3 tips for communicating the vision, values & visible results

Imagine you are a leader. You want your leadership team to communicate what your organisation does – and do it in a succinct way. One approach is to educate people to communicate the vision, values and visible results. (Let’s assume that you are already clear on the values.) Here are three steps you can take to communicate what your organisation does.

1) You can communicate the vision.

Gather your team together and make three flip-charts headed: ‘Vision’, ‘Values’ and ‘Visible Results’. Give each person a pack of Post-It Notes. They are then to write their views on what can go under each of the three headings. Later they will each go to the front and place their relevant Post-Its under the specific headings. To begin with, however, ask them to complete their Post-Its for the individual sections.

Invite people to write a ‘one-liner’ summarising what they believe is – or should be – the vision. This sounds simple, but many organisations find it difficult, because it should crystallise the big ‘What’. So you may want to outline some guidelines. For example, it is: a) To be a one-liner that summarises the vision. b) To be no more than 13 words. c) To set an inspiring tone – the direction – for the organisation. Remind people that, despite their best efforts, it will be impossible to get ‘everything’ into the one-liner. But it should provide a starting point for being able to give examples that bring the vision to life. So invite people to complete the following sentence.

The vision we want to achieve is:

*

2) You can communicate the values.

Invite people to complete their Post-Its for the second part of the exercise. They are to write the values they want employees to follow to achieve the vision. You may have already done considerable work on defining the values – especially in terms of choosing to ‘live the values, rather than just laminate the values’. If so, great. If not, then this may be a good starting point for clarifying the values. Different organisations will, of course, choose different values. One company, for example, settled on theirs being: “Deliver results; Take responsibility; Care for people; Love change.” So invite people to complete the following sentence.

The values we want people to follow to achieve the vision are:

*

*

*

3) You can communicate the visible results.

Invite people to complete their Post-Its for the third part of the exercise. They are to describe specific examples of how employees have actually lived the values and produced visible results. Federal Express, for example, continually highlighted stories of their couriers going that extra mile to deliver exceptional service. So invite people to complete the following sentence.

The specific ways that people have demonstrated
the values and delivered visible results are:

*

*

*

Give people ten minutes to write Post-Its relating to the headings of ‘Vision’, ‘Values’ and ‘Visible Results’. Invite each person to then go up in turn and place their ideas under the respective headings. They are also to explain what they have written. Follow this with a short discussion about any of the points that have been raised. Explain that you will write up the flip charts and also aim:

a) To consider the Post-It Notes relating to the vision – then settle on a specific one-liner that summarises the ‘What’;

b) To meet again with the team and agree on the ‘script’ they can follow to communicate the company’s ‘Vision’, ‘Values’ & ‘Visible Results’;

c) To carry-out a plan for constantly collecting and communicating specific examples of what people are doing to deliver visible results.

This approach sounds simple – and it is – but that does not mean it is easy. The hardest part is often clarifying the vision – the ‘What’. But that is a vital step in defining what the company does. People can then transmit the whole picture by communicating the vision, values and visible results.

3 tips for focusing on your values, vision & visible results

How can you live your values? How can you be true to yourself? How can you live in what the existentialists call ‘good faith’? One approach is to clarify your values, translate these into a clear vision and deliver visible results. Sounds simple in theory, but it can be harder in practice. Let’s explore how you can make this happen.

* You can clarify your values.

Start by tackling the exercise on this theme. Brainstorm the values you believe-in, then put these in order of priority. One person wrote: “The values I believe in are: a) To encourage people; b) To care for the environment; c) To make beautiful things.” Certainly they realised this sounded like standing for ‘motherhood and apple pie’, but the real test was how to follow these ethics in their daily life. So start by completing the following exercise. The tough part comes later.

The values I believe in are:

*

*

*

* You can translate your values into a clear vision.

Take each of the values in turn and convert each one into a tangible vision. Ask yourself: “How can I express this value in my life and work? What might it look like in practice? What is the vision?” The person said:

“The toughest value to follow was ‘caring for the environment’. Starting with my daily habits, I switched the electricity account to a renewable energy provider; invested in solar panelling; bought local produce; stopped buying fruit flown from long distances and travelled more by train, rather than by car. There is much more to do, but I feel more in tune with my values.”

Try tackling the following exercise. Focus on one of your values and translate it into a clear vision. If you wish, you can then follow a similar process with each of your values.

The specific value I want to focus on is:

*

The specific things I can do to translate this value into a clear vision are:

*

*

*

* You can deliver visible results.

“A value is not a value until it is lived.” we are told. So how can you ‘live in good faith’? The true test comes from what people do, not what they say. Samuel and Pearl Oliner studied people who followed their altruistic values to rescue Jews during the Second World War. Having a strong base of ethics and empathy, the ‘rescuers’ saw it as natural for them to help other human beings. They said things like:

“I was always filled with love for everyone, for every creature, for things. I am fused into every object. For me everything is alive … I sensed I had in front of me human beings that were hunted down like wild animals. This aroused a feeling of brotherhood and a desire to help … We had to help these people in order to save them, not because they were Jews, but because they were persecuted human beings who needed help.”

Few of us will be tested to that degree: so how can you follow your beliefs in the future? Looking at the value you chose to convert into a clear vision, try completing the final exercise.

The specific things I can do to translate this vision into visible results are:

*

*

*

Some people are true to their values. Some try to justify what they are doing, even though it is against their values. Every day is an opportunity for each of us to live in good faith.