Do you know where you're going?

Vision 2023

Do you have a clear vision for where your organization is headed? Is it shared with your entire team? I believe, clear purpose, vision, and values are essential to building a healthy, empowered, and fun organizational culture.  

In 2016 (20 years after starting my business), I shared the first 3-year "Vivid Vision" with my team of what I and my partners wanted our Sport & Social Group to grow to feel and be like by the end of 2019.  Three years later it was exciting to see we had accomplished much of what we had set out to and I was ready to share our new Vision for 2022. After sharing with my entire team, the positive energy was palpable - they were excited and bought into helping grow and scale our organization further. Three months later our Vision for 2022 was derailed when the pandemic stopped our operations.  

After what has been a roller coaster of a year - our SSG team did an incredible job of staying true to our core purpose of "connecting people through play" and pivoting with the creation of JAM, and we’ve now connected close to 50,000 participants globally through virtual gameplay in the last year.  

While JAM has been developing out of infancy and into its "toddler years", I’ve spent much of this past year working to re-envision the future of our entire organization. The vision was starting to crystalize in my head and I was making decisions and moving forward with new ideas. Meanwhile, many of my teammates were feeling confused by my actions, as I had not made the time to get the new vision out of my head.  Ooops, quite an oversight considering my big brother (Cameron Herold) wrote a fantastic book on the topic (“Vivid Vision”)!

By January 2021, I realized I needed to share the new vision with our entire team (full-time and part-time) so we could all start "rowing our boat in the same direction" again. Thus two weeks ago, I gave a presentation to our full-time team. I could feel their excitement and buy-in, just as I had back in December 2019. They asked questions, they poked holes and they encouraged me to paint out the picture even more clearly - and to share our Vision 2023 more publicly.  

After taking their feedback and enhancing the vision further, last week, I shared it with about 30 of our part-time JAM team. The entire group felt energized, excited and they also asked great questions seeking further clarity.  

Afterward, I received this amazing note from one of my part-time teammates: “I wanted to say how energizing your presentation on the Vision 2023 was. Thank you for trusting in our PT team to share this with us. I think the growth plan is tangible and exciting. I look forward to growing with JAM and becoming a leader within the company in the future.” Receiving this note was incredibly invigorating and enlightening. It confirmed for me how important it is to share a vision with EVERYONE on our team, (part-time and full-time). In doing so we gained awareness (which we would not have had otherwise) that some of our part-time teammates now see themselves growing with our organization into more full-time roles in the future! And more importantly, they all feel more empowered knowing what a significant part they each play in helping make the growth of our organization happen. 

It feels like we are all back in the same boat, pointed in the same direction again - we are rebuilding and will be stronger together as we keep working hard toward our long-term vision of 1 million people playing!

Have you or has your organization shared a vision for the future of where you’re heading with your entire team? Has having a shared vision help you stay on course?