What methods can you use to help a group develop a shared vision during a facilitation session?

Asking open ended questions is great advice. The question then is the extent to which people feel comfortable answering those questions in a group setting. The group coach may need to pay attention to levels of trust, team dynamics, and processes that groups may deploy to tale ownership of both.

Creating a shared vision during a facilitation session is a crucial step for aligning a group's goals and objectives. In my experience, I've found that encouraging participants to brainstorm their ideas and aspirations in thought and writing related to the topic is an excellent technique to use when starting the session. The goal is to use techniques such as mind mapping to gather a wide range of ideas. To further support the brainstorming sessions, visual aids, such as diagrams or large sticky notes around the space, will help participants see and articulate their vision more clearly.

Everyone has a story to tell. That story may be specifically business related or it may be a personal story. Asking people, for example, to share from a personal perspective how they feel connected to the work of a team or organisation may led to a more meaningful conversation.

Dreams, Metaphors and Arts (visual, audible) are all contributing to how people relate to their reality and aspirations. Opening safe spaces for the team to envision through their inspired arts, and vivid dreams, where they can just express freely what they think is contextually related to who they want the organization to be, and what they aspire for its impact on the world, or collective image, or energy that it brings.. will unlock the door for innovations and creativity that it will inspire the growth of the vision, and seeing potential directions, as well as potential areas of conflict in vision, that will yield to growth and perpetuity. Mastering the art of inviting participants to add their inputs, is a great addition to the process.

I have often used mechanisms to go beyond the individual subconscious through building models - Lego Serious Play is particularly useful to help people first expand and then elaborate on their personal visions. It is critical to give everyone their voice, and a process such as simple model building using a tool just about everyone can use is very effective at this. The next stage is for the group to then use their individual models to build the collective vision. Without the first step, I have often seen that people have difficulty in articulating how they personally fit in and how creating the collective will help them as individuals. Although not quite as effective for me, I have also used photo-language images in a similar process.