How do you create a shared vision across different teams?

Cross-team collaboration is essential for delivering complex projects and achieving organizational goals. However, it can also pose many challenges, such as conflicting priorities, miscommunication, and silo mentality. How do you create a shared vision across different teams that aligns with the overall strategy and inspires everyone to work together effectively? Here are some tips to help you foster a culture of collaboration and alignment in your organization.

1 Understand the big picture

The first step to creating a shared vision is to understand the big picture and the purpose of your project or initiative. What is the problem you are trying to solve, the value you are creating, or the impact you are making? How does it fit into the broader mission and vision of your organization? Communicate this clearly and consistently to all the teams involved, and make sure they understand how their work contributes to the common goal.

Add your perspective

M3 Sweatt

Retired
Report contribution
Having the "alignment conversation" is important to ensure that your team understands the big picture, the direction, and the priorities of your team and the greater organization. Communicate clearly, frequently, and transparently about the strategy, the challenges, and the opportunities you’ll face. When you have shared alignment across your team, it can create a shared sense of accountability, commitment, and direction that can contribute to camaraderie and motivate your team to work collaboratively to achieve common goals.

Like

2 Involve the teams in the visioning process

The next step is to involve the teams in the visioning process and co-create a shared vision that reflects their perspectives, insights, and aspirations. This can be done through workshops, brainstorming sessions, surveys, or other participatory methods. The aim is to generate a vision statement that is concise, compelling, and actionable, and that captures the essence of what you want to achieve together. A good vision statement should answer the questions: What are we doing? Why are we doing it? How are we doing it?

Add your perspective

Jacob Morgan

5x Best-Selling Author, Futurist, & Keynote Speaker. Founder of Future Of Work Leaders (Global CHRO Community). Focused on Leadership, The Future of Work, & Employee Experience
Report contribution
Laurent Therivel the CEO of U.S. Cellular told me a fascinating story. Years ago when he was working at another organization, he was brought in to turn it around which he did. He told everyone what to do and how to do it and the business was a success. One day, the board invites him to a meeting where he thinks they are going to celebrate his success. Instead he got fired! Why? Because he alienated everyone in the process. Through command and control he was able to turn the business around but they felt no sense of ownership, teamwork, or buy-in. He turned the business around but damaged the culture in the process. The lesson he learned was that you have to bring people along with you instead of just telling them what to do.

Like

3 Align the teams on the objectives and outcomes

Once you have a shared vision, you need to align the teams on the specific objectives and outcomes that will help you realize it. This means defining the scope, deliverables, milestones, and success criteria of your project or initiative, and assigning roles and responsibilities to each team. You also need to establish a common framework and language for measuring and reporting progress, and set up regular feedback loops and checkpoints to ensure alignment and accountability.

Add your perspective

Jane Scaife

Self-employed
Report contribution
Be sure to onboard new hires on where you’re at with the vision, giving them an easy way to catch-up on work so far. No one wants to feel like they’re on the sidelines looking in, and you don’t want to miss out on new perspectives into the project.

Like

4 Build trust and rapport among the teams

Creating a shared vision is not enough to ensure effective cross-team collaboration. You also need to build trust and rapport among the teams, and foster a sense of belonging and mutual respect. This can be done by creating opportunities for informal and social interactions, such as icebreakers, team-building activities, or virtual coffee chats. You can also encourage the teams to share their challenges, successes, and learnings, and to recognize and appreciate each other's contributions and achievements.

Add your perspective

5 Nurture a culture of collaboration and learning

Finally, you need to nurture a culture of collaboration and learning that supports the shared vision and enables the teams to work together smoothly and creatively. This means promoting a growth mindset, a positive attitude, and a willingness to experiment and learn from failures. It also means providing the teams with the tools, resources, and support they need to collaborate effectively, such as communication platforms, collaboration software, or coaching and mentoring. Moreover, it means celebrating the milestones and outcomes of the shared vision, and reflecting on the lessons learned and the areas for improvement.

Add your perspective

How do you create a shared vision across different teams?

1

2

3

4

5

1 Understand the big picture

2 Involve the teams in the visioning process

3 Align the teams on the objectives and outcomes

4 Build trust and rapport among the teams

5 Nurture a culture of collaboration and learning

Cross-team Collaboration

Rate this article

Thanks for your feedback

More articles on Cross-team Collaboration

More relevant reading