Vision Engagement Takes Time

Vision is a process that requires time and experience to own and understand. A leader’s vision for a team is the result of days and months of activity and contemplation. Through conversation and thought, they finally arrive at an idea that receives sponsorship for the commitment of budget, people and time. The leader distills all of this in to a presentation, to communicate with enthusiasm and intention about the opportunity. If a leader took time to get to that vision, why wouldn’t we expect team members to also need time, too?

The immediate answer is time. There isn’t enough time to let everyone process and arrive on the same page. So, the leader forges ahead and kicks-off the team with the vision, mission, and objectives – the reading of bullet points in a presentation. Invisible to the leader, there are murmurings that the individuals don’t understand the vision -- what they are doing and why they are doing it. Visible to the leader is that some individuals still don’t get the vision – they don’t have the knowledge about how their work affects another, or they are affected by another’s work.

What efficient ways can help a team to envision a version of the leader’s idea with passion and commitment?

Here are a few ideas from my experience with a Fortune 50 team’s effort that created and implemented a software product for managers to learn informally (not in the classroom) from each other:

• Simulate as much of the leader’s experience that shaped the initiative’s idea or concept. For example, schedule as many of the same conversastions with stakeholders, sponsors, customer segments, internal and expert advisors, and support personnel (technology, administrative, finance, etc.).
• Example: Team members spent two weeks in conversations with the sponsor of the project, the program managers who owned and managed the classroom leadership programs, a sample of managers across the enterprise, advisors with expertise in learning and technology, and with internal personnel from finance and technology. At the end of the two weeks, the team made a presentation to the Director about their current direction.

• Promote the team’s effort to create a shared picture that illustrate processes, orient team member’s contributions, and illicit motivating insights. For example, a cause and effect diagram, an interrelationship diagram, a project schedule, a stock-and-flow model, a map, or a 3D model.
• Example: Selected lead team members collaborated with an expert in stock-and-flow modeling that identified a virtuous cycle that reinforced the growth in software users and a vicious cycle that decreased users.  The model gave the team a common orientation for identifying necessary processes to execute the project.

• Provide a shared experience where team members find their collective, future story. For example, sharing stories, team-building events, and field trip excursions.
• Example: After completing a successful beta launch, team members participated in a day-long team activity in order to identify what it would take to execute future releases of the product with more team efficiency and increased software utilization. By the end of the day, the team was expected to write, produce, and perform a 30-minute play, in addition to selling out the house of 100 theater seats. Beyond the interpersonal and intrapersonal learnings, it was surprising to observe that after months and months of working together, that it would take so long to agree and find the common story about their future together.

Vision is an ongoing process owned by both the leader and the team. When leader’s are thoughtful about ways for their team to be as enthusiastic and committed to the busienss idea, extraordinary results follow. Attention to the team’s ownership of the vision ensures creative voice (initiative and expressed ideas), agility (dynamic, flexible action), and accountability (personal and collective responsibility).