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.