One way to create a vision – an imporant component in Enterprise Storytelling

There are, of course, many ways to come up with a vision.

Here is one, which proved to work in a specific case – a municipality that wants to change its IT-operations to a more service-oriented, with all that it implies.

Begin by asking the participants to decide what timeframe they want. Three to five years, five to ten, or what is relevant.

Inspire them to visualize what the future looks like, in present tense, as if they were there. Begin with a story where they approach the city, the buildings, what they see, smell, hear, the people and what they think and feel.

Then, give them direct questions and ask them to fantazise and write down the answers on a piece of paper: What does the organization look like? How is the organization doing? Feeling? How is it staffed? What’s the core competence? Roles? What is the cusomer’s view of the company. The employees? What does the customer relations look like? How do they express their requirements? What does the relationships look like within the company? Prepare questions in advance and ask them anything that is relevant for your particular case.

Switch perspective by asking them to reflect on the fundamental values that led to the above; basic view on human beings, skills, technology, quality, operations, customers, business value etc.

Next, ask them to describe what has been implemented – activities and projects, to bring about the situation today, this prospective future.

Ask them to write down the results, as concrete as possible, in terms of economy, quality and experience. Sum up with a few key words. Can start with:

“X is perceived as …”

“X has become … by …”

“X provides ... that…”

“X helps … by …”

Finally, give the floor to the participants. Ask them to go through and discuss each question. In this way, each have their own idea about the visionary state – and this is where they can meet and create something they together.

This method, in my experience, is a good starting point for further work on Storytelling – you have good ideas about the vision and the shared core values.

Ok, but where does Storytelling come in to this?

To be continued...