for ourselves?
Because vision isn’t prediction. It isn’t pretending obstacles don’t exist. And it isn’t waiting for the future to reveal itself to us.
Vision is the discipline of looking beyond what is visible today, seeing a greater possibility, and then doing the work required to bring more of that possibility above the waterline.
What's Your Story?
Direct YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHtUlC77Zsc
Continue your journey
We all have a story beneath the water. But maybe leadership is about more than understanding what is beneath our water.
Maybe it is about deciding what we are ready to bring to the surface next.
Maybe it is about deciding what we are ready to bring to the surface next.
This reflection grows directly from Chapter 1, “Beyond Vision Statements,” in The Savvy EdTech Leader: Innovative Strategies to Boost Influence and Elevate Your Career.
The chapter begins with “Paint a Picture of the Future” and then moves from vision into teamwork, consistency, and community—the leadership practices that help turn what we see into what we can actually build.
If this idea resonates with you, The Savvy EdTech Leader takes it further with practical strategies for EdTech leaders who want to strengthen their influence, elevate their leadership, and create the future they envision for their teams and organizations.
If you’re ready to move beyond vision statements and turn what you see into what your organization can become, continue the journey in Chapter 1 of The Savvy EdTech Leader.
The chapter begins with “Paint a Picture of the Future” and then moves from vision into teamwork, consistency, and community—the leadership practices that help turn what we see into what we can actually build.
If this idea resonates with you, The Savvy EdTech Leader takes it further with practical strategies for EdTech leaders who want to strengthen their influence, elevate their leadership, and create the future they envision for their teams and organizations.
If you’re ready to move beyond vision statements and turn what you see into what your organization can become, continue the journey in Chapter 1 of The Savvy EdTech Leader.