Craft a shared purpose and vision
In The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, the authors describe purpose as “what the organization is here to do” and vision as “an image of our desired future.” Together, these factors serve to inspire and motivate people—we connect to what we care about. They also orient teams toward creating the future rather than reacting to the present and past.
Why is this important? When teams seek to solve problems, they are generally reacting to a situation they want to change. In many cases, once they’ve put out the immediate “fire,” they revert to the same behavior as before. To make a difference over the long run, it’s often more effective to adopt a creative approach. When you and your team determine what you want to create, you generate a sense of inspiration, motivation, and direction for accomplishing something lasting and new.
The process of working together to draft and redraft a shared purpose and vision ensures alignment between individual and collective aspirations. It also helps build the very skills needed to make progress on complex adaptive challenges. In an article in The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook on building shared vision, Bryan Smith points out that “Every stage of the process should help build both the listening capacity of the top leaders and the leadership capacities of the rest of the organization, so that they can move together to the next stage.”
And if an initiative begins to falter or friction rises on the team, members can refer back to the purpose and vision to restore clarity on what they are trying to achieve together. In this way, purpose and vision can serve as a compass, to help groups regain their sense of direction when they begin to feel lost.
Send us your recommendations for practices and tools.
Creative Tension
Musician and author Robert Fritz’s concept of “structural tension,” also known as “creative tension,” is a valuable tool for moving toward your desired outcome. By being clear about your shared vision—where you want to go together—and keenly aware of your current reality—where you are now—you create a sense of tension that needs resolution. You then create an action plan for moving toward your vision in order to bridge this gap. This technique is based on the creative process, which Fritz views as “history’s most successful process for accomplishment.”
Creative Tension
To Resolve New Year’s Resolutions by Robert Fritz
Appreciative Inquiry
The Center for Appreciative Inquiry describes this approach as follows: “Appreciative Inquiry is a way of being and seeing. It is both a worldview and a process for facilitating positive change in human systems, e.g., organizations, groups, and communities. Its assumption is simple: Every human system has something that works right—things that give it life when it is vital, effective, and successful. AI begins by identifying this positive core and connecting to it in ways the heighten energy, sharpen vision, and inspire action for change.”
Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry
Appreciative Inquiry Video