Ever spent a lot of time defining a compelling vision for your company or team, polishing it until it was a true ‘pearl’, sharing it at key meetings – yet still hearing comments in the corridors (or in surveys) that the vision is not clear? Or facing a blank when one team member cannot express it? A frustrating experience… shared by so many leaders… In our view and based on our experience in visioning, there are 3+3 necessary and sufficient conditions to create a truly ‘engaging shared vision’.
3 conditions for a shared vision (or else it’ll just be vision shared)
‘Visions shared’ are usually created by the top (“WE provide the direction”), a one-off exercise (“yes – we’ve got one”), communicated as such to the rest of the organization (“voilà – now they know”). No wonder this rarely works…
Shared visions, by contrast, are co-created (“we need everybody’s input”), lived at all times (“repeated, practiced, role-modeled by the top”), and cascaded at all levels (“everybody knows what the vision means to them”).
- Co-created
Reality is that people adhere much more to ideas they (co)create themselves, than to ideas pushed upon them by others. Think about it – when are we most motivated to realize something – when others told us to do it, or when we came up with the idea ourselves?
Of course, as a leader, we have our homework to do beforehand – we need to give the main direction. Yet, if we take the effort to involve our teams in shaping and perfecting the vision, we create the true fundamentals for the vision to have a chance to be theirs.
- Lived at all times
Rare are the people who hear things once, and remember them forever. That’s why, from when we were children, we were told to study materials over and over again, until we totally mastered them (forever). Yet many of us forget this teacher’s wisdom. As leaders, we communicate our corporate vision once or twice – and then we consider it done…
Still, repetition is not enough… Imagine communicating a vision (repeatedly), but then people not seeing the link between our decisions and our vision… A true recipe for confusion… Yet, the more we explain how current decisions fit with the vision, and the more we are true ambassadors of the vision ourselves, the more they will see how it can also become theirs.
- Cascaded at all levels
A corporate vision is great, but to many in the organization it feels distant (“just corporate talk; nothing for me”). As long as people don’t understand what the vision means to them, they’ll continue to do things the way they’ve always done them; or they’ll choose their own interpretation of “what the corporate vision means to me”. And then we notice all those initiatives that are set up with great intent, but not at all helping to realize the vision…
Yet, when we help teams realize what the corporate vision means to them, and allow them to reflect how they as a team can best contribute to realizing the vision, we allow them to fully own the vision as being theirs.
3 conditions for an engaging vision (or else it’ll just be colorless)
Unfortunately, many visions are perceived by the teams as quite ‘colorless’, an extrapolation of what’s happening elsewhere (“very me too”), out of touch with reality (“it’ll never work anyway”), communicated blandly (“words and words and words…”). Nothing the teams get really energized by…
Engaging visions, by contrast, are ambition-driven (“wouldn’t that be GREAT?”), rock solid (“it IS possible…”), and expressed memorably (“THAT is cool”).
- Ambition-driven
How many brilliant people would choose for an organization with a ‘small’ vision, an extrapolation of today’s reality? How many would be attracted instead by an organization that provides a compelling picture of the possible future? A-visions attract (and retain) A-people… B-visions attract (and retain) C-people…
People like to be proud. They like the perspective of growth. Nothing is more rewarding to them than the possibility to contribute to something meaningful. When it is driven by ambitions, that is when our vision will be really engaging.
- Rock solid
A vision is only as strong as the credibility it bears. We all know those ‘dreamers’ that tell incredible stories about their organisation’s future, which are only bubbles, and they never succeed in translating these dreams in reality. Naïve dreamers: their teams will follow them once, but might look elsewhere the next time…
If we can show a first roadmap as to how we want to realize our vision. And display confidence and eagerness (while admitting that it won’t be easy – after all, we DO have an ambitious vision…). When it will sound rock solid – that’s when our vision will be really engaging.
- Expressed memorably
Often, ambition-driven and rock solid visions fail to be remembered, because they are expressed in squishy words, blurred sentences or lengthy phrases. The dilution makes the vision lose its power.
An engaging vision is expressed with an unforgettable image or a striking set of words. The best expressed visions are impossible to forget when we’ve heard them. They are associated with a power visual or image, a power motto or statement. When it will be expressed crisply- that’s when our vision will be really engaging.
So, next time you talk to your teams – check how they feel about the vision. Do they consider it an engaging shared vision, or a bland vision shared?
If it’s the latter, you know the 6 conditions to check. Let’s recap: ‘co-creating’, ‘living at all times’, and ‘cascading’ are needed to make it a shared vision. ‘Ambition’, ‘rock solidity’ and ‘memorable expression’ are needed to make it an engaging vision.
If you’re interested to know more about our experience in creating shared visions for companies & teams, don’t hesitate to Contact us.