What is it?

An activity that helps a group of people achieve consensus and a common understanding around a new vision of the future.

Why is it useful?

• Teams often disagree on direction and destination.
• This activity surfaces those differences early while opinions are still flexible.
• Aligning views at the start saves time, reduces conflict, and builds commitment.

Objective

To build a shared vision of the future that everyone who participates can agree on and support.

Resources Required

• An empty room with wall space (no tables or chairs needed).
• Large paper (about 2m x 1m).
• Marker pens.
• Lots of coloured Post-its.

Process

1. Prepare the chart

• Before participants arrive, put the paper on the wall.
• Draw a cross to create four quadrants.
• Label them: Thinking, Feeling, Saying, Doing.

2. Set the context

• Explain that the activity will help define what the future will look and feel like.
• Emphasise the goal: to agree where the team is heading.

3. Silent brainstorm

• Ask the question:
  “What will we all be Thinking, Feeling, Saying and Doing differently x months from now?”
• x should be a realistic timeframe (6–12 months).
• Give 10 minutes for silent brainstorming.
• Each idea goes on one Post-it.

4. Share and add

• Participants place their Post-its in the relevant quadrant.
• Encourage discussion and new Post-its as ideas emerge.

5. Group into themes

• Ask participants to cluster similar Post-its into themes.
• Label themes with a marker.

6. Prioritise themes

• If more than 10 themes emerge, split them into:
  • Must Have
  • Nice to Have

7. Write the vision statement

• As a group, draft a vision statement that captures the key themes.
• Keep it visible for ongoing reference.

8. Close

• Thank participants.
• Explain that their work today forms the foundation for the next phase.

Secret Sauce

• Keep the future horizon realistic: 6–12 months.
• Allow time for challenge and debate—this builds consensus.
• Let participants do the writing, clustering and naming to build ownership.
• If the group is large, split into smaller teams of 4 to draft statements and then merge into one shared version.