Why Your Company Should Have a Documented 3-Year Vision
In February 2017, our team sat around the coffee table of our Hawaii Airbnb to have the most important meeting of our entire trip.
It was the final meeting of our annual five-day retreat. We spent that time reviewing wins and challenges from the past year, analyzing our client base to determine our perfect client, and mapping out our OKRs (objectives and key results) for the upcoming year.
This final meeting would see us review our first three-year vivid vision as a team. Every new team member gets a printed copy of this 20-page document. It explains in great detail the exact type of company we will become over the next three years.
The idea for our vivid vision came from author and COO guru Cameron Herold, one of my favorite business leaders. While it’s common for a CEO to share their insights and be in the media, Cameron is one of the few COOs who actively preaches about business from an operations perspective.
After reading about vivid visions in Cameron’s book Double Double in 2016, I set out to create our own. I spent two months developing the vision and really thinking through the type of company we would become within three years. I shared it with several members of our team who helped refine it before finally sending it to print.
Now we review this document as a team every 90 days during company retreats. We read it out loud together, discuss the progress we are making, and what we need to change in order to ensure we achieve the vision.
When we are interviewing prospective team members, we give them a copy so they understand what they’re getting into. I know for a fact this has scared some employees away. Good! The document is meant to be polarizing and it’s better to find out someone isn’t a fit before they join.
The vivid vision document has become critical to our entire operation. Everything we do centers around the words on those pages.
In this post, I’ll cover the following:
- What our vivid vision is
- The benefits of having a vivid vision
- How to create your own vivid vision
Our 2020 Vivid Vision
Before we dive into the benefits and how to develop your own vivid vision, I’ll run through some of the key slides for our 2020 vivid vision that we originally mapped out in 2017. To view a complete copy, click HERE.
Our mission:
Our core values:
Our culture:
Our business model:
Our clients:
Our communities:
Our impact:
Our secret sauce:
Our 2020 objectives:
To view our complete vivid vision, click HERE
Why You Should Have a Vivid Vision
There are too many reasons to list them all, but here are some of the biggest reasons we believe so strongly in the power of vivid visions.
Vivid visions get ideas out of your head.
Entrepreneurs often make the mistake of assuming that everyone on your team knows what you are thinking — I know I did for years. But I’ve learned one critical thing — they don’t! While you might spend all day thinking about your vision, you can’t assume that everyone on your team is reading your mind and knows what your plans are.
I’ve also learned that saying something once isn’t enough for the message to get through. You need to repeat the message over and over again for the ideas to stick, just like in marketing.
Vivid visions guide your tough decisions.
Like all companies, we’ve made our fair share of bad hires. On one occasion, we had issues with a team member who was struggling to live up to our expectations and wasn’t responding to our feedback and mentorship. After letting the issue drag on for a few months, our final decision to let them go came after reading through the culture section of our vivid vision. After a quick read, it became extremely clear that while they were a nice person, they absolutely did not align with our company culture. We let them go the next day.
It also has an impact on our sales process. When we speak with new clients, they are vetting us, but we are also vetting them. We screen all prospective clients based on what we have already identified as our ideal client. For example, if we don’t believe in the problem they are solving (or more importantly, don’t believe they can solve it), we simply won’t work with them.
We also do something that few agencies do: we fire clients. If we feel we are out of alignment or feel our team is being disrespected in any way, the next email the client receives is one from me letting them know we’re parting ways.
Vivid visions rally your team behind something.
Having a documented vision gives your team the opportunity to charge towards challenging goals. At the beginning of every year, I send everyone a long email rant to set the tone for the year. This year's email was titled “Wartime!” because we declared war on our objectives and referenced back to our 2020 vivid vision.
Here’s a small part of that 1,500+ word email rant:
Vivid visions ensure full alignment.
Having a clearly documented vision ensures everyone on your team is rowing in the same direction and working towards the same goal.
Vivid visions guide your Initiatives.
We map out our core objectives and results every quarter. A documented vivid vision lets us filter through initiatives that may seem important but aren't mission-critical.
Vivid visions grant you the power of clarity.
Going through this process is a visualization exercise at its core. It helps you step away from your daily grind to look at your company from a higher level.
How to Develop Your Vivid Vision
When you begin developing your vivid vision, your goal should be to create a three-year plan. Anything longer than that is often too far out, and you end up making stuff up to fill space.
Here’s the process we followed to create our vivid vision:
Step 1: Answer the critical questions.
As you answer these questions, keep in mind that they are meant to be aspirational. It doesn’t need to be a 100% accurate reflection of what your company is today — this is about what it will become in the future.
Here are some questions to guide your planning:
- What is your why?
- What are your core values?
- What is your dream culture?
- Who are your ideal team members?
- Who do you not want on your team?
- What traits do these team members have in common?
- What will be the impact of your organization three years from now?
- Who are your ideal clients?
- Who do you not want as clients?
- What are your three year objectives?
Step 2: Share with your team members.
Share your initial answers with your team. Ask for their feedback and discuss it in detail. You should involve as many members of your team in this process as possible so that everyone has the opportunity to contribute.
Step 3: Finalize and print.
Once you’ve got a finished vivid vision and are ready to commit to making it real over the next three years, send it to a printing company and hand out printed copies to everyone on your team.
Step 4: Review on a regular basis
I review our vivid vision every Sunday as I prepare for the upcoming week. It helps me filter out the tasks that aren't critical to making the vision a reality, and we encourage all team members to do the same. You should also review them together as a team on a quarterly to ensure you make progress.
Step 5: Use to build your team
As you continue to build your team, use the vivid vision to inform new team members on exactly what they’re getting into. Here’s a copy of the email I sent to Dylan who would become our Editor-in-Chief. After every potential team member completes their first interview, they receive a copy of this vision.
Step 6: Execute and make it happen!
Creating this document doesn’t guarantee anything. In order to achieve your vision, you and your team have to come together and execute. With a clearly mapped-out plan for the future, your chances of success are drastically higher.
FLM 2020
On January 1, 2020, we’ll complete our first cycle with a vivid vision. We are working like hell to make that vision a reality, and it comes up regularly in conversations. This is our final year to make the vision happen. In the back of my mind, I am already thinking about what our next three-year vision will be. Stay tuned to see the results : )
If you want to build your own vivid vision, here are three resources that will be helpful:
Double Double by Cameron Herold
Vivid Vision by Cameron Herold
Find Your Why by Simon Sinek