From Vision to Team Norms

Define what actions, commitments and team norms do you need to implement to achieve your company vision. Use this tool whenever you want to build an organization or a team that works around goals rather than tasks or deliverables. By using this tool, you will be able to build your organization from the top down and define the commitments, actions, team values, and team norms required to achieve your goals for the year ahead.

STEP 1: Vision

Define your vision and mission

Think about: ‘What do you want to be? What’s your dream and ambition?’

How is your team going to reach that vision? What motivates you every day?

Your company’s Vision and Mission are going to define everything else. Your team needs to be excited and committed to that vision and mission.

STEP 2: Objectives

Create a list of objectives. How would your team reach your ‘Vision’? What are your main objectives for the next 12 months? What are the ✔💯 key priorities?

What choices do you need to make based on your strategy, current resources, and vision?

🔥🔥Tips:

• Select 3 to 6 priorities for the year.
• Be specific. Define the objective and key metrics.

STEP 3: Action Plan

What needs to be done? What actions need to be done in the next 90 days to help you achieve those objectives? What actions need to be done in the next 12 months to help you achieve those objectives?

This will be your action plan and it will include key projects and activities.

STEP 4: Define your intentions

Now that you’ve identified the actions required to get what you want, you must set intentions to implement them. We call them implementation intentions (also known as commitments)

They are commitments to perform an action at a specific time and location — you specify what you’re going to do when you’re going to do it, and where.

Add each implementation intention should follow this framework:

“I will [ACTION] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].”

STEP 5: Values and principles

Define your company or team values and work principles. Culture’s values are the ideas and behaviours that determine what is good, right, fair, and just — and ultimately these values and principles should help people make decisions with confidence (having a fair and just system that supports them)

I highly recommend reading this book >>‘ Principles’ by Ray Dalio. My business partner got one for me when we decided to incorporate our business years ago — and today we use some of the principles he highlights in the book.

Here are a few examples from that 👆👆book that we love:

✔ Perceive and don’t tolerate problems. Inventing and implementing solutions for them — move us forward.

✔ Be loyal to the common mission and not to anyone who is not operating consistently with it.

✔ Don’t let loyalty to people stand in the way of truth and the well-being of the organization.

STEP 6: Team norms

Team norms (apply to everyone- executives, CEO, Team members and are implemented from the Top all the way to junior roles)

Norms are guidelines that help define how the team members will interact, work and communicate. Norms help to clarify the expected behavior of each individual, provide a fair process and prevent unnecessary conflict.

Good team norms look like this:

👉 Two pizza rule: No meeting should have more than two pizzas could feed.

👉 Honor expertise: Be aware of your strengths and defer and trust each other when the conversation turns to their expertise.

👉 Meeting agenda: All meetings should include an agenda. If the meeting doesn’t include an agenda people can choose to do something else with their time. Is that more work? Yes! That’s the point — We only have meetings if it is truly needed.

Your turn!