This is an edited version of notes taken from the live blog of the Auxano Houston co::Lab Session #6. All coaching sessions took place at Gateway Community Church in Clear Lake, TX with Vision Coach, Will Mancini.
The Primary Objective: To define Vision Proper, explain how to cast vision and discuss how to use the Vision Frame in ongoing visioning and planning work.
Vision Proper defined
Vision Proper is the living language that anticipates and illustrates God’s better intermediate future.
The importance of living language is that the vision is always a developing Polaroid picture.
Never static. Always evolving.
Vision Proper is not a vision statement. It is a new dynamic vocabulary. It anticipates and illustrates your future.
We listened to Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream.” The full text here.
Casting vision
Vision is not to be confused with mission. Mission gives direction and integrates activity. Vision inspires sacrifice and creates energy.
There are two types of vision. Qualitative and Quantitative.
Qualitative vision comes first to the leader. God reveals a picture of the future that captures the leaders imagination and affects his heart. The leader can’t contain it and shares it with others.
Quantitative vision expresses milestones used by the leader to focus the people on measurable checkpoints. Benchmarks set to inform the people of their progress toward reaching the mountaintop.
Metaphors are used to connect people to the vision. Vision ought to be like a conk shell at the beach. When you’re not there, it can be picked up and heard.
Jesus used metaphors to communicate. As one co::Lab participant pointed out, “The language of everyday images and stories used by Jesus would have been perfectly understood by His disciples and the people around Him.”
There are six essentials to casting vision effectively.
1. Common Denominator – An emotional connection based on shared history.
2. Burning Platform – People will not be emotionally connected to your vision unless they have been previously connected to the problem the vision is addressing.
3. Golden Tomorrow – The promise of a better world in which people will want to live. How will the vision sound to people that get great satisfaction from spending Sunday’s sleeping in, reading the paper, enjoying relationships with others, having brunch and resting?
4. Wake-up Call – Creating urgency and inducing action. In contemporary terms, The Jack Bauer Factor of articulating Vision Proper. The “NOW!”
5. Mind Stretch – Find an idea, a cross functional initiative, that everyone joins together to accomplish at the same time. “I would throw away a notebook full of plans, objectives and strategies any day, in exchange for one milestone that everyone buys into.” Will Mancini
6. God Smile – Clarifying the biblical basis of the vision and showing how God’s heart is pleased.
Using the Vision Frame for ongoing visioning
Vision Proper lives within the Vision Frame – mission, values, strategy, measures. The Vision Frame provides boundaries for what will be an unpredictable journey. Changes are going to occur.
With the Vision Frame in place, team members will be able to contribute ideas and insights of their own that will complement the actions of the leader. There is room for all the leadership roles of Ephesians 4:11. The entire team has a common starting point and vocabulary adaptable to their individual gifts.
Every day brings vision-casting opportunities. In regular patterns for church at large. Every time leaders meet. When making changes such as multiplying a small group. Every time people are considering membership. Every time you introduce change. Every time you recruit a volunteer.
Leaders must help their teams to live vision daily. This one of the seven things I learned about casting vision during co::Lab, shared in my previous post. A transforming insight.
Thanks Will, Cheryl and Jessica for a great co::Lab. Enjoyed being with everyone and tracking together on vision clarity. Blessings on next steps!! –Andy Sytsma, New Life Church