Clarifying a vision using story

- Remember when Mark Helm share with us about how he took the time to write out a day in the life of his company. He was framing a mental picture so that others could see it the way he sees it. The process is called "Mental Picture Framing" and it begins by thinking about what the organization will look like and what it will feel like. Imagine yourself walking in the front door, out on the plant floor, or whatever part of your organization gives the best representation for the vision. What do you see? Imagine it as if the vision has come to pass. What does it look like? Feel like? What are the employees doing? Now write it all out, read it to yourself and to others, think about it, shape it, until you see it clearly in your own mind's eye. Now, what is this story that you can tell around that picture so that other people can see the picture also? Recently I was working with a group of leaders at an energy company. They wanted to learn how to create a compelling vision. So we asked the to do this process for selling others on the need for a new plant. There were 15 leaders, they were all peers, and they all completed the exercise, and shared their vision with others. Only one person out of 15 really did it well. When he painted the picture through his story, he had everyone's attention. He started with why the community, not the company, needed the new plant. And that this organization was working hard to provide the community all that it needed. He said, "We will put our new plant on the edge of town "and build a park with restaurants and shops around it. "And we will have a daycare center there for the community." He said, "We will be so thoughtful about how this is built "that you will not be able to tell "where our plant stops and the community begins." With his clear picture, he had all of us engaged, capturing both our imaginations and our hearts. That's the power of storytelling. You can do this for your organization. It isn't that leaders can't do this, it's that they don't take the time to paint the picture in the beginning.