Re: Shared Vision Tough Spots LO638

AlexiaM@aol.com
Sat, 1 Apr 1995 12:35:29 -0500

Replying to LO611 --

Bill,

Great questions. I'd like to respond from my personal experience
participating in shared vision sessions with a dialogue group and with
some corporate sessions. I'll probably confuse the two, so bear with me.

>>Why does this vision stuff drive us nuts? I think we feel that we have
to do this. It's logical to start with vision. Unfortunately, we may not
really be a community of true shared interests, or of collaborators,
first. We may not CARE enough. Our leaders may have such a strong sense
of what they want that the group participants get frustrated attempting to
articulate what works for them. We haven't gotten clear about who we are
and what we want individually.

>If we write a vision, so what? What happens next? I've always felt that
a vision should be few enough words that I can remember them without
referring to a printed statement So: "We will make a difference" is
easier and more profound, to me, than "We provide superior products to
empower employees and cut HR costs, with superior service, while treating
our employees even better than our customers, and while giving to our
community, and not poluting the universe ........, all at a profit"

>Why does it get watered down? Well, it actually just gets washed away if
we haven't had that "aha" type bonding so critical to caring about why we
do what we yearn to do.

>Why don't things happen? If each individual doesn't really care, because
each person didn't step up to join in the community, there's inadequate
commitment.

>Is it really the right thing to do? (When and when not?) I suspect that
with a dialogue group, we start before the individuals are really ready to
commit. In dialogue, there's a lot of questions about why are we doing
this, what value does it have, how can I use it, ..... Maybe the group
has to have some shared learning experience before it works on
vision----like a session where everyone walks away feeling energized by
some breakthrough or some individual sense that their contribution to the
world will be different the next day because of some breakthrough.

>How SHARED does it have to be? The intention of sharing needs to be
there, from the leaders on out.

>Why VISION instead of PURPOSE? Good question. I get these confused too.

>How do we know if we are really DOING it? (measurement). Here's the real
magic, I think. Once we have a shared vision, each individual, or
function, or process group has to translate [on an ongoing basis] what the
vision means in measurable terms. Profit = 20%, Giving to the community =
people or money resources or product or methodology put to some specific
use in the community, etc.

Thanks for asking the question for me to get some personal clarity on this
process.

Alexia Martin
Co-Development International
12950 Saratoga Avenue
Saratoga, CA 95070
408 366-0466
408 366-0474 fax
alexiam@aol.com