Creating a Vision Statement: Facilitation Case Study
Creating a vision statement requires vigorous participant input; the more vigorous the input, the greater the degree of buy-in to the vision statement and the greater the likelihood it will be lived, breathed and practiced by the vast majority in your organization.
Situation
As happens in many organization, it had been years – ten years, in this case – since the company’s vision statement had been revisited. In fact, two CEOs had come and gone. One of the best analogies for what was happening came from one of their engineers, who said, “Each and every one of us are flying off on different vectors; no one’s traveling the same route!”
Objective
The CEO wanted to create a Vision Statement that everyone, or at least a vast majority, bought into. She wanted the Vision Statement to be thought of as “our motto”.
Process
We engaged in several steps, including:
- Employee Survey – We distributed and compiled reponses, developing findings
- Focus Groups – We conducted focus groups both within departments and across functions
- Report to Senior Management – We shared our findings with senior management
- Vision Statement Crafted – We facilitated crafting of the Vision Statement with full participation of at least one senior executive from each department.
Results
At the end of the facilitation, our client had their vision statement. We crafted this Vision Statement in 1996; it is still lived, breathed and practiced today, despite the 1996 CEO’s having retired in 2002.
For More Information
If you are interested in exploring how we can help use this facilitation technique to help you create an effective vision statement please contact us at 508-358-8070 or vision@ppiw.com.
