How do you craft a vision statement that inspires and aligns your team?

A strong why gets you through moments when you don't know how. It is the foundation for every move you make going forward. Without it, you can't go far. With it, you are unstoppable.

I offer one more essential question: What would having that vision fully manifested in your life do for you personally? (repeat this question and answer until you feel inspired) At the heading of your written vision add this statement for the best results: This or Something better For my Highest Good and the Highest Good of all Concerned.

Connecting to values and purpose is SO important! What compels you to do what you do? People need to feel connected to purpose and feel like the work they are doing, is somehow making a difference. Find the inspirational, aspirational, altruistic motivation - that’s your secret ingredient.

“All of us are better than one of us”. Our vision for our crew (our people) our clients , and the world. Live the vision and it not only comes to life internally but externally. Bottom line it is authentic.

Separate your mission from your vision. The mission answers WHY you exist and WHO you serve. ("XYZ exists to (verb)..."). The vision answers the question -- WHAT changes in your sphere of influence (WHERE) WHEN you achieve your mission? Support both of these elements with a statement of your values, which describe HOW you work with your stakeholders, partners, clients. employees, and others. Mission and values should be fairly static, while vision will be somewhat dynamic with each iteration of your long-range strategic plan.

Check to see if WHAT you are creating brings you joy, inner peace and full-filment. Starting with a state of being that is heart centered brings naturally WHAT is needed.

The what, why and how a critical, but for a team or organization, these should be a shared vision statement, rather than one written by an individual you or "leader." A shared vision and mission become the glue that provide clarity and focus, especially during challenging periods. This is especially important in mission driven organizations including CBOs, (statutory) government programs.

The most important skill in crafting the actionable HOW is deep listening. This is applied both internally and with others. Checking your perceptions with yourself and others is essential to bringing forward consensus internally and externally that you can move on. AN attitude of gratitude is a great cap stone for each step of your HOW. BE honest with yourself about your agendas. They may creep in as saboteurs. Often there is a hidden message there that is valuable however, dig for it

I’ve crafted team visions many times and find that co-creation and early socialization are key components of the process. I set aside 2 separate workshops of 90-min each to ideate via various design thinking activities on the below framing of vision: A vision statement focuses on tomorrow and what the team wants to become or help the organization to become. It is centrally concerned with “Why?”. Vision statement questions most often look like: -What are our hopes and dreams? -What problem are we solving for the greater good? -Who and what are we inspiring to influence or change?

In my experience, the most compelling and galvanizing vision statements are clear and concise. You need it to be so simple to remember that all team members can recite it without much effort. If you get this right, every single employee becomes a brand advocate.

We are easily and successfully investing in Win- Wins while leading fit and fulfilling lives. We seek and support the highest mutually beneficial intentions and results. We honor diversity and agree to disagree for the highest good of all.

I would add, though it should be implied, that the feedback audience should be one that is impartial to you, ensuring you get genuine feedback. Also, acknowledge the feedback. Listening and incorporating is great but actually dig into the feedback too and understand each element of it.

I’ll add to really help you optimize feedback, review it with a mind free of bias. It can be difficult especially if feedback is negative, but better you work on that during your draft than later

Your vision statement should also be easy to understand. Avoid jargon and keep it simple yet inspiring. Try to capture the essence of your company in a few words or a short phrase.

When Vision, Mission, Values and Goals are clear, meaningful, inspiring, aligned AND each member of the team knows with clarity what that means in terms of their contributions this increases the chance the vision, mission and values will become integrated into the company culture. It's also important to reinforce the integration of the vision, mission and values through examples and celebrations of how an individual or team embodied them and fine tuning how to embody them when a particular behavior/performance does not align with them. When challenges rise in an organization, use the vision to evaluate next steps.

In order for a vision statement to inspire and align a team, the team must be involved with the vision statement from the bottom-up. The easiest questions to ask are the "What" and the "How", however; the most important question to ask is What If? This question inspires and aligns a team. Leaders Inspire People; People Motivate Themselves! https://inspireimagineinnovate.com/institute-of-inspired-leadership/

A technique I commonly used in the military was "Walking the floors." It is a valuable practice for leaders in the process of creating and refining their organization's vision. By engaging with employees, leaders can gain a deeper understanding of their team members' perspectives, aspirations, and challenges. This firsthand knowledge can then be used to inform the development of a vision that resonates with everyone within the organization. This is especially helpful when you’re delivering the inspiring speech about your vision when you can talk about chain in the production shop and how she emanates quality X, which is going to get us to destination Y. The worst thing a leader can do is put up slides with words and numbers.

Search for some examples of vision statements that other organizations have created to find inspiration yourself. They come in a wide variety of types from a wide variety of sources. For example, some consider the Preamble to the United States Constitution to be a great, time-tested example of a statement of a team defining its purpose - "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

In my opinion, when we turn a vision into a "statement" using words, some of its essence is lost. This is because words can be limiting and have the potential to undermine the spirit of the vision. To avoid this, it would be beneficial to seek alternative methods of expressing the vision, instead of solely relying on words.