I wanted to continue my thoughts on creating and sharing a business or company vision.
A vision, as noted in my other post, and sharing your vision and making it clear and transparent is a key ingredient to its success.
To share it and make it clear and transparent, here are some of the things I have done to inspire my shared vision.
• Every year I assess and analyze what we accomplished the previous year and create an executive summary and share with staff and company stakeholders.
• Then I look at the outcomes and look for what gaps remain as well as what I feel we need to create as goals and create a new vision.
• This year, based on our current vision, our team motto is “Higher Achievement”. Last year was “One Extra Degree”. One extra degree was about going one small step further than they did before. The responses from our customers have been phenomenal. This year “Higher Achievement” is to build off the small extra steps or measures from last year and take them to the next level. It is a little more challenging, but the results and responses have been overwhelmingly positive.
• I then provide details of the vision and how we can get there – the goals and objectives, both strategic and tactical.
• Part of my vision is to not only have a year over year vision, but also include a five-year rolling vision and plan that gets updated and slightly modified each year. This provides the team a long-term plan they can hold on to and work towards as they plan and strategize in their own work areas. One of the keys is to parallel my vision with the goals and objectives of the business. We must all be working towards the same company goal.
During the process of creating a shared vision, I open it to my staff for feedback and suggestions as I want their buy-in and ownership.
I also bring in other key stakeholders, such as other directors or leaders, so they can offer their support and reinforcement of the outcomes or results of the shared vision.
To help reinforce and stay on track with the vision, each month during staff meetings we update the team on the status of our goals and where we are and how we are doing on the vision and all of its components.
Remember:
Vision is what you want IT to look like.
Goals are tasks to GET you there
Please comment or offer feedback, they are always encouraged and welcomed.
I hope you enjoy the experience of creating a shared vision and realize how it helps your team, business or organization.