Developing and communicating vision is an essential part of leading. Most of us do not get to set the vision for the overall organization, but we need to make our leadership agenda coherent and consistent with the overall vision of the organization. Plus it needs to make a meaningful impact on others, otherwise no progress will be made.

To do this exercise, think about an internal or external stakeholder or constituent or even an individual that you need to align with your work. Then answer these questions

1. Who or what are you focusing on?

2. Why are they important to your work?

3. Why is this change important to your program, agency or department?

4. How does the change align with or embody current strategies that your program, agency, or department has developed?

5. Why is it important to the stakeholder that you are thinking of for this exercise? How do you know this? What is the evidence? If you don’t know, how could you find out?

6. What has been the relationship between you and your group and the one you want to influence?

Now, think about how you might pitch your agenda/idea to them. What would be the key elements that you will want to address? If you want some ideas about how to present this, take a look at the Three Minute Communication Drill.