Building team vision with scenario planning

Summary form only given. There has been growing attention to the concept of vision in management literature in recent years. Although there is agreement on the benefits of a strongly shared vision, there has been relatively little advice offered on how to acquire such vision. One claim of this paper is that vision can be “built” created in a structured communication process. The scenario-strategy-evaluation has a general pattern similar to other scenario processes. Important differences include seeking out and capturing the language of participants. The importance of shared language in defining a social reality cannot be overstated. This is the essence of meaning and commitment for the participants, what is often lost in planning processes. Important terms need exploration until shared definitions are created, regardless of the difficulty. The role of the facilitator is to identify critical terms that need further definition, and not let these slide by unexamined. This is the real work of building a shared reality. It is an iterative and time consuming process. It has a big payoff in better communication and higher commitment in the future