A Visualizing Technique For Companies
You’ve probably heard the quote by Lewis Carroll, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” You need to know where you’re going in order to envision a plan for getting there. You also need to communicate your destination with the people in your organization who you depend on to get you where you want to go.
As a business leader, you’ve encountered your share of tools, techniques, and processes for developing your business strategy, but it can be difficult to articulate this to your team to make sure everyone is on the same page. You may have a clear idea for where you want to go, but your team needs to be fully aligned with your vision in order to successfully get your organization from point A to point B. That’s where the painted picture exercise comes in.
The process is really simple. You start by describing at a high level where you want to be in three years, or in another time period if that is more appropriate for your organization. You should spend some time in solitude developing the painted picture before you present it to your team. Make sure you are clear on all the key factors that will indicate success and that you are able to communicate these clearly and concisely with everyone in your organization.
Write your painted picture out in a descriptive format, not in bullet-point form. This will work to engage your team both intellectually and emotionally. Include enough detail that people can see your vision with clarity and have a definite understanding of what success means to you, but not so much that they will be overwhelmed with information. The details about how you are going to get there can be left out because that’s something you’re going to assess quarter-by-quarter and modify accordingly. The goal is to come up with a one-page painted picture narrating what your successful company looks like, acts like, and feels like at a chosen point in time in the future.
The painted picture exercise is a practical tool for sharing your vision with your team. I use it with my Scaling Up clients and with my team at Tulip Media Group to set a collective vision for the future. In the spirit of full transparency, we’ve included our painted picture for Tulip Media Group below. You can use this to draw inspiration for your own painted picture and perhaps even play a role in helping us achieve it.
When you become a Client-Partner of Tulip Media Group, part of your onboarding is to talk about your vision for the company. This helps us tailor our marketing programs to bring you the business that’s going to help get you there. The painted picture process can be a great way for you to outline your own company vision. If you want to learn more about becoming a Client-Partner, visit us at TulipMediaGroup.com to get started.
