Chapter 6: If you want to shape a vision, get out your tools

If You Want to Shape a Vision, Get Out Your Tools

In our last conversation, we talked about the absolute need to shape a vision for the future that everyone can agree upon and understand. We talked about needing to be able to truly see that future state so that we’re all sure we’re headed toward the same grassy knoll of successful change.

But that isn’t easy, is it? After all, words like, “We will be a world-class customer service organization” just sound so impressive and inspirational and business-y. Who’d want to muddy them up with more words?

Well, while slogans like that one are fine to put on posters or business cards, they just aren’t specific enough to allow us to chart a course to make them real, and they definitely aren’t specific enough for us to know when they have truly become reality.

So the bad news is you’ve got to get specific. The good news is I’ve got some really simple tools to help you get there.

The first tool is a simple brainstorming framework that helps key stakeholders envision the actions and behaviors that will turn the vision into reality. For simplicity’s sake, I just call it “more of/less of.”

Draw a line down the middle of a flip chart from top to bottom to create two columns. At the top of one column write: “More of.” At the top of the other, write (you guessed it, didn’t you?): “Less of.” Now gather the folks who are going to help you make your change happen and start brainstorming actions and behaviors that you’ll see or hear when the change is successfully completed.

Now, that sounds deceptively easy, but the fact is that we’re all so used to thinking conceptually that it’s sometimes hard to boil our grandiose visions down to mundane, quotidian actions and behaviors. Mark my words: you’ll gather everyone together and ask what actions or behaviors they expect to see more of or less of in the changed world, and they’ll say things like, “Going the extra mile,” or “Accountability,” or “Can-do attitudes.” The trouble is you can’t really see those things very clearly, can you?

To help with this challenge, here’s a good test. If you couldn’t capture the action or behavior with a video camera or a tape recorder (does anyone even have those anymore?), then it doesn’t count, and it doesn’t go on the flip chart. Don’t reject it out of hand, however. Simply ask, “What would that look (or sound) like?” You’ll get there. Allow the group at least 30 minutes for this.

The “more of/less of” brainstorming exercise will take you a long way toward being able to visualize what the world will look like when your change is implemented. When you can picture folks running around your office, acting and behaving in accordance with that big list, you’ll have a great yardstick against which to measure the success of your change effort. But you’ll still need to boil this down into some simple words that everyone can easily communicate and understand. Next time, I’ll give you another simple tool that will get you there.

Eryc Eyl / Freelance Writer and Business Consultant