Did you know, there are 5 stages of shared visioning?

In the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, leadership consultant Bryan Smith fully explains each level. Here is a short summary.

1. Telling often occurs in a crisis or when top leaders sense dramatic change is immediately necessary.

2. Selling includes “enrolling” and “enlisting” folks to increase commitment and buy-in for a vision crafted at the top.

3. In the Testing phase, leaders treat the vision as an experiment, lay it out to be tested, and gauge the level of support and enthusiasm for accepting versus rejecting it. It reminds me of design thinking.

4. Consulting calls for the leader to express her desire to build a vision but invites full engagement and input from team members and managers.

5. Co-Creating draws on group members' creativity and personal vision to shape a collective future and articulate a common purpose.

As a visionary progresses to higher stages, the time horizon extends and exercising foresight becomes more important. Earlier phases rely on lone visionaries more than later phases. For instance, consulting and co-creating call for full engagement of employees and managers in the visioning process.

In 3 weeks, I will to start a round robin on vision-based leadership.

Why 3 weeks? On Aug 23, I will start the last phase of my doctoral journey…the final project.

I’ve written over 90,000 words in the course of this program 😅.

It's time to pull all the research together, connect the dots, and repurpose new insights for 21st century visioning best practices.

Update: January 16, 2025

Here is the result of that research process:

Visionary Leadership: A Guidebook for 21st Century Organizations and Entrepreneurial Teams introduces the Vision360 Leadership model—a framework crafted to help leaders and teams transform vision into reality. At Teaiiano Leadership Solutions, we integrate these principles into every aspect of our coaching, consulting, and leadership development to empower you to anticipate change, innovate with confidence, and achieve lasting success. You can purchase your copy of the book here to dive deeper into these transformative strategies, or explore more insights and resources at our home base: www.teaiiano.com.

References

Smith, Bryan. (1994). Building shared vision: How to begin. In Senge, P., et al., The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. Doubleday.