Visioning: Writing Your Preferred Future
Visioning
Laying out our vision says we believe that tomorrow will be better than today; that if we work together, we can make great things happen.
What is a vision?
Using the definition from Ari Weinzwig’s amazing management principles book Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading Part 1: A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to Building a Great Business, it is a description of success at a particular point in time in the future, described with enough richness and detail it becomes emotionally engaging and meaningful.
Why Should We write a Vision?
Putting our visions in writing and sharing it with others pushes us to be accountable for what we’ve chosen to go after. Once it’s out there for others to see it’s harder to let it go. When we do effective visioning, we’re moving toward the future we want. We will all end up somewhere. Why not decide now where you’d like that to be rather than leave it to chance?
Begin with the End in Mind
Steven Covey describes in his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People as “Beginning with the end in mind.” Visioning is the idea of first figuring out what we want success to look like at a particular point in the future, then working backward to the present.
How to Get Started
As warm-up before you start writing your personal vision, spend five minutes brainstorming a list of things you are proud of. Write down a list of past, positive achievements that seem at least somewhat relevant. This will get your brain into a positive state of mind so you can aim high!
Hot Pen Technique: Writing Without Personal Judgment
It’s time for you to get started on the first draft of your personal vision. The technique that we’ll use for this is called the Hot Pen Technique. For 20 minutes, without stopping, you are just going to write about what we want to do and where we want to be in 5 years.With your pen and paper, start writing down every thought that enters your mind. Write as fast as you can and DON’T STOP - keep the pen moving. Don’t concern yourself with spacing, spelling, punctuation, grammar or sentence structure. Just keep on writing until you can think of nothing else to jot down on this subject.Don’t stop and analyze every paragraph. The quicker you write, the more truth will be in your vision. Remember you can edit later.
So a few guidelines...
Go for greatness! Write your vision for the future as if anything is possible, because it is!
Write from the heart. Place passion, feeling, dreams, and emotion into your vision.
Include anything you want to have happened in those 5 years. Do you want to create a business? Travel, to where? Get married, to whom? Where do you live? How is your health? Include everything you can think of.
Make it personal. Add names, adjectives, places, tastes, smells that will mean something to you.
Don’t get stuck in the “HOW”. Your vision is a vivid description of your preferred future, not the steps you will take to get there. Don’t limit yourself!
Narrow Your Focus
At the end of the day, a vision is a statement of where you want to be. So write your vision in the present tense as if it has already happened. This perspective makes it real and approachable.
A few things to keep in mind when writing your vision:
Be Inspired: To be effective a vision needs to be uplifting and maybe even a bit spiritual. As you write your visions tonight ask yourself… “Does it get you excited about your future?” If it feels so-so then are you really going to be motivated about getting there? If it doesn’t feel at least a little scary then you are holding back.
Be Strategically Sound: You should definitely stretch yourself or it won’t be inspiring, but if there is no chance of getting there then it is just fantasy.
Document It: Writing your vision down and sharing it with others makes it real and holds you accountable to move towards it.
Share It: This is important. Something magical happens when you share your vision with others. People naturally want to help you and they are rooting for you to win. If you are writing a vision for something that involves others (like your DECA chapter or SBE team), then this is a must. It needs to be a vision that’s shared among the team.
How to Apply this to Your Spirit Box
Take your vision planning a step further and apply these tools to your team. Sit down together and each member of your team write down a vision they have for your team’s future. Then have everyone share their vision. Note common goals and trends and use each team member’s vision as a map to write your team vision.
Homework
Write a vision with your team for your SBE using our Vision Guide.
Next week read what you wrote today and write/rewrite
Repeat #2 until you feel good about sharing it with people you trust
Start making ACTION PLANS! What are the first steps you can take towards your vision?