So – as far as I’m concerned, we do travel in time.
Stina’s process design brings an intentionality to our state, “where” we are in time and how we synthesize and integrate (digest) what we discover. Starting with people being together now in real-time (online), “going back” in time to look at historic lessons and milestones of their organization. Then coming back to the present to talk about it. Then “going forward” to imagine what they might hope to see in the future – how the world will be different if/when they are successful. Practicing being present “presencing” – is the new black. (Jump to Peter Senge’s book Presence in from 2008 if you want to see where this language started happening in organizational development).
We all do it. Move back and forth through time. In fact – I think it’s fair to say many of us spend most of our time either thinking about what just happened, what happened long ago, or what might happen in the future. We just tend to do it rather unconsciously – and we think of it as a mental activity – thought – rather than actual travel. But the funny thing is that your body and mind doesn’t know the difference between remembering (past) or visualizing (future) with great sensory detail – and actually being there.
What Stina calls time travel is often called “visioning” in strategic planning processes.
Visioning is a purposeful venturing into virtual reality with an open mind, engaged imagination and involving all of your senses.
What does it take for an organization to PLAN in a visionary way?
- A degree of high organizational leadership/functioning
- Courage to work with reality (not pretending to be a certain way)
- Structure and support to design a process that will support your highest potential*
- Structure and support to keep an intensive process moving*
- Inclusion of all voices in seeing what’s real, what’s vital, and what’s possible
- Focus and collaboration to make choices about priorities
- Commitment to learn/grow, adapt, and follow through on priorities
- Repeat
* This is Stina’s job.
Structure and support in design and follow-through looks like:
- Helping leadership and staff explore what’s possible, anchor new group culture norms, structure dialogue, and practice collaborative relationships.
- Provide coaching and support for leaders implementing new processes, structures, and behaviours
- Design check-ins, trainings and curriculum to continue the learning
From the meta or “high altitude” strategic direction/vision of your organization to on-the-ground areas of activity, skills, and relationships, Stina and her Trusted Collaborators will empower and equip you and your organization in achieving your highest potential.
DEFINITIONS:
Visioning (using imagery) Defined:
In planning, it’s language to describe your imagined and sensed experience of the future. Words that reflect an image or sensory experience from your mind, your consciousness or your soul that you explore or intend to bring into the real world. It can also be a determined guess at what is possible. Insight.
Vision Statements:
Imaginative, emotional, intellectual and expressive language that reflects the future you want to create.
Planning Defined:
Planning is a verb. A conscious living relationship with your context, vision, capacities, choices/priorities, learning, actions, and influence – visible and invisible. And mapping it out with commitments to carry out intentions and aspirations articulated.
Time Lines 1, 2, 5, 10+ years…
The kind of planning Stina offers is generally between one or two years to 10 years, short-to-medium term planning. With social, health, economic, climate and other disruptions, planning is taking on an even greater need for agility and planning for disruption. An individual needs to be more flexible to changing circumstances, as does their team, their departments, their organization, their sector. The need for being present to changing conditions has never been so great!
One of my all-time favourite clients: Canopy’s vision is “to protect 30 – 50% of the world’s Ancient and Endangered Forests – and in doing so help protect human health and stabilize our climate, biodiversity and freshwater systems – by 2030.”
Working with a professional facilitator has been an invaluable investment for Canopy! Stina got to know us – our culture and mission as she facilitated us through our strategic planning process. We have worked with Stina in person in the past and she did not miss a beat as she pivoted to a virtual platform over the last two years. ~Canopy
Longer Timelines: 50, 100, 500, 10,000…
Here are a few companies that have 100 year visions: a transport company – Mainfreight, a sake producer – Tatenokawa, and a Japanese football league, J.League.
Then there’s 500 year visionary organizations: Zealandia, an ecosanctuary in New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington, “Looking to the future, Zealandia has a 500-year vision of restoring the forest and freshwater ecosystems of the valley where it resides as closely as possible to their prehuman state. This five-century period is the sanctuary’s estimate of how long it would take for the forest’s original canopy to regrow.” And the envisioners of an orphan-less world – Marked: “It seems startling to people sometimes. How can you have vision for something that you may never see come to pass? We’re thinking about the ripple effect that just one life can make.”
How about a 10,000 year timeline? “The Long Now Foundation is a nonprofit established in 01996 to foster long-term thinking. Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now. We hope to help each other be good ancestors. We hope to preserve possibilities for the future.”
How long is your vision?
About Stina
Stina helps leaders see, study, and support themselves – in service of their visions for what the world can be. She designs and leads processes to create new human capacity and well-being, new shared awareness, new relationships, new trust, new vision, new clarity, and new plans. Read more about me here
Stina Brown 