We’re almost at the end of the year. This time of year always brings me around to some element of reflection on how things have gone, how they are going and the general direction it’s all heading in. Nothing new there then and so I thought I would use this months drop to raise a bit more awareness around this idea of a ‘checking in’.
Closer to the vision?
If you ‘re leading an organisation, a function or a team, you will have most probably articulated a vision or at least held one in your mind around where you would like things to go. This idea of vision tends to be something that is off in the distance and so it’s typically not fully been realised at a point in time.
The main function of having ‘a vision’ for an organisation, function or team is to set the general direction of travel, to ensure our actions take us there. For that reason it would make absolute sense to check in with this direction of travel, reflect back, with the aim to understand a couple of key questions:
1. What has being achieved this past year that has moved us closer to ‘the vision’?
2. How will you celebrate any progress made?
3. What has stopped us from making even more progress? What can you learn?
What’s the focus for next year?
Reflecting back has it’s value but so does looking ahead. After all, this idea of vision is all about moving forward.
It’s highly likely you already have your plans set for next year. All of the strategies you are going to drive. An idea of where the teams will all spend their time. The big question is….
How aligned are all of your identified plans, ideas to the direction that has been set?
How do you know there is aligned when you compare what your plans will really give you to where you want to be?
Sounds obvious, but when you consider this, maybe not so
Shared or dictated?
How any vision has been established and communicated will make a huge difference on how you are able to reflect back on any progress, celebrate this and also look to how you will make progress into next year.
If you have determined the direction and how everyone is going to get there, the chances of interest in this are weakened. People are more likely to go on a journey if it is theirs and so any fully dictated direction without the opportunity to make it more personal, will struggle to gain full commitment.
Imagine asking some of those questions around progress and what has gotten in the way. If people haven’t really clocked on their views on these things will be less valuable as they won’t really understand how best to reflect.
Imagine trying to answer questions around focus for next year without a real sense of direction and what has already been achieved in your own context. Really difficult to bring anything meaningful. Also, why are you asking me this now as you never asked me last time around?
Imagine celebrating progress made against the vision you really do not care about or know little about. Am I celebrating your achievements or are these really mine?
If you have developed a shared vision however, the opposite can be said. You will have the opportunity to ask those questions with a lot more meaning and as such the value you can elicit both in terms of thoughts and actions will be huge. You could have a really positive way to finish off this year and kick off the next one.
Ending the year on a high
If you have something that is shared in place and you haven’t yet considered getting your people around some of those questions mentioned here, what’s stopping you from using that as a basis to create more engagement?
If you’re not in a position to collaboratively do this because there was never a shared sense of direction developed in the first place, don’t despair, what better time to kick off your process for pulling everyone in. Kicking off the creation of a shared vision is a fantastic way to end the year and start the new one.