by Jay W. Vogt

To be published by Nonprofit World, © 2004 Jay W. Vogt

Every organization enters a phase now and then when its future appears hazy. The board and staff lose focus about their direction. You hear people say, “We lack a shared vision.” The leaders know they need to bring people together, but they’re not sure how. They want to talk about the future, but they fear that a “blue sky session,” where anything goes, may seem wildly impractical to some. Yet they need to inspire folks, and they must find common ground. And they have very little time in which to act, and not much money to invest. What do they do?

As a consultant, I am paid to have answers to such questions, and earlier in my career, I had none I really liked. All the tools in my kit took too long, or cost too much, or somehow missed the mark. So I worked with my clients and tapped the best new ideas in my field, and together we invented an answer, which we call “Grounded Visioning.” The process takes about half a day, and though you can easily spend longer, we’ve gotten great results in as little as two hours. It has worked in forums as small as a management team and as large and diverse as a public forum of 125 stakeholders.

For a vision to have staying power, it must be shared. People support what they help create, so for people to support a new vision, they must be involved in its creation. It must be bold enough to inspire, yet practical enough to feel achievable. An inspiring vision of the future that is grounded in what diverse stakeholders believe is possible—that is a “grounded vision.” So how do we do it, and do it fast? We follow six quick steps.

Assemble Your Stakeholders

We start by bringing together everyone who has a stake in the future of the organization—board members, senior staff, and key supporters. For Beth Ann Gerstein, Executive Director of the Society of Arts and Crafts, a venerable century-plus-year-old institution based in Boston, that meant bringing key staff together with the Board of Trustees, the Resource Council, and the Advisory Council—all three bodies including both craft artists and business people. These stakeholders had never met and worked together before, and between them they comprised about forty people.

Ignite Your Spark

Every visioning process needs a spark that ignites people’s passion for what is possible. In Future Search Conferences—a proven meeting method for visioning—we use playful skits in which people enact their desired futures. That works great, but the process takes two and a half days, and many folks don’t have that much time or money.

For our quick spark, we use short appreciative interviews. We ask people, straight out of the gate, to find a partner (preferably someone they don’t know) and ask them four questions, while recording their answers.

• Attraction. What attracted you to this organization and keeps you committed?

• High points. Tell a story about a time when you felt most connected with, committed to, and proud of this organization.

• Dreams. Name three dreams, hopes, and aspirations you have for what this organization can be or do.

• Optimism. Name one reason for optimism that these dreams can come true.

These interviews double as icebreakers, so that by the time they are done, everyone is feeling relaxed and connected. The energy in the room is already moving forward.

Share Best Practices

We ask people to call out what attracted them to this organization, and what keeps them involved. Some of the replies at the Society of Arts and Crafts included:

• Being part of an historical movement — the oldest arts and crafts organization in the country.
• Having a positive impact on the craft community.
• Unique opportunity to be involved with a diverse mix of people and artists.
• Positive attitude of the people involved.

This exercise, though short, reawakens everyone’s commitment to the organization. It helps make one’s connection personal, and one sees generally how that is true for others. It maps the “DNA” of what produces inspired volunteers and staff.

We ask people to share a few stories that they especially liked hearing, or telling, about times where they felt most engaged and committed to the organization. One Society participant recalled creating a Craft Guide, and how the experience of going from nothing to something transformed her personally, was useful to the craft community, and pulled her into the Society as a volunteer for good. Another recalled working on the Marketing Committee, the dedication of this small working group, and how they realized they could be anything they wanted to be and so began to really dream!

After several such stories, themes naturally emerge. These themes map how the organization is when it is at its very best. Some of the Society themes were that:

When we are at our best, we…

• Roll up our sleeves on behalf of the organization in a satisfying, fulfilling way.
• Spark small group action that leads to significant accomplishment.
• Create sharing between patrons, artists, and the public.
• Lead and serve as pioneers in creativity, art, and craft.
• Enjoy endless opportunities to learn something new.

Share Your Dreams

At this point, still early in the process, the energy in the room has already shifted dramatically. People are engaged, proud, and relaxed. Sharing key attractors reawakens commitment. Sharing high points releases extraordinary amounts of positive energy and affection for the one thing everyone in the room has in common—the organization and its mission. Now we are ready to share our dreams with each other.

