Share an Inspiring Vision

Sharing an inspiring vision is one of the seven practices of Facilitative Leadership.  Here at the Interaction Institute for Social Change we are fond of saying that “a leader must share an inspiring vision in order to inspire a shared vision.” If you are reading this blog you probably have a vision.  You are interested in social change, you want to believe that indeed another world is possible – and you have a role in making it happen.  You have a vision of the world you want to see.

However, having that vision is not the same thing as being able to articulate it – and to do so in such a way that enrolls others in bring it about.  The first step towards sharing an inspiring vision is to have one – and you have it!  The next step is to feel it, to literally engage your senses in your full imagination of what the world will look and feel like when your vision is accomplished.  In their new book, Switch, the Heath brothers talk about the importance of feeling the change you want to see in order to bring it about.

Knowing what your vision feels like is what will sustain you on the often arduous path to bringing it into reality.  This is the feeling that you communicate when you share an inspiring vision, the more intimate you are with what your vision feels like, the greater your capacity to transmit that sense to others.  It is from this intensified feeling that you are then able to cover the “components of an inspiring vision” that are articulated in our FL training chart above.  From here you can move into the more technical aspects of a good articulation.

We call this a practice because it is something that you do over and over again, it is something that you work on, you enhance, you sharpen, you get ever better at.  We are told that Dr. King himself spoke versions of his “I have a dream” speech many times before his prophetic moment on the national mall.  I hesitate to bring him up because YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE DR. KING in order to have an inspiring vision and to share it with others.  You just have to be you, the most authentic version of you that you can allow yourself to be.

Share your vision, speak it, in many settings and many times, in front of your mirror, before your family and friends, with your team members, volunteers and funders – with all the people that are ready for change.