A glimpse into our future: A team vision workshop in Paris
Last December, our team gathered in the heart of Paris to close out the year and roll up our sleeves for 2020. We held a day-long Vision Workshop to imagine our future and to shape the direction we want to go and grow in together.
Before we go any further, let me give you a bit of background:
My name is Francesca and I am UX & Process Designer at Goodpatch. I work out of the Paris studio with a small team of international designers, consulting some of the most established companies in the area of mobility and transportation in France.
Beside the more established clients, I also advise young startups to help them define their strategy and move forward with their products. Least but not last, I’m a frequent flyer, traveling primarily to Berlin, where the Goodpatch Europe family is based.
The value of creating a shared vision : past, present and future
Whether you’re an established company or a young startup, having a shared vision is the key to any team overcoming complexity and moving together towards a goal. More than anything - a shared vision, helps create purpose, meanings and connections between all the members of a team and serves as a reflection of the work that has been done and the work that is still to come.
A vision workshop is a reflection on the past, present and future of a team.
In a broader sense, a vision workshop can support a team to align on future objectives and new strategies for business. The most valuable part, however, will always be the interaction among the people participating.
The workshop becomes an opportunity for a team to have an open conversation with space for each individual to speak, and reminds people of their values and talents. It’s an occasion to introduce more open mindedness and inclusiveness to every team.
Finding the right intentions : A workshop for…
I’ve facilitated a number of workshops and each one has its own challenges that need to be understood and framed beforehand. Even before starting to put the pieces of the agenda together, it’s important to have a glimpse inside the company culture, needs and processes. These are personal and specific to each organization .
As a team that often works alongside our clients for long periods of time, the main intention for our team’s vision workshop was to meet and discuss our studio identity and future.
We needed to find our core and what defines us as individuals before we could start to talking future businesses. Based on these intentions, we divided the day in two parts: Us as individuals and the team as a group.
IKIGAI : An exercise to find “your reason for being”
The first thing we did is called “IKIGAI”, an exercise that helps individuals map out their skills and talents.
IKIGAI is a Japanese concept that means “a reason for being”. It is a self-reflection practice that requires you to look at four different aspects: things you love to do (your passion), things you are good at (your vocation), what you can get paid for (your profession), and what the world needs (your mission). Your IKIGAI is the convergence of these four elements.
We divided into groups of two to make our own IKIGAI. We then regrouped and shared our thoughts. It is quite satisfying to see certain activities fit in each of the four blocks and eventually move into the center, becoming your “IKIGAI”.
In the next step, we created one single IKIGAI, merging the most relevant elements of the four circles we created individually.
This circle represents the team’s “reason for being” and combines the talents and skills of each one of us, highlighting all the areas that we can develop in the future.
Understand the context: Parisian design scene
After the IKIGAI exercise, we decided to discuss the Parisian design scene: what are the major trends and where do we see opportunities to grow and expand.
For this we used a simple and straightforward tool called the “Context Map”. We focused on the trends most closely related to the market, competences required and reflected on how design is perceived in the city.
After mapping and merging some of those trends, we identified some areas in the map that could represent an opportunity for us.
We concluded this exercise by writing small statements based on the opportunities we identified in the Context Map and used these statements to move to the next exercise: The three action steps.
Thinking about the future: 3 action steps
The purpose of this exercise is to agree on a vision for the upcoming future and then create a set of action steps towards that vision. It is a great strategy planning tool because it makes change concrete and actionable.
We started by thinking one year ahead and spent time individually, drawing the most desirable future we envisioned for our team. For example: What would we be working on? Where? Which method?
Based on those scenarios, we used post-it notes to write down the concrete steps that we would need to take in order to achieve all of these visions.
We then collected all the post-it notes, clustered the similar ones and put them all on the wall. We ordered the steps from 1 to 3, with step 1 representing the first actions that would need to be taken in order to accomplish our goals.
By the end of the exercise we had a set of clear action points that each of us could work on for the months ahead.
Closing up the day with a secret activity
Understanding how much energy a full day workshop can take, we decided to schedule a fun activity in the city and wanted to try something we have never done before…
A fragrance workshop! We learned about essences, smells and created our own perfume.
As a conclusion
Having a vision workshop and taking the time to reflect was the best way for us to properly close out the year and prepare for the future.
I had the opportunity to spend some meaningful time getting to know the people I work with everyday. We shared a bit about ourselves, our values and what defines us as individuals. This created a stronger connection between us and a more inclusive culture.
On another note, I think it was great for all of us to break away from everyday routines and projects. By the end of the day we had a shared and renewed creative energy.
The Vision Workshop allowed us to find a wonderful balance between abstract activities and actionable ones and explore our individual pursuits, working together to create a common vision so as to align our future interests.
