Writing a Team Vision – One key to creating a high performing team in an Agile environment

Successful companies understand the importance of having a shared vision with their employees, each one has it visible in every presentation and clearly displayed across their hallways. This helps propel the organization to see what the future could look.

I’ve always felt that connection with my employers, so when I decided to do it as a Scrum Master it made perfect sense for us to document a vision. What better way than to connect more as to why we come together as a team to create meaningful work. The steps we took were simple, but also required us to dig deep to understand each other and ultimately what the business wanted.

So, where do you start?

Be clear with each other about what you want to achieve. Remember that the vision you come up with is going to be your destination. It’s a snapshot of the future you will be creating.

• Create time and space for it. The team needs to be in an environment where they can relax and let their ideas flow. The time should be free of interruptions so the team can think expansively and honestly.
• Ask the right questions to help facilitate and engage the team. As a scrum master or coach, it’s most important role to capture the ideas that are flowing. However, it’s also the role to ask the right questions to help them understand the why.

One example is to use a board and draw one vertical line down the middle to make two columns. One column represented what the team felt they were “being” the second column represented the “impact” the team wanted to make. This helps the team interpret what their customers may be saying about them now and in the future.

• Sort the team’s input to create a shared vision. Ask the team to start to fill in the blanks to how a vision statement would start:

“We are… (who are we being?) so that (What impact do we want to create?)”

This helps the team determine what resonates with them the most to complete the sentence and produce their initial vision statement.

• Post the vision. Refine. Follow Up. Take what the team has done and instill. Read it at the daily stand up every morning, kick it off with at the Sprint demo to customers. Most importantly, have it visible so the team can see it every day. It’s important to revisit the vision and refine it as the team evolves. Being vision led helps teams stay on track and be pulled back if they’re going off course.

Doing this exercise with my team was amazing. I felt the energy it created, and we felt a shared purpose.

I’m curious to know if anyone has ever tried writing a team vision and has used a different approach. What has worked?