Vision casting is a regular part of leadership. You’ll share vision from the stage, in conversations over coffee, and in meetings with key leaders or people who are simply curious. But there are moments when leaders are required to cast a big, bold vision that directs the church or organization in a fresh new direction. These moments are more than a casual conversations. These are major communication efforts designed to rally people around a God-inspired picture of the future, and to create buy-in that requires sacrifice and commitment.
When these moments come, how do you maximize your vision-casting efforts? How do you ensure that your vision is communicated not only with passion, but in a way that garners the greatest amount of buy-in? Here are seven steps to get you started.
1. Clarify the vision
All vision casting begins with a crystal-clear vision. If you lack clarity, the most passionate vision talk will ultimately fall flat. This is where leaders often short-circuit the process. They don’t take adequate time to think, pray, and clarify in their own minds exactly what they aim to achieve. If the target is unclear, the pathway to get there will be equally confusing, and any efforts to communicate it will fall short.
To gain vision clarity, ask yourself some important questions like: What problem do we want to solve? What need do we want to meet? What mountain do we want to take? What product or service do we want to develop? You might even think about your vision through the lens of big buckets like church, community, and world.
2. Organize the vision
Once the vision is clear, you have to organize it into a communication framework. In my recent article, The Five Stages of Vision Casting, I talked about the five things every vision talk must include.
First, you need celebration. In other words, before you introduce change for the future, celebrate what God has done in the past. This will help you acknowledge those who have blazed a path forward and the sacrifices they’ve made to get you where you are today. Second, define the problem. If people don’t understand the problem you’re trying to solve, they won’t value the solution you’re trying to present.
Third, present the solution. This is where you rollout the vision that will specifically solve the problem that stands before you. It’s the bold picture of the future that offers a better, brighter tomorrow. Fourth, share the price. People need to know exactly what it will cost (in time, energy, money, etc.) to see the vision fully realized. Don’t beat around the bush. Instead, make the price tag extremely clear.
Fifth, invite people to partner with the vision. Share an unapologetic and inspiring invitation for people to personally engage the vision. By organizing your vision around this five-part framework, you’ll be able to take people on a journey that creates the highest levels of buy-in.
3. Illustrate the Vision
As you’re sharing the vision, you’ll need to illustrate it in such a way as to create interest, passion, and emotional buy-in. You can do this by sharing compelling statistics, telling stories, sharing testimonies of life change, showing visual renderings, or showing a well-produced vision video.
Illustrating the vision helps the vision move from the head to the heart. It helps people not just hear it but feel it. Without illustrations, the vision will feel bland, boring, or like a long rambling of irrelevant information. People need to see the vision, and illustrations help them imagine what the future will look like.
4. Manuscript the Vision
This step probably sounds strange, even lifeless, but stay with me. Every time I preach, I manuscript my sermon. That doesn’t mean I read my sermon word-for-word. I simply manuscript it to make sure every word counts. Manuscripting a sermon helps me clarify my thinking, articular compelling points, insert illustrations at the right place and pace, improve my opening and closing, and get a gauge on my timing.
When I realized how much a manuscript helps me in sermon prep, I started to use it in my vision casting efforts. As a result, I noticed a considerable increase in engagement, clarity, and buy-in. I simply build a vision manuscript around the five-step process described above. This helps me strategically and systematically celebrate the past, define the problem, present the solution, share the price, and invite people to partner in the vision.
By manuscripting the vision, I’m able to see what part of the vision casting effort needs more clarity and more inspiration. I’m able to pinpoint gaps and answer questions before they are asked. And I’m able to stay focused as I paint the vision for the future.
Every leader has to create and cast compelling vision. In “The Insanely Practical Guide to Create, Communicate, & Capture Vision,” I take the guesswork out of vision to help you see, share, seize, and safeguard your vision. Get this downloadable 36-page guide today HERE.
5. Communicate the Vision
Once the vision is clear, organized, illustrated, and manuscripted, it’s time to actually communicate the vision. Practice, practice, practice. Be sure the vision is “in you,” and that you can speak from the five-point framework of your vision without having to constantly look at your notes. Furthermore, exude passion and positivity in your communication. You may only get one shot at casting vision, so it’s imperative that you’re on your game.
Finally, be sure you use multiple tools to help you communicate clearly and in a manner that brings the greatest engagement. For example, use slides, video, and printed materials, and be sure to have a commitment card of some kind that can be used when you make the ask.
6. Layer the Vision
By “layering,” I’m talking about vision casting to different groups of people in different settings. For example, long before you communicate the vision publicly, you’ll want to host vision-casting gatherings with your staff, board, high capacity donors, volunteers, and other key stakeholders. In fact, you’ll likely do 3-4 vision gatherings before you ever cast the vision to the entire church or organization.
This is where many leaders miss it. They think one inspiring talk is all it takes to get people on board. The truth is, you’ll need to do multiple smaller vision gatherings with specific groups of people, and in some cases, you’ll need to do one-on-one’s to make sure key stakeholders are on board. By layering your vision casting efforts, you’ll building increasing layers of support. In fact, when we rolled out a major two-year vision at 7 City Church, more than 50% of the congregation had already heard about it before we went public with the vision. How did that happen? We layered our vision-casting efforts.
7. Follow-Up the Vision
Finally, once the vision has been cast, follow-up with the people who heard the vision. Some people will immediately jump on board, but others will take time to process and pray about their involvement. Let them know, “I’ll follow-up with each of you in the next couple of weeks to answer any questions you have and to discuss your partnership with the vision as we move forward.”
Proper follow-up is a great way to increase the personal touch. It gives you a chance to catch up with people, hear more of their story, learn what excites them about the vision, and address any questions they might have. It’s also an opportunity to re-invite them to participate in the vision, and to express your deepest gratitude.
These seven steps will help you maximize your vision casting efforts. Each one is strategic, and each one will help you build an air-tight plan to cast vision for the future and increase engagement and buy-in.
