See It, Say It, Be It: How to get on board your 2022 vision (and bring your team with you)
Vision boarding isn’t really a thing I have done much of in the past – it always felt a bit woo-woo for me. However, during a brief window of downtime at the top of 2021, I decided that rather than making a New Years resolution, I’d give the vision board a go. So, I put four bits of paper under my kitchen clock and doodled my main goal for the year in the centre. I then wrote some key things that I wanted to be able to do for my family and my business in a circle around this goal. Then, I popped some timelines on it. (At the time, it didn’t really feel like a New Years resolution, but in hindsight, potato potahto.)
The idea behind vision boarding is that if you create a visual representation/reminder of what you want to achieve, it can help with motivation and confidence in attaining those things. By having your goals positioned under your nose, you’re not only owning what you want for yourself, but it’s being constantly reinforced – it’s reinforced when you make the board, it’s reinforced again when you glance at your board, and when others see and comment on it, it’s reinforced again. It might sound a bit woo-woo, yes, but by writing it, seeing it and hearing it, you’re planting it firmly into your subconscious.
So, having worked for me in 2021, I’m planning on bringing this idea of a vision board with me into 2022 – this time, for the business as well.
After a tumultuous couple of years in which we’ve been more disparate than ever, the key for most businesses right now is to realign – to rally around a narrative, set solid foundations and ensure we’re all heading in the same direction. To take the cartographic metaphor further, now is the time to gather the orienteers around the map, decide on the journey, point out the hills and troughs and all agree on how to go about getting to the destination. Then, you’re going to take that map and plaster it up on the walls – so if at any point a hiker gets lost, they can look at the map and be reminded as to where you’ve all agreed you’re headed and how you’re going to get there.
Below are a couple of things I’m going to bring to the team so that we can collectively build our map/vision board – and hopefully get excited about the journey along the way.
Step One: The gathering. Bring everyone together and acknowledge what you’ve been through and where you’re headed.
Step Two: Clarifying your audience. Who really is your customer? Has it changed since the pandemic? Chances are, in some way, yes. Maybe you’re looking at a different slice of the market, or a different target audience because your offering may have changed or the benefits are changing because of pandemic-related limitations.
Step Three: Brand story. Once you’ve clarified your audience, it’s time to see if your brand story needs a tweak and ensure that everyone buys into it. If you didn’t have a brand story, now’s the time to work on one – a solid story creates and fosters ownership, and builds champions within the team to carry this story through. It also helps to ensure that every new person that joins the organisation will be able to speak the same language.
Step Four: Audit. Coming back after a break is the best time to do an audit – fresh eyes are gold for picking up any inconsistencies. This is really more like step 3.5 – when looking at your brand story and how you operate, now’s a great time to take a birds’ eye view of where to focus your efforts. What works, what doesn’t work, and where do you need to triage.
Step Five: Prioritise. Now you’ve figured out what your problems are, you can sort them by urgency and agree as a team on what needs to be fixed before you move any further, or what can be fixed over the long term.
Step Six: Vision Board, baby. Put the key goals on paper and plaster it to the walls. Or if you’re still not sharing actual wallspace, create a desktop background together for everyone to use. Whatever it is, find a way to bring the results from all these steps together in a visual format, so you can all refer to it on a regular basis.
