Visioning – Create a Powerful Vision That Leads You Or Your Team Far Ahead
By Jan Richards 
Your vision of the future – whether it’s positive or negative – is a much more powerful factor than you might ever guess in helping the shape your future success.
A vision that works motivates the person or group who hold it to take action to make the vision come true, no matter what obstacles they find ahead.
Effective visions are ones that appeal powerfully to both emotions and logic.
Discover, express and focus on a vision of the future that’s clear, positive, compelling. Think of creating your vision as a way to “pre-experience” success, in detail. Think of the vision, itself, as a snapshot or preview of the future you are creating.
Here are tips about how you can create your team or individual vision:
1. Create the time and space for it.
You need time to relax and let ideas flow. That requires time and space away from the pressures of the regular workday. Schedule the time in advance.
Create an environment for the visioning work that’s free of interruptions and enables you or you and your team to think expansively, clearly, honestly, creatively.
If you’re working with a group, engage a good facilitator if there’s no one in your group, presently, who has those skills.
2. Envision a compelling future.
Start by setting a target date by which you hope your vision will be real. Perhaps that’s 5, 10 or more years away. Whatever it is, make it a specific date.
Next, imagine what you will have achieved by this time. Imagine in detail. “Be there now.”
If it is a business vision you are creating imagine what your customers, collaborators, and competitors are saying at this future time about you or your group, your results and how you created them:
- When you see and hear their reactions, what do you like?
- What do you want to change, about what they are saying about you, in that future state?
Now, as you imagine being in this future, imagine how you feel about what you have achieved by this time:
- What do you like best?
- What do you want to add or change?
3. Capture and sort the input to create the vision.
Capture the ideas you’re generating in writing or graphics, whether you’re creating your own vision, or working with a group.
Sort the information in some easy way as you move through the process. You can use mindmaps, clustering techniques, or structured brainstorming exercises.
You can also create a graphic template ahead of time of a metaphor you want to use to catch and organize the ideas that lead to your ultimate vision. For example, some people use a metaphor of taking a journey, mountain climbing, surfing, or building a city. There are many other metaphors you can also use.
4. Refine and post the vision. Then follow up.
Take the visioning work you’ve done, and distill it, whether you’re working on your own, or in a group.
Produce a simple final vision statement or graphic.
Post the vision in a prominent place where you or your team will see it regularly. That may be a physical space, or if you’re working as part of a virtual or dispersed team, post it on an online space you share.
And now I would like to invite you to claim your Free Instant Access to “Firewalking: Leading Teams Successfully Through Uncertain Times” when you visit http://www.jgrichardsresults.com from Jan Richards, J.G. Richards Consulting – Turning Business Goals Into Great Results.
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