How to Develop a Vision with a Team
As I say often to leaders, vision starts with reality. To create a vision for your organization or team, the organization must be honest with itself. I advocate for visions that are meaningful to people. Don’t approach any vision development project with the goal in mind just to complete a task. The goal is not to have your vision written but to have your vision walking. In other words, organizational or team vision is about buy-in and implementation. So, how do you develop a vision with a team?
Start with the Heart
Organizational or team vision should be the mirror to the heart. As I tell my clients often, your vision should be the front door to your organization. In other words, the vision should be the first thing people see, not read. Show them your heart. In the process of developing the team's vision, take time as the leader to learn the team’s story.
What encounters have team members had in the organization that has brought them meaning?
What does the purpose of the organization look like for each team member?
What problem does each team member feel the organization is or should be solving?
Why do we exist or why should we exist?
Questions like these can provide a plethora of information for the leader to help define the heart of each team member and give a sneak peek to the heart of the larger organization.
Identify Team Member Commonalities
Once you’ve heard the heart of your team members, connect the commonalities of each member’s experience. For example, when I was working at Walgreens as a college student, I remember how often customers would comment on their appreciation of me walking them to the aisle where the item they were looking for was, instead of me pointing them in that direction. So, let's say for the purpose of this example, I am on your team, and based on my Walgreens experience, there were 4 other team members who stated similarities. For you as the leader, this may be a great indication that for each team member, customer service is of heavy value and purpose.
Pinpoint the Destination
Once you have identified the key experiences and stories of each team member in relation to the organization, clearly define the destination. In other words, in a perfect world how would our vision look? For example, Habitat for Humanity identifies its destination (vision) as living in “a world where everyone has a decent place to live.” Habitat for Humanity envisions this as the perfect world. A guiding framework for you and your team can be the following; If we accomplish “blank” the world would look like “blank.”
Invite a facilitator
Even though you may be well equipped to lead the process of vision development for your team, sometimes it is paramount to have an outside voice to lead the discussion and process. Inviting a trained third-party facilitator can empower you as the leader to participate as one of the team members and provide a fresh perspective.
Recap: How to develop a vision with a team?
1. Start with the heart
2. Identify team member commonalities
3. Pinpoint the destination
4. Invite a facilitator
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