How to articulate your vision in 4 post-it notes

Here’s an exercise I picked up at a dinner event I attended this past weekend. It’s intended to be for 1 year visioning but can easily be repurposed for other timeframes and contexts.

I’m unsure of its origins but wanted to share here as it’s lightweight yet effective, and is a good way of noticing the actions and impacts you’re setting out to make.

Instructions

1. Take 4 post-it notes (with a few in reserve)

2. On the first note, take 1 minute to write what you’re doing when you’re at your best. Describe it in a sentence or two (as much as you can fit on a post-it note at least)

2. On the second note, take 1 minute to write what problem you are setting out to solve, or a particular goal you’re looking to achieve.

3. On the third note, take 1 minute to describe which person or group you are serving.

4. Now you’ve got your three post it notes, draw a circle around all the instances of people, communities or groups

5. Next, draw a box around all the actions you’ve written

6. Then underline all the results of the actions or the impacts that have been made