Communicate a Vision

Group Learning Project Plan: Communicate a Vision
Use this learning project plan to define your project, schedule project activities, identify necessary resources, track your progress, and reflect on your project outcomes. Consider adding more or different reflection questions in Part III to fit your project.
Part I. Define your group learning project
Project description:
The Communicate a Vision group learning project provides project participants with an opportunity to practice communicating a vision to stakeholders — a skill essential for a leader of any program or group. Participants leverage key techniques explained in the Leading and Motivating topic such as looking at the situation from the perspective of each of the key stakeholders; identifying what would most energize and inspire them to achieve your desired end-state; and spelling out the benefits of the alternative future in terms of its impact on them.
Project goal(s):
Help team members appreciate the value of effectively communicating a vision to stakeholders, and to practice using techniques, terminology, and concepts that their audiences will easily understand and relate to.
Project participants:
Part II. Plan and track your progress
Project step	Resources needed	Target completion date	Check when completed
1.      Review the section in the Harvard ManageMentor topic Leading and Motivating on “Aligning people through successful communication.”	·     Learn section of the Harvard ManageMentor topic Leading and Motivating	Day 3
2.      Select a vision. For this learning project, you will work in groups of three to communicate a vision to an audience. The vision could be your current group’s vision, the vision for a program you’re working on, or simply something you’re passionate about that requires people to change. In groups of three, select a vision that will be the subject of your communication. Note: More than one group of participants can choose the same subject for their vision communication.	·     Vision statements for the project, program, or initiative you have selected as the subject of your group’s communication	Day 7
3.      Prepare to communicate the vision. In groups of three, prepare for presenting the vision to a group of stakeholders. For the purposes of the learning project, you will communicate your vision to other teams participating in the group learning project. Assume that these other teams are key stakeholders of the vision that must be convinced to support your direction.	·     Learn section of the Leading and Motivating topic ·     Presentation media if necessary	Day 21
4.      Communicate the vision. In groups of three, present your vision to the other learning project participants. After each group presents, other learning project participants should provide feedback regarding: ·         Was the communication energizing and inspiring? ·         Was information, including the benefits, presented clearly? ·         Did the group understand and relate to their audience and the vision’s impact on them? ·         Would you support the vision?		Day 22
5.      Participate in a learning project debrief session as a group to discuss the questions listed in Part III of this tool (see below).	·     Discussion questions found in Part III of this tool	Day 22
Part III. Reflect on your project outcomes
At the conclusion of your group learning project, use the following questions to reflect on your project experience and outcomes. Consider answering the questions individually or with your project team members.
What did you learn as a result of the project?
What were your biggest surprises during, or at the conclusion of, your project?
What were the biggest challenges during the project?
Describe any tangible impacts to the organization or business that your project may have.
Based on your insights gained from the project experience, what will you or your group do differently going forward?
What suggestions or tips would you give others about how to, and how not to, communicate a compelling vision?
Part IV. Share your results
Share your findings with others outside of your group: At the conclusion of the project, consider sharing your lessons learned and project results with others in your organization. For example, you could hold an information-sharing session over lunch or post suggestions on a discussion forum about how to define and communicate a compelling vision in the organization.

