ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER!
THE POWER OF SHARED VISION
2025 is here. Depending on who you are, a myriad of emotions define your new year. In my Arvada Tuesday Leads Luncheon Group of small business leaders there is hope. The courage of the small businessman is incredible and the foundation rock of our country. Supporting one another to have a successful business is a passion we bring to each Tuesday luncheon.
What will drive success?
Prior to leading my own small business for the past two decades, my career was as a high school principal in Texas and Michigan.
My energy tool in both careers has been building the power of Shared Vision.
Building Shared Visions have brought Bill Martin & Associates global acclaim. Our Shared Vision Process is unique. It ensures every voice in a company is heard with respect, transparency. Our consensus building tools are simple and elegant.
Most recently, in Arvada, two different organizations used our tools to build Shard Visions: The Arvada Historical Society and Warren Tech Career and Technology Center. Listen to their voices:
“I appreciated your knowledge of systems and processes and found these two days very rich in efficiencies and “doing the work.” I loved the storytelling! Thank you for sharing all of your personal experiences. They made the sessions so rich and relatable.”
“I enjoyed these two days. You took something that was complicated and made it simple ensuring that everyone’s voice was heard. I am stealing the “no discussion” rule to brainstorming. Thank you for sharing with us!”
Does your company have a Shared Vision? How important is your company’s Shared Vision to you? Your answer to these questions are seminal to how much success the new year will bring.
If you don’t have a Shared Vision, we should talk!
The research on the power of Shared Vision is clear:
Peter Senge (Fifth Discipline, 1990 NY: Currency)
“A Shared Vision is…a force in people’s hearts, a force of impressive power…It is palpable. People begin to see it as if it exists. Few, if any, forces in human affairs are as powerful as shared vision.”
Victor Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning, 1984 Touchstone)
“It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future – sub specie aeternitatis. And this is his salvation in the most difficult moments of his existence.”
Kouzes and Posner (The Leadership Challenge, 2012 Jossey-Bass)
“The critical point is that a vision articulates a view of a realistic, credible, attractive future for the organization, a condition that is better in some important ways than what exists now.”
Joel Barker (Video – The Business of Paradigms 1990)
Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.”
A company’s Shared Vision is an image of their desired future. Shared Visions are exhilarating. They create the spark and excitement allowing ordinary people to bond together to create extraordinary greatness. It is a picture of the future you set to create together. A statement of “our vision” shows where we want to go, and what we will be like when we get there.
It is clear that building Shared Vision must be seen as a central element of the daily work of leaders.
Shared Visions allow your company countless opportunities:
- They allow for both autonomy and interdependence by identifying the actions you would all take together, moving in the same direction at the same time, but honoring everyone’s autonomy in many areas.
- They gave you ownership of our own future through our own research and consensus decision-making.
- They identify your Core Values – the values, beliefs, and assumptions everyone will live and behave by to be successful.
- They protected your resources If an initiative will not help move the Shared Vision forward you do not waste time on it.
- They protected your money. If the spending doesn’t relate to moving your Shared Vision forward, you don’t spend it.
- They gave you more time and energy. If an activity does not move your Shared Vision forward, you don’t waste time or energy on it.
- They give you the right people. You hire people based on their values and passion to help move the shared vision forward.
Where is your Shared Vision today in your list of priorities? Does it drive every decision you make? Does its language determine how you speak to someone? Does it control how you spend your money? Is it the benchmark by which you measure whether something comes into your business or not? Does it determine who you hire? Does it determine how your company implements new regulations and laws?
We are ready and willing to support you in building a Shared Vision to ignite your business success into the new year and beyond.
Happy New Year!
Fondly,
Bill