We ask each individual to write their three dreams on three adhesive notes, come to the front of the room, and read them aloud. By this simple action, everyone takes responsibility for contributing their hopes for the future. Before they sit down, we ask them to post their notes on large sheets of butcher paper. The first one has the easiest job—he or she can post them anywhere. After that, everyone has to decide whether or not their idea echoes an existing one, and if so, they physically place it near by. And so, step by step, with little or no consultant intervention, a shared vision, created by physical clusters of like ideas, begins to emerge. Watching from the audience is like seeing a photograph emerge from its chemical bath. Fuzzy at first, it becomes clearer and clearer with time. It is exciting to watch.

After all the dreams are posted, we review them briefly and make sure they’re all in the right places. For every cluster that still belongs together, we ask the group for a name that summarizes the essence of the shared idea, and add it as a header. After sorting like this with the Society, seventeen themes emerged, among them:

• Secure appropriate facility.
• Network more between crafts organizations.
• Build the brand.
• Support emerging artists.
• Educate the public.

Select the Best

It is hard to get large, diverse groups to reach consensus quickly, but in order to get results fast, we must. So we take a shortcut called “multi-voting.” Every participant gets a supply of adhesive dots, roughly equal in number to one third of their options. So the Society folks, in choosing among seventeen options, got six dots, or votes.

We ask everyone, while still in their seats, to choose which themes in the emerging shared vision seem most compelling and most promising. Then we have everyone come up and vote by placing their dots—everyone at once so as not to influence each other. In just a few short minutes, it is done.

At the Society, the highest votes went to a top tier envisioning:

• Secure appropriate facility.
• Achieve financial security.

The voting revealed a second tier envisioning:

• Educate the public.
• Support emerging artists.
• Support artists.
• Host craft show.
• Build brand.

These results give you a straw poll, not a consensus. But often they are vivid enough to quickly lead to consensus. In the Society’s case, two things jumped off the walls. The idea, tossed about for years, that the Society should be a museum was dead—instantly. There were almost no votes for it. And so the organization was finally able to say “No” to a long-considered strategic direction. At the same time, the votes revealed that many people held a private hope that the organization would one day convene a major crafts fair to raise money, support artists, and build brand. No one really believed others shared this bold vision. Yet when it became apparent that many did, the enthusiasm for it was immediate and palpable.

Plan Next Steps

At this point, if we’re running out of time, we’ll ask for volunteer commitments to explore top priority items at a future date, perhaps in teams. Given more time, we’ll ask interested parties, right then, to form working groups around top priority goals and create action plans on the spot.

For the Society of Arts and Crafts, the idea of hosting a craft fair took off. Less than one year later, the Society premiered CraftBoston, a four-day, juried show of 145 studio artists featuring one-of-a-kind and limited-edition pieces in basketry, ceramics, fiber, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, paper, wood, and other media seen by 5000 people. It not only broke even, but returned a substantial profit. The following year it attracted 160 artists and even more visitors, and the year after 175 artists and yet more visitors, and it is still going strong.

CraftBoston realized many of the stakeholders’ hopes through a stunning synergy:

• Building brand by becoming recognized as “the leading show and exhibition of fine contemporary craft in New England ” and “one of the top craft shows in the United States .”
• Supporting artists and emerging artists through enhanced opportunities for hundreds of artists to show and sell their work, earning up to $55,000 per artist per show.
• Achieving greater financial security by contributing, in 2004, 43% of the Society’s budget and a six-figure net contribution. In fact, adds Beth, “CraftBoston saved us through the recent economic downturn.”
• Educating the public through lectures, tours, and other educational programs.

“This idea is very mission compatible,” concludes Beth. “It’s a complete match with who we are.” And it emerged in three and a half hours, including dinner and a break.

One last thing. You’ll remember we ask four questions in our quick spark interviews. What do we do with the answers to the fourth—the reasons for optimism? In our last few minutes together, with the excitement and anxiety of big dreams still fresh in the air, we end our meeting by asking folks to call out their reasons for optimism that their compelling shared vision can actually come to pass. It’s a final affirmation that their vision is grounded in reality.

A Grounded Vision

A grounded vision is a shared vision of the future that is grounded in the realities of how the organization is when it is at its very best. Stories about high points in people’s experience of the organization take us there, and the sharing of dreams for the organization leads us forward. A grounded vision can be created by groups as large as 125 in half a day or less. The process is engaging, intuitive, and fun, and consistently creates results in record time. We have used it successfully dozens of times. So when you are feeling hazy about your future, don’t despair! Just gather the troops, tell some stories, dream together, and create a grounded vision.

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