If you were to do a thinking assessment of Visionaries, an assessment of what their natural thinking preferences are, you would find that they are future-oriented, holistic, synergistic, intuitive and conceptual. These qualities are what make them natural Visionaries. It is these same tendencies, though, that create a disconnect between them and others in the organization who don’t naturally think this way – and this disconnect can lead to the early death of some great ideas.

If this is your natural thinking style, you are probably frustrated by all of the cool, innovative ideas you throw out to the group that never get acted on (because of course, you aren’t the implementer, you’re just the ‘big picture’ person). If this isn’t your natural thinking style, you are sitting in meetings thinking to yourself that Joe, the “big picture guy”, reminds you of Horse Shack from “Welcome Back Kotter” with all of his interrupting and “OOOh, OOOh, OOOh’s”. And, you wish he’d think something through before opening his pie hole.

What is a Visionary to do? A great beginning is to learn how to communicate your Vision out into a team who has a variety of thinking preferences. And, this simple formula will help you to craft a conversation that will appeal to all preferences.

Address the:

WHAT –

• What are the issues this idea addresses?
• What corporate goals or objectives does it address?
• What facts do you have to support this?

TIP: Be logical and precise for this group

WHO –

• Who will be involved in this vision?
• How will we ensure that they are engaged at every level of the plan?
• How will we meet everyone’s needs?

TIP: This group cares about how people will react to the vision

HOW –

• How might we execute the vision?
• What is the plan to roll out the idea?
• How will we measure success?

TIP: This group needs to understand the step by step unfolding of the vision

WHY-

• What does the future state look like?
• How does this Vision connect to the ‘big picture’
• How will we continue to innovate?

TIP: This group is made of natural Visionaries and wants to know where we are going and how we will stay ahead of the competition

Having a process for presenting your ideas to a variety of thinking preferences will ensure that everyone can relate to your Vision. THEN you can begin to have a conversation about the merits of the idea.