Navigating Your Team Toward a Common Vision
Helene Cho, Synergy Consulting and Training
In his famous 1963 speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. said “I have a dream.” He did not say “I have a strategic vision.” In creating an effective vision statement, the language you use matters.
Co-creating a vision for your team
Bottom lines, profitability, fundraising, and expense control are important of course, but they do not “move” people or generate passion. They are side effects of doing the “right” things: Treating your employees well, providing excellent customer service, building quality products and services, being the best at what you do.
How can organizational leaders create a vision that inspires their teams?
- Make it personal and therefore speak to the heart, not just the head.
- Keep it elegantly simple, concise, and relatable.
- Use vivid imagery and poetry by doing your research; stay away from “business” language like “fundraising,” “stakeholders, “strategies,” or “profit margin.”
- Appeal to the “better angels” of our human nature.
- Create positive tension between the future vision and the present.
An organizational vision by its very nature is not about analysis, logic, reason, and data.
It is about intuition, inspiration, imagery and yes, the “big picture” — the real big picture of how your organization contributes to your community and the world at large.
Examining the UW’s Vision Statement
Let’s look at the UW’s own declaration of its vision:
The University of Washington educates a diverse student body to become responsible global citizens and future leaders through a challenging learning environment informed by cutting-edge scholarship.
Discovery is at the heart of our university.
We discover timely solutions to the world’s most complex problems and enrich the lives of people throughout our community, the state of Washington, the nation and the world.
Do you find this vision inspiring?
Is it concise?
Is it a big enough vision?
For me, the vision meets all those criteria.
Now, does it align with your team’s values, interests and dreams? That might be a harder question for individuals across the University to answer, which is where a team vision comes in.
Value of a team vision
Leaders sometimes do not see the value of having a vision statement for their own group. They may regard it as unnecessary or idealistic. Think of a vision statement as the North Star. We are living and working in a time of major upheavals. As we go through constant changes fueled by technology, globalization, and environmental factors, how will we stay focused and inspired?
What will guide us through the dark nights of challenges? I believe that both leaders and team members benefit from looking up at the sky and seeing a light that can guide us in the right direction. Every team needs a vision to work towards. It is the future pulling you forward to a better world.
Your team vision
The University and its vision are big, so it's important for your team or department to have its own special vision of how it directly contributes.
Here is one example of from the Office of Sponsored Programs, which is part of the UW Office of Research:
"Vision: We are leaders in sponsored program administration. We strive to provide the highest level of professionalism and expertise to support and promote a world-class research environment."
I find this statement inspirational yet succinct. It also champions the particular work performed by this office.
There are different ways of creating a team vision:
- The leader can write it and share it with the team.
- The leadership team can write it and share it with the team.
- Everyone on the team can have some input into writing the vision.
My recommendation would be the third way. When everyone on the team has a voice in creating the shared vision, employees have more ownership.
Co-creating a vision is not a strength for all leaders. Some leaders are more comfortable in the world of numbers, logic, analysis, and the practical. However, if you make it a team effort and maximize the strengths of some personality types that are more inclined and skilled in this area, it will make it a stronger vision, like many fibers knitting together to make a rich tapestry.
Here are a few things to consider:
- Create your team or department’s vision statement in a collaborative way, making sure that every team member contributes to it. As a leader, write out your own vision and share it with your group. That may be the beginning of your team’s discussion.
- Connect your organizational vision with employees’ values, hopes, and dreams for the future.
- Consider getting a group facilitator to help you and the team create your team vision.
Making the vision a reality
As important as it is to co-create an inspiring vision with your employees, it is all for naught if it is framed, posted, and then forgotten. Employees have understandably developed a level of cynicism about organizational visions being created and used mostly as a marketing strategy, not implemented internally to make actual progress.
The vision statement needs to become a living breathing presence in the team. There are many ways to make sure this happens:
- Take turns in reading the vision statement before a regularly scheduled team meeting and have one or two employees speak up about a manifestation of the vision.
- Visual imagery can be more powerful than just words. Create a board where employees can post images and pictures of what the vision means to them as well as real life results.
- Have one person on the team who is the keeper of the vision, like the Olympic flame. She or he can come up with different ideas of how to continue to “feed” the light.
- Celebrate small steps to the vision’s “promised land.”
The vision may never be realized completely, but that is not the point. The vision may change, and that is okay. An organizational vision should be aspirational and, by its nature, will evolve over time.
Conclusion
Back to Martin Luther King, Jr. In his speech, he said:
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
He didn’t just have a dream. He spelled out exactly what the realized vision would look like in reality.
Once you and your team co-create your vision, you need to be clear what it looks like in your everyday work life. What are the values that are needed to realize the vision? How are those values demonstrated in everyday behavior?
As soon as your team has an agreed-upon vision of the future they want, they can begin the work of making it happen with renewed vigor and hope.
An experienced coach, consultant, and facilitator, Helene Cho enjoys working with individuals and organizations to maximize their performance and success. Helene is a member of the University Consulting Alliance, and you can reach her through the Alliance at alliance@uw.edu.
