Ideas
A vision that is never executed is just a dream
A vision is only worth what teams can follow: execution that is faithful and practicable, a pragmatic trajectory rather than fine ideas nobody can keep up with
“The CTO sets the vision, the technical director executes it.” The split is convenient: it puts everyone in a box and gives each box its deliverable. It has one flaw: it lets each side succeed at its half while the whole fails.
Fine ideas nobody can follow
A roadmap in a slide deck and a methodology applied nowhere do not make a vision. They have the shape of one: horizons, priorities, target diagrams. But they are fine ideas that the teams meant to carry them find impossible, or too hard, to follow.
A vision is judged by the trajectory it draws, not by what it announces
Execution that leads nowhere
The reverse is no better. A repository of libraries and a jumble of tools do not amount to tangible execution. They keep teams busy and produce commits, but bring no value to the customer or to the company, because nobody knows what they are for.
A trajectory teams can follow
A vision holds when it rests on execution that is both faithful and practicable. Faithful to the course, not to the letter of the plan. Practicable, because it starts from what teams can do today and moves forward in realistic steps. Delivery stays pragmatic and feasible: a trajectory teams follow step by step, rather than a destination shown to them from afar.
That is how I work when I support IT departments through their transformation: from strategy to execution, with no handover. I convince leadership of the why and teams of the how, then stay until the results show.