Tag:

vision

Reflect on Shared Vision

by IPowerIdeas March 24, 2018

This will be the third post regarding shared visions.

This post I wanted to reflect on an inspired shared vision

Part of my reflecting on a shared vision is searching for opportunities by seizing the initiative and by looking outward for innovative ways to improve.

Such as:

• Listen to own staff, see how they want to hear and learn about the vision (verbally, visually, project or task based learning). This is important as we all interpret and process information in different ways. I got into this in more detail in my post about Reading People. It is also a key point brought out in ITIL – he is more information about it on the Axelos site.

• Talk and listen to other leaders in organization – gleam what has and has not worked from them (learn and grow from errors and successes)

• Take classes and read leadership books and take away things you want to try and be innovative. Some of the books that have really helped me are in my books forum.

• Fun team building exercises. These provide to be helpful and fun if done right. Having a well-thought out team building exercise can be a lot of fun and then having a well-prepared message can leave lasting memories and thoughts. I also always ask what can we learn from this experience (facilitate consistent and small wins)

Here are some other ideas I have learned about that I will incorporate and I offer them as ideas for you:

• Let one idea grow from another one. This has helped me many times in the past and why I firmly believe in meetings where people can open up and share ideas – true brain-storming. An example that I heard at a recent workshop was someone had received a printed receipt from the sales person who was out on the floor interacting with the customer at an Apple store which then triggered a discussion of this employee and his team at the DMV on how to get people who are waiting in line and how to process their requests at the DMV faster so all the customers had to do was pay at the counter.

• Another example and one that makes me think of Scrum and the very quick morning meetings was what someone called “Morning Huddle”. No one likes meetings that go on and on. Meetings should be quick and to the point. They should really be swift, even just 5 minutes. They should have clear and simple agenda and goals with clear action items that are summarized at the end of the meeting so everyone is clear on what needs to be done. But the morning huddle was a great way to get quick and easy answers, updates, and collaborate.

I encourage you to experiment and take some calculated risks and constantly generate small wins and learning from these experiences.

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Leadership

Inspire a Shared Vision

by IPowerIdeas March 23, 2018

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.

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Leadership

Creating a Shared Vision

by IPowerIdeas March 21, 2018

I was recently in a workshop and we were talking about creating a shared vision. We know as leaders having a clear vision is important and share that with your team.

From that discussion and collaboration, a couple questions came out of it and I felt they would be helpful as you think about creating your vision, sharing your vision, and carrying out your vision.

How do you collaborate and build a shared vision?
What skills and knowledge do you incorporate into your vision and how do you evaluate these skills?

My thoughts are:
One of the ways I like to collaborate is semi-informal sessions where stakeholders can come together to discuss the various topics presented to the team. Then we brainstorm (truly brainstorm) and come up with the main points we agree to and we create a shared vision. Conducting the sessions in this way, we can hear each other’s ideas and goals and come together to incorporate them into a shared and focused vision as well as having buy-in and ownership by all stakeholders. With buy-in and ownership from key leadership, we significantly increase the success of our collaborative vision through our joint and various processes.

As a leader you can provide the foundation to provide a successful building and sharing of a meaningful vision. You can also provide a wide and narrow focused view to help look at topics from different angles and depths to ensure you really explore the team’s thoughts and thought processes to help ensure you come up with the best possible vision and ways to implement it to reach a successful outcome.

I utilize the teams around me for inspiration along with my own skills and knowledge to help me communicate to all stakeholders in a clear and concise manner. I consistently provide updates and feedback to comments to help keep the vision on track as well as any adjustments that might need to be made can be executed in a methodical and precise way. The feedback and comments, coupled with successes and any areas of opportunities from others, helps me keep focus as well as an opportunity to evaluate my own skills to learn and grow from all these experiences.

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality"

Warren Bennis

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