Vision Planning Step 2 – What Does the Ideal Look Like? 
The heart of the session is next. Prior to facilitating your team through this step, briefly review with them some elements that are already complete:
- The purposes for this BAM project
- The mission – the statement referring to the work that the BAM will engage in
- The values – the list constructed in the previous step
Now you begin the work to examine what the "ideal" world would look like for this BAM.
1. Have your team members work independently for 10-20 minutes, developing a list of items that describe their "ideal" picture of the future for this project and team. Encourage them to list as many ideas as possible. Allow them to walk around, go outside, or whatever might aid their creativity, but remind them to work individually on this step of the process.
2. After the allowed time, have each member flag the 3 or 4 most important items on his/her list. Ask them to record each item on a separate index card or small piece of paper. Large post-it notes work very well. (If you have a very small team, you might increase the number of items each person can select by another 1-2.)
3. Have each member present/discuss each of their cards, and why they are ideal, and important.
If a following presenter has selected the same idea that someone else has presented, that is fine. He or she can select another item from the list.
4. Now spread the entire collection of cards out on the table. Have the team members all gather around the display of cards. Ask them to start moving them around, attempting to sort them into 3-5 categories; e.g. quality, customer satisfaction, teamwork issues, management issues, and so on. Encourage a lot of discussion, and a lot of participation. (If anyone wants to add an item, which they had not previously thought of, that is certainly all right, too.) Paste each category of cards on a separate flip chart sheet.
Once you have the ideas sorted into 3-5 categories, this is an important point in the session to allow the group to take a break, Provide them with 15-20 minutes to relax and put the discussion aside.
5. When returning from the break, allow a lot of discussion and reflection on what the team has created. A couple of key questions must be posed to the group:
· "Is this the accurate "picture" of an ideal future for our team?
· Is this worth striving for?"
Before leaving this step of the process, have the team develop a category heading for each group of ideas. Examples might include:
- Leadership
- Customer service
- Quality
- And so on
We will continue soon with the next step of the process, examining potential barriers.
Blessings,
Larry
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