Inspiration Phase Begins – Decathlon Vision 2030

On Friday 20th September, the Inspiration phase of Decathlon’s Vision 2030 exercise begins. To mark the occasion we have organised three days of Inspiration to launch the themes that we will explore. Over the next 3 weeks, we invite any interested parties to participate in our three Vision Fridays.

During the three Vision Fridays we will begin to ask probing questions within the scope of our 3 Vision themes, which are :

1. Friday 20th September : The Future of People

2. Friday 27th September : The Future of Sportspeople

3. Friday 4th October :      The Future of Living

These events are open to all, and there are still some spaces left for Vision Fridays 2 and 3. The Events will be live streamed and translated FR<>EN. The videos will be made available after the event for anyone who missed it, and a written recap will also be made available.

You can join in : https://decathlonvisionfridays.splashthat.com/ (I will post the streaming link on my Linked In page on each Friday morning).

So, what's all this for? I have received several questions about how we are building the Vision Process, and seeing that our Vision philosophy is ‘Open to All’, I’d like to share a summary of our journey with everyone here. I’ll break this down into 6 phases :

1.    Building the project and the Core Team

2.    Creating the communities

3.    Inspiration

4.    Exploration

5.    Personal Writing

6.    Co-writing

1.   Building the project: January to July 2019

In my role as Vision Leader I began by asking myself the question, “we did a Vision exercise in 2016, where are we with that?”. So we undertook a 3 month quali and quanti research analysing our Vision 2026 project. This produced a SWOT that inspired me to write what I called, ‘My Vision Manifesto’.

In January 2019, using the studies as a base, I wrote the project that I believed we should be leading, and the project that I wanted to live personally, in service of our purpose. As my co-lead for the project is the company CEO, I exchanged with him, and the project then became ‘Our Vision Manifesto’. In February I met as many opinion leaders (internal and external) as I could to challenge what we had projected, and made adjustments along the way.

On 12th March we held a kick-off meeting in Decathlon Campus, our international HQ. 33 people from different job sectors came to listen and share their opinions. The goals were to outline our main stances for the future Vision 2030 : 'open to all, an organisation from country to city, and more digital process', and gather challenging feedback.

This meeting became the first brick of our Vision Core Team. These are people who have built the framework of the Vision, and the methods and tools. They are not full time on the Vision project, they give a percentage of their time as a resource. There are also 2 external people in the Core Team, and today we are 18. Each person has particular expertise in one or more of the following subjects (facilitation, digital platforms, strategy, organisation, network building, social media, communication, design thinking, process flow).

Between March and July 2019 we began the construction of the process, we tested 3 different digital platforms of collective intelligence (Cap Collectif, Open Source Politics, Bluenove) and we began a regular communication about what we are about to do. We also drew up the framework of the Vision 2030, which I explained in my previous Linked In article.

2.   Creating the network and communities: July -> ongoing

The Vision project is nothing if we don’t have the support of local leaders, and have Vision Relays in place to federate people around the project and get them involved. We therefore need what we call Vision Relays, ideally one in every city/region where we are present. This video explains the role of the Vision Relay :

Training for the Vision Relays begins on October 22nd and will continue until the end of the year. We will deploy trainings in 10 to 12 cities around the world.

 3. Inspiration : September 20th -> ongoing

The goal is to open our minds as to what is going on in the world today, and what possible futures could emerge. It’s a phase of questioning, rather than finding the answers. After all, who knows what will happen in 2030?

Each theme has its own leader, and their role is to build a global community of explorers who are deeply interested in these themes, and will dive into them. It’s a phase of learning and observing, and hopefully we will start to FEEL what possible futures emerge from our present.

4.   Exploration : Janaury 2020 -> end March 2020

From the beginning of 2020, this is the point where we intend to get involved as many people on the Exploration phase. Using the content created in the Inspire phase, we intend to learn, to test and to measure alternative solutions.

All inputs during this phase will be entered into the digital platform of collective intelligence, which will be open to all. Instantaneous translation will mean that anyone can read anything, at anytime, anywhere. Full transparency.

 5.   Personal Writing : end March 2020

This is a key point to our process.

We hear often that true transformation can only happen if we first transform ourselves. A company is simply the sum of its employees. Therefore a moment of personal writing - “what do I want for myself?” – plays a big role here towards projecting oneself into the future, and then to imagine how Decathlon can play a role in the future we want.

6.   Co-Writing : April 2020

In the spring of 2020, using all the inputs generated from the digital platform, Vision Relays, leaders of opinion, the general public and whoever else will come together to co-wrote the Vision 2030 of Decathlon.

Thanks for reading. Sometimes I get asked the question, “why will people from outside the company want to get involved?” It’s a good question, and I don’t have an absolute answer, and that's OK. What I do believe is that we will have a better chance of making sport accessible in 2030, 2050 or 2076, if we open up to our local eco-systems, collectively dream up a world that we want to live in, and work out what role we want to play in that world.

In short, if we want a sustainable sporty future, we must build it together.

#vision2030 #drivingchange #decathlonfrance #openinnovation #collective intelligence #oneblueteam