A Vision Casting event is truly a group effort. Management and Executives share the vision, while those in attendance seeing the vision can choose to accept, embrace and carry that vision forward, or honestly, see it as a myriad of new marching orders. When Big Paper Strategy is involved, the acceptance rate goes way up through a holistic view of the targeted vision.
I had had the opportunity to work with one of Cleveland’s largest companies last month in graphic recording such an event for an internal technical team.
Well before the meeting took place, and with a complete Non-Disclosure Agreement signed, I was provided a 40-page print out of a Power Point Presentation over a lunch meeting. This document had some charts and numbers, but I was more interested in the general directions, the goals, the collaborative components urged between the Introduction (page 2) and the Final Summary (page 43).
In the days before the event, and because of the massive amounts of information to be presented, I read, and re-read, and re-read the presentation. I highlighted items deemed important, sketched conceptual images that would match the vision/messaging.
Finally, I sketched 3 rounds of outlines that I would recreate for the event. What I found very interesting for this particular customer was that how the layers of vision, from individual goals, to collaboration concepts, to efficiencies and technology all folded in on each other- providing an exceptional opportunity to create a cohesive set of Big Paper Images on the day of the event.
This layering and cohesion was not at all visible in the linear presentation, but presented as a whole, was exceptional- and, honestly a great way for those that would be in attendance to accept the vision.
On the big day, at an offsite location on the shores of Lake Erie, I was ready with two large 40″ x 90″ paper panels on easels, a pre-defined color scheme of markers and oil pastels, and my sketch notes.
Once every one arrived, the projector intended to showcase the PowerPoint presentation that I had reviewed… died. While a weakly lit replacement was found, and a few paper copies were shared among the dozens of participants, The Big Paper Canvas was thrust into being the visual star of the show. The pressure was on!
Through 2-3 hours of vision casting, team sharing and lunch, the pre-sketched design was launched onto the full boards along with anecdotes and quotes from the attendance for the required personal touch.
At the end, the technical team was invited to sign their name at the ‘favorite parts’. This was not part of my script and I was eager to see where signatures would be placed.
Signatures went to concepts involving relationships, empathy, collaboration- I was totally amazed to see those signatures on touchy-feely components- especially from a room full of technicians, scientists, and engineers!
Truly, the heart of the vision was captured, and accepted. A good day.
Facilitating a Brainstorming Session
