Creating Shared Vision
UW LEAH Seminar
Laura Richardson, MD, MPH
Overview
 Brief presentation on shared vision
 Discussion of vision and self-limiting mental models
 Exercise distinguishing goals and objectives from vision
 Case study discussion
Shared Vision – What is it?
 “a common mental model of the future state of the
team or its tasks that provides the basis for action
within the team” – Pierce & Ensley
 Shared vision:
 Not “individual” vision
 Offers a clear description of a future that everyone wants
to achieve
 Inspires team to “pay the price” and overcome barriers
 Generates energy and successful collaborative change
What shared vision is not
 Strategic planning
 Top down
 Focused on (or limited by)
the here and now
Determine that the thing can and shall be done and
then we shall find the way
Abraham Lincoln
How do you create shared vision
 Start from where you want to go – not where you are
 Communicate your passion (deep caring)
 Provide room for other
people’s visions
 Avoid self-limiting mental
models
Self-limiting mental models
 Internal predetermined hypotheses you have about the
way your world works
 Result in dismissal of possibilities
 Keep you in the here and now (“easy to do”)
The significant problems that we face cannot be
solved by using the same kind of thinking we used
when we created them
Albert Einstein
What are the elements of a good
vision statement
http://www.jhsph.edu/custom/mod_staticvideoplayer/_i
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Vision vs. goals/objectives,
strategic planning, and mission
 http://www.jhsph.edu/custom/mod_staticvideoplayer/
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Summary - Key Points
1. When crafting vision, start from where you
want to go, not the current situation
 A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is
an appeal to our better selves, a call to become
something more. – Rosabeth Moss Kanter
 Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the
ground - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Summary - Key Points
2. Change is costly, the goal of shared
vision is to inspire
 I have a dream… - Martin Luther King
 On every front there are clear answers out there
that can make this country stronger, but we're
going to break through the fear and the
frustration people are feeling. Our job is to make
sure that even as we make progress, that we are
also giving people a sense of hope and vision for
the future. – Barack Obama
Summary - Key Points
3. Shared vision often arises from personal
passion but it is not “top down”
Summary - Key Points
4. Shared vision is not strategic planning
 If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people
together to collect wood and don’t assign them
tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for
the endless immensity of the sea. - Antoine de SaintExupery
 Vision without execution is hallucination. – Thomas Edison
Summary - Key Points
5. Shared vision requires seeing past selflimiting mental models
 To grasp and hold a vision, that is the very essence
of successful leadership – not only on the movie set
where I learned it, but everywhere - Ronald Reagan
 Change will not come if we wait for some other
person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve
been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
– Barack Obama
The future is not some place we are going,
but one we are creating. The paths are not to
be found, but made. And the activity of
making them changes both the maker and the
destination.
John Schaar