Inspiring a Vision

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Note: This article is updated at How To Inspire a Vision.

One of my mentees was looking for ways to grow her prowess in “Inspiring a Vision.”

Here are some of the ways I shared with her so far:

  • Future Picture - One of the best ways that the military uses to create a shared vision rapidly and communicate it down the line is “Future Picture”  (See How To Paint a Future Picture.)

The key with vision is, when possible –

  1. Draw your vision – make it a simple picture
  2. Use metaphors – metaphors are the fastest way to share an idea
  3. Paint the story - what’s the current state, what’s the future state
  4. Paint the ecosystem – who are the players in the system, what are the levers, what are the inputs/outputs
  5. Paint the story over time … how does time change the vision … and chunk up the vision into 6 month, 1 year, 3 year, five year

And, a powerful tool we use at Microsoft is a Vision / Scope document.