Customer Reviews

Recharge Your Team: The Grounded Visioning Approach

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I wasn't sure when I would read this book, but I picked it up and started browsing it the night it arrived, and found that it was describing a process that I was just about to launch at work. I read the main part of the book and then used the author's system to run my "grounded visioning" process, which I ran only two days later, and it worked like a charm. It really did have good ideas, and I was able to put them directly to use with minimal effort. It really helped me streamline how I was going to quickly go from brainstorming to action with this pretty diverse and opinionated group. What could have taken more than a day took 3 hours,was easy to plan, and people enjoyed the process."

I first saw Jay at work about ten years ago when he facilitated an Open Space conversation involving something like 150 people attending the Society for Organizational Learning's general assembly. He was truly at ease with this simple, elegant and extended process, demonstrating the sort of depth knowledge Bob Dylan referred to when he said, "I'll know my song well before I start singing." Since then, it has been a truly peak professional experience for me to co-design programs with Jay and see the highly productive results of his insights and efforts.

In Recharge Your Team, Jay shows how to a wide variety of tools from his practice to the objective of fostering vision-inspired and mission-focused teams, organizations and communities. If you are a large system change manager (or somebody who wants to be one or who needs to know how it's done), you should read and own this valuable reference manual. It provides not only good information but insight into the tactics, attitudes and values of a masterful teacher, trainer and leader.

My first encounter with the author was at a local Agile User Group. There he demonstrated how teams can easily and effortlessly generate their shared vision - to help them with their day to day work.

I then got more curious about the method and started examining it more closely. What I discovered was a very simple, yet a very effective and robust method.

It is a method which is very richly informed by other well established techniques and methods - all weaved together in a very intriguing and unique way. They include 1) Appreciative Inquiry 2) Future Search 3) Affinity Mapping 4) Multi-voting, etc.

So, if you have the task of generating a shared vision within your team/s - or your large group of constituents - your best bet is to try and get the author to do it for you.

If for some reason you are unable to do that - your next best bet will be to get the book and implement the methods described in it - by using an in-house facilitators.

In either case you will be pleased with the results.

As most managers know, you need a vision to motivate employees to achieve your--and their--goals. But people and companies have a tendency to lose focus. "We're getting stale," they say, or "I just don't know where we're headed." True leaders know that when this happens only a clear vision will bring their people together, and renew both their enthusiasm and commitment.

Yet waiting for inspired vision rarely works--sometimes you need that vision now. But how can you make it happen?

"Recharge Your Team" not only shows managers how to do this, i.e., create an effective vision fast, but it even shows how to create that vision in as little as two hours, using author Jay Vogt's time-tested "Grounded Visioning" approach.

Traditionally, companies call in a consultant or trainer to help develop a vision, at a tune of many thousands of dollars per day and untold hours or days or even months. Jay's Grounded Visioning approach, however, based on a concept called "appreciative inquiry," allows groups to develop a revitalizing all-in vision in a half a day or less.

How is this possible? As Jay explains in his book, the key is being sure everyone takes part and grounding the vision in how the team acts when at its very best. These conditions set the stage for imagining a vision bold enough to inspire while practical enough to feel achievable. The book walks the reader through six quick, essential steps that ensure such results, whether with a small team or a very large group: 1. Assemble your team; 2. Ignite your spark; 3. Share best practices; 4. Share your dreams; 5. Select the best; 6. Plan next steps.

Any manager, not just trainers or HR people, can lead a successful Grounded Visioning session, Jay asserts. It's a breakthrough concept of breathtaking simplicity and power that any manager can put to use today, an approach that works, Jay explains, because "it frees up employees to share their dreams, hopes, and aspirations, allowing them to soar in such a way that a vision naturally arises. The result bonds, inspires and recharges the group or team."

NOTE: A Version of this review appears on my website [...]

Jay vogt's first book is a clear, most helpful approach to working with teams in any situation. A most valubale resource!
Sean Casey Leclaire, SCL Timeless Wisdom Coach and Facilitator

Professional consultants like me are often frustrated by the lack of clear strategic focus in the organizations we help and sometimes upset with the seeming unconcern of their leaders toward such needs. Considerable energy and valuable resources are expended attacking immediate problems without reference or insight related to mission and longer term goals. Yet delaying immediate action to complete a traditional lengthy strategic planning process is unrealistic. Too bad there isn't a condensed way to focus and galvanize folks in these situations. But there is, and Jay Vogt has provided it through his Grounded Visioning Approach.

Jay's book deserves to become the bible for organizational consultants like me, and its worthwhile reading for any for profit or nonprofit leader or Board member desiring to lead change. Not only does Jay provide concrete advice on setting a vision in as little as half a day in both large and small group settings, but he demonstrates how that vision has compelling and invigorating power because it arises out of the "natural intelligence of people in organizations". His six steps to a Grounded Vision are easy to understand, and, better yet, easy to implement in any-sized organization. Jay's language is clear of planning and organizational development jargon. He uses repetition to imprint his message so skillfully that after two chapters most readers can recite the six steps in their sleep. Jay illustrates the effectiveness of Grounded Visioning with case studies of large and small organizations in the business world, in the nonprofit sector and even from community planning. What especially impressed me was that unlike so many of today's self-promoting business gurus, Jay gratefully and extensively acknowledges the roots of Grounded Visioning in previous research into Social Construction and Appreciative Inquiry by others.

I highly recommend Jay's book to all organizational change consultants and to business and nonprofit Board members and executives who find themselves at an organizational crossroad.

I used it (or I suppose my variant) with a small team recently and it worked brilliantly. In a few hours they came to a re-definition and clarity about who they are and the impact they seek to have on their organization (they're a global legal team) that was truly inspiring for them...significant for a group of lawyers to agree on anything, let alone a shared vision! ;)

Jay's technique for creating shared vision is simple, elegant, and effective. Part of the beauty of this process is that it is adaptable to any organization - for profit, social sector, large or small. It is particularly useful at the current time because boards are facing very tough challenges yet board members have less time to devote to an organization than ever before. I also appreciate the emphasis on follow-up activities and the importance of designing your own grounded vision with implementation in mind. The case studies really provide wonderful examples of how this process actually works in different settings. This is a book that will change how you work with your board and constiuents now and become an important, well-used reference for your organization.

I've just read Jay Vogt's book Recharge Your Team: The Grounded Visioning Approach and then had the privilege of seeing Jay put these principals into action with a large (80+ people) diverse group. It was an amazing experience to see Jay work ahead of time to prepare key players for the meeting; laying out the agenda almost minute by minute. Then in just 5 hours he transformed this large group of individuals with diverging agendas into an action-oriented force focused on 3 compelling bold ideas--complete with the structure of an implementation plan. Jay seemed to spin gold out of straw. Jay's gentle, thoughtful and positive style created an air of possibility in the room and comes through in reading his book. This book describes Jay's process in such practical terms that the reader can certainly feel confident to apply the concepts in their own setting. I highly recommend this book for any organization trying to decide what their future holds and how to make that future a reality.