In my earlier teams, I was used to working with traditional vision statements, the catchy and multi phrased single sentences. However, I found them confusing and not to serve the purpose. Lately, our team tried out Michael Hyatt’s vision script technique and it was an interesting journey.

Why does your team need a vision?

• Your team should understand their role in the organisation the problem they are tasked at solving. Your team should also know how your organisation or product will look like when your team does an outstanding job.
• Usually, you and your team are too busy in your daily work which automatically incentivises your team to work on the short term gains. This can lead to frustrations and eventually a team which does not understand the WHY behind all the hard work they do. Without a shared goal, all the hard work will go unfocussed and diluted. Having a defined vision will help your team to prioritise work and make better data driven decisions.
• Having a promised land to look forward to makes it motivating to get through hard times. Not every work your team works on will be interesting or challenging. I’m sure all of us have our fair share of mundane work. How can you stay motivated enough to gnaw through this. With a vision, you will be able to pin every mundane work your team has to do to a stepping block which takes you one step closer to the goal.

What is a vision?

• A vision is an attractive, improved and clear vision of how your organisation or your product will look like in the future. Your team should be able to relate to it. You are painting a picture of your future.
• How long into the future should you look at? I suggest 3 years, as anything lower than this is too soon and tend to sound unrealistic. If you also want to focus on short term goals, feel free to split up your vision into two phases.
• Don’t focus on how to achieve the vision. It’s not your job as a team and you’ll be stealing their thunder if you do so. Focus on the WHAT. If you have seen your team getting pulled in wrong directions in the past, explicitly specify what isn’t part of the teams’s forte in the vision.
• A vision is highly optimistic and flirting on the brinks of revolutionary. It’s a moonshot at times.
• It should be in line with your organisation’s vision.
• Does your vision inspire? There are four characteristics to ensure it does.
  • First, it focuses on what isn’t, not what is.
  • Second, it’s exponential, not incremental.
  • Third, it’s risky, not stupid.
  • Fourth, it’s focused on what, not how.

The traditional vision statement

• We tried to build a catchy, single sentence vision statement in an earlier team, and I did not find it useful.
• You spend time debating about individual words in the statement (deduct vs infer vs consolidate) and we are not in the business of building catchy phrases. The goal here to the have the team understand which direction to move.
• Anyone outside the discussion forum fails to grasp the vision. Most harmful when there are new members joining your team and they don’t understand their team’s vision.

Making the picture your own

• When you talk about the vision, tell a story. Talk about topics your team is already work on and how it can evolve. Add images, stories or other graphics to make it interesting.
• The timing on when to talk about vision is also important. Maybe it’ll add to the chaotic storming phase if you talk about team vision in the first few weeks of a new team.
• Make sure your team has read through it and make sure you have a forum to discuss it with your team. Adapt the script with the feedback you get from your team.
• When do you know your team knows about the vision? It’s when you hear people complain that you talk too much about the vision 🙂
• It’s a dynamic world and so should your vision. Be prepared to adapt your teams vision to adapt for changes. Also remember the team changes and you will move on. It will be a totally different team that will take your vision forward.
• The vision should also be aligned with your manager. Highlight how your team’s vision helps the vision of the bigger organisation. This also helps to set the long term expectations for your team.

Building and promoting a vision is just the first step on the long march towards your shiny future. Use the vision as a guiding light to make decision and challenge decisions which makes your team deviate from this.