Develop a Vision Statement with Your Team

Group Learning Project Plan: Develop a Vision Statement with Your Team
Use this learning project plan to define your project, schedule project activities, identify necessary resources, track your progress, and reflect on your project outcomes. Consider adding more or different reflection questions in Part III to fit your project.
Part I. Define your group learning project
Project description:
The project involves clarifying an effective vision for your unit or department and expressing the vision in a short statement or paragraph.  Project team members will research vision statements created by other companies or departments and, together, complete the Worksheet for Developing a Vision (found in the Tools section of the Leading and Motivating topic). The final outcome of the project will be a refined vision statement that meets all criteria for effectiveness listed in the worksheet.
Project goal(s):
Help team members practice defining and expressing a vision that will inspire everyone in the team to work together in order to achieve the desired future state expressed in the vision.
Project participants:
Part II. Plan and track your progress
Project step	Resources needed	Target completion date	Check when completed
1.      Gather information for the team’s vision. Meet with other team members to decide what information is needed to define a vision for the team. Information may include the organization’s or department’s mission, vision, or strategy; customers’ needs and priorities; and trends in the marketplace or competition. Decide who will gather what information, then have team members obtain the information they’re responsible for collecting.	·     Steps for Formulating a Vision (found in the Steps section of the Harvard ManageMentor topic Leading and Motivating) ·     Part I of the Worksheet for Developing a Vision (found in the Tools section of the Leading and Motivating topic)	Day 7
2.      Craft the team’s vision statement.  Meet with team members to analyze all the information gathered in Step 1. Together, discuss what the analysis suggests about a possible vision for your team. During the meeting, craft a set of sentences or a short paragraph that expresses what you all see as the team’s vision.	·     Part II of the Worksheet for Developing a Vision (found in the Tools section of the Leading and Motivating topic)	Day 21
3.      Evaluate the vision statement’s effectiveness. During the same meeting as step 2, or in a subsequent meeting, determine through consensus how well the vision statement your team has crafted meets the criteria for an effective vision.	·     Characteristics of an effective vision (found in the “Crafting a Vision That Others Will Follow” section of the Leading and Motivating topic) ·     Part III of the Worksheet for Developing a Vision (found in the Tools section of the Leading and Motivating topic)	Day 21
4.      Refine the vision statement as needed. Meet with team members to revise or rewrite the vision statement as necessary to ensure that it meets all the criteria of effectiveness.	·     Part III of the Worksheet for Developing a Vision (found in the Tools section of the Leading and Motivating topic) ·     Poster board or other materials for displaying the vision statement if desired	Day 28
5.      Participate in a project debrief session to: ·         Discuss as a group the questions listed in Part III of this tool (below). ·         Decide what other groups in the organization would benefit from seeing the vision statement produced by the team.	·     Discussion questions found in Part III of this tool	Day 30
Part III. Reflect on your project outcomes
At the conclusion of your group learning project, use the following questions to reflect on your project experience and outcomes.
What did you learn as a result of the project?
What were your biggest surprises during, or at the conclusion of, your project?

What were the biggest challenges during the project?

Describe any tangible impacts that your vision statement had, or may have, on the organization.

Based on your insights gained from the project experience, what will you or your group do differently going forward?

What suggestions or tips would you give others regarding how to define and communicate a compelling vision?

Part IV. Share your results

Share your findings with others outside of your group: At the conclusion of the project, consider sharing your lessons learned and project results with others in your organization. For example, you could hold an information-sharing session over lunch or post suggestions on a discussion forum.

Learning Project Plan Template

Group Learning Project Plan
Use this learning project plan to define your project, schedule project activities, identify necessary resources, track your progress, and reflect on your project outcomes. Consider adding more or different reflection questions in Part III to fit your project.
Part I. Define your group learning project
Project description:
Project goal(s):
Project participants:
Part II. Plan and track your progress
Project step	Resources needed	Target completion date	Check when completed
1.	·
2.	·
3.	·
4.	·
5.	·
Part III. Reflect on your project outcomes
At the conclusion of your group learning project, use the following questions to reflect on your project experience and outcomes. Consider answering the questions individually or with your project team members.
What did you learn as a result of the project?

What were your biggest surprises during, or at the conclusion of, your project?

What were the biggest challenges during the project?

Describe any tangible impacts to the organization or business that your project had, or may have.

Based on your insights gained from the project experience, what will you or your group do differently going forward?

What suggestions or tips would you give to future participants doing the same or similar project?

Part IV. Share your results

Conduct a learning project debrief session: At the conclusion of your project, meet as a group to share project insights from the questions above with other project participants and project sponsors. Share your findings with others outside of your group: At the conclusion of the project, consider sharing your lessons learned and project results with others in your organization. For example, you could hold an information sharing session over lunch or post your findings on a discussion forum.