Creating a shared vision
Let’s start with an example.
Think about a rose, the last one that you had on your hands. Try to recreate that image and please imagine how would you paint it.
- On a bouquet?
- A single rose, with lace?
- Was it in the garden?
- You name it
- …
If you invite different people to draw a rose you will see how everyone has a different answer as they apply their own experience. In some contexts, it generates amazing insights while in the business transformation process it may generate some problems.
Following the example: Everyone whats to take the company to build “THEIR rose, each one, their own.”
Human-centered design methodologies help teams to build that share vision from day one. When you build a cross-functional team, focus on solving a customer problem you manage to create that common goal or focus that generates commitment among the team. The theory is great as long as the Business Owner communicates the problem properly.
Today I want to share an exercise that I use with 90 Days during Kick-Off meetings to highlight the need for validation and co-creation among teams.
- The exercise only takes 2 minutes
- Compatible Online / Offline
- Good for teams from 3 or more (I have run this exercise with teams of 65 people)
Preparation:
- 1 post-it per participant (any paper works)
- Pen or Pencil but in any case something that can be seen from the distance
- A clock
- 1 volunteer that does not want to be one ;) Normally the senior profile on the meeting or the one that does not believe in this.
- A pretty hard image to describe. I normally use this one that I got from a coaching program at EOI Business School
Running the exercise:
- Explain to every participant that the volunteer is going to describe an image and that they all shall draw it.
- Mark that they will have only one minute
- Give the volunteer the image (no one else should see it)
- Ask the volunteer straight away to describe the image
- Start the clock
- When 30 seconds have passed push the team!
- When the time has passed invite the participants to share the images on a wall or in front of the screen.
- Make a screenshot or a photo.
What have we accomplished with that
- As a warm-up, you have managed to energize the meeting
- The volunteer has seen how communication is hard and not always is well understood. That normally helps the team to lower resistance against co-creation
- The team will have experienced the importance of co-creation during the research process as they would have experience visually the impact of not having a shared vision.
Closure:
Digital transformation depends totally on the implication, commitment, and alignment of the different teams. Spending some time coaching the teams truly helps moving faster and create a sustainable change.
