When a core project team is formed,

When a core project team is formed, you should explain the assignment and the overall objectives of the organization for the project. Let them know that there will be another meeting in a few days to develop a shared understanding of the project. I personally prefer to avoid the words vision and mission because they carry negative baggage. The term “shared understanding,” on the other hand, is more palatable. Or I might say that we are going to meet to be sure we are all on the “same page together” in our understanding of the project.
The meeting to develop a shared vision should be well planned and well managed. If possible, a facilitator skilled in group process should lead the team through the steps. The process that I am going to outline is a derivative of what is called the “future search conference.” The format was origi- nally developed by Emery and Trist in the 1950s and has been used worldwide with all kinds of groups to plan future outcomes. Perhaps one of the strongest advocates for future search today is organization development practitioner Marvin Weisbord (Weisbord and Janoff, 1995).
The idea behind the future search meeting is very simple: The best way in which an organization can arrive at an ideal future is to get the entire membership together in one place and let them plan that future themselves. Note that the group should begin by designing the ideal scenario, and then, if necessary, they can settle for less. It is always easy to give up things if need be. It is harder to go the other way.
For groups larger than nine, subgroups are formed. The guiding rule is that working groups should be sized between five and nine, so for large groups, small sub- groups are set up. The facilitator gives them assignments, which are always time limited. The groups need ample working space so that they are not on top of each other when they do their assignments, so a large room is neces- sary. Alternatively, break-out rooms can be used. Each subgroup also needs a flip chart and lots of colored felt markers, drafting tape, and any other media that can be used for creative thinking.
The first step in the process is to identify all attributes of the project deliverable. If it is a product, what will it be like? How will it work? How will the customer use it? How will it compare to other similar products? If the project is to move a facility, the questions might be: How would we conduct the ideal move? Who would move various departments? How would the timing work? How do we move people so they can be functional immediately after the move?
The best way an organization can arrive at an ideal future is to have the entire membership plan it themselves. The best “tool” for identifying all attributes of a project outcome/deliverable is probably the mind map. You begin by writing the name of the project in an oval, then start list- ing major attributes around it. These will, in turn, make you think of related ideas, which are clustered around the major attributes, and so on, until everything has been covered. There is an example in Figure 17–3. If you would like to read a book on the many uses of mind maps, I highly recommend Tony Buzan’s The Mind Map Book (1993).
Once the mind map is finished, you can have the group describe the ideal scenario, which would optimize all attributes that have been listed in the map. There are creative ways to do this. Draw a picture of a product, write a commercial and present it, or design a brochure. If the project is moving a facility, put on a skit that demonstrates how the move is to be accomplished. For other scenarios, the group might write songs, poems, skits, raps, and so on. These are all presented by the subgroups for the others.
I once worked with a group of school principals to design the ideal school. They went away in their subgroups and wrote songs, skits, and a Charles Kuralt-like “on-the-road” interview. These were then presented. The amazing thing about this process is that the core ideas presented are usually very similar. You would almost swear that the groups colluded to develop their presentations. Furthermore, by the time all groups have finished, you have a wealth of ideas that can now be drawn on by the entire group. These can now be incorporated into the overall end result.
The process creates an enormous amount of energy. Recently I co-facilitated a version of one of these on a Saturday, and at 3:00 p.m. people were at a higher energy level than you would ever expect after working all day. And they understood their project much better than they ever would have if we had merely communicated it to them. In addition, the subgroups developed several good strategies, so that the project manager will now be able to work with them to select the best strategy to be implemented later on.