Working on a project? Commit to a vision — and talk about it!

Are you working on a project? Either you’re in the early stages or you have it already running some time — you should commit in your team to a vision and talk about it in detail! Only if everybody aligns to this vision, you will create a great output and, even more important, will be happy with the results in the end.

Maybe you think this is the case in your project, you even have a vision statement hanging on your wall, so everybody should have the same thing in their minds as you have, right?! No, that’s wrong! Why? I’m going to explain it to you by a project at the Academic Program for Entrepreneurship and a task statement we got there. One part of the task is: “Create a successful product, which automates at least one function at home and satisfies one identified need.”

That sounds like a sentence, that everybody should understand. But there’s a lot of interpretation possible. Let’s go through the important parts:

• “successful”: The first thing that could come to mind is a lot of sales and gaining a lot of money. But some people may define successful by creating value and having a social impact.
• “automates”: Is automation a process which runs without even touching a button? Or is automation also something like a dishwasher?
• “at home”: At home could be the place where one lives or the place where you come from. But you could also feel “at home” when hanging out with your friends or I even heard the definition “wherever I have an internet connection”. (Which I think is a little disturbing…) Another thing you have to think about is, that everybody has a different home, some people don’t even have a home at all. What about them?
• “one identified need”: There is no statement in the sentence about the person identifying it. So we had to talk about who is identifying the need — is it the team that’s working on it or can also the customers identify the need?

These are only 4 phrases and they leave a big room for interpretation. Another thing we had to discuss and talk about was if we want to create a product which helps society and “makes the world a better place” or if the product could be something just for entertainment and comfort. You see, there is a lot of potential to misinterpretation.

So if you start a project and also if you’re currently working on one — talk with your team members about the vision or the task you’re working on and find out if they interpret the words like you do. If they have a different understanding of the vision, there is a high potential for problems and a high risk that the project will fail!

If you talk about it and commit to the exact same meaning of your vision, you and your team will create great products worth a lot!

What’s your experience in team visions? Did you ever commit to a vision and if so, did everybody have the same understanding of it?