Lean Quote: 10 Tips for Communicating Vision

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn't come alive until the leader models it."   — John C. Maxwell

When shared, a company vision is the most powerful way to motivate a group of people. It gives your team a common place to strive for. When each person clearly sees that same picture of a better place in their own minds’ eye, each person connects to it and feels that pull of motivation to want to create that place.

10 Tips for Communicating Vision

1. Talk about the vision with excitement and enthusiasm.
2. Tell a story: a story gives context and life to a vision. It m,,akes it memorable and is easier to repeat.
3. Identify influencers. Who are the people in the team whose support for the vision will bring others on board?
4. Communicate one-on-one continually. Personalise the conversation. Listen to feedback. Answer questions, honestly. Let people know the important role they personally play in achieving the vision.
5. Communicate externally and internally. Customers and suppliers who buy into your vision become part of the team. Bring them on board.
6. Walk the talk: what do you do that demonstrates the values and the aims of the vision you have set up for all to believe in?
7. Make sure people have the opportunity to translate the broad goals of the vision into tasks, goals and behaviors that build towards the vision.
8. Share success stories from around the organisation that demonstrate the values and behaviors that will build towards the vision. Recognition is a powerful reward and reinforces the change you want to see happen.
9. Create a feedback loop with staff and customers to let you know whether you remain on track as you move towards the vision.
10. Consistently and continuously articulate the vision.

Sharing your vision is a process. It is not an event or an announcement or a workshop. The leader’s task is to communicate with clearly, consistently and continually. The goal is to make the team care about and genuinely commit to the shared goal. So they have to know about it.

The more widely you have shared the job of creating the vision, the more people will feel invested in its success, and the more advocates you will have to communicate it passionately.