Vision is not something you hold. It's not a program you assert. Vision isn't an infrastructure built in advance.

Vision is what you enable.

A job candidate recently asked me what my vision is for the Humanities at ASU. I understand that the question comes from a good place and is part of the expected repertoire of queries potential new faculty ask of deans. But that question also has a way of getting under my skin. Two answers came immediately to mind, and I shared only the second. The first: well, I have been a dean at ASU for six years now, look around at what my colleagues have achieved.

And what I said: I am not well inclined towards people with visions, and especially towards those who self congratulate with the adjective visionary. Too often I find that People With Vision have a strong idea of how the world should be, and shape their environment to conform, regardless of their actual surroundings.

I believe that a humane and compelling future requires a collaboratively hewn path, a forward momentum that comes from fostering and growing the strengths of the community you work alongside. Vision too often is an imposed horizon, and those not well aligned get kicked to the side. I'd rather be part of a community that articulates and affirms through its own practice a future where possibility is plentiful rather than predetermined.

That's a long of saying: don't ask me about my vision, ask me about my values.