Quality Improvement Zone

Developing a clear vision is a group activity and should include key stakeholders. It's especially important to involve service users and the people affected by changes. As you work through the process of creating a sense of urgency, a collective vision of an improved future state will often start to form.

At this early stage there will be quite a few different ideas about the direction of travel. We need strong, collaborative leadership to form a vision that can unify and energise the team. It can also be helpful to focus on the purpose and values that are central to the change. People often find it much easier to engage with purpose and values rather than processes or vague concepts. You can use tools like the Liberating Structures exercises to create opportunities for everyone to contribute. We have provided links to these and other helpful resources below.

Once you can describe a clear vision in a few sentences, it is important to communicate and share this vision with key stakeholders. Remember to repeat this communication many times using different methods. Your guiding coalition will be able to help you share your vision across the organisation with other key stakeholders.

As you form your vision consider the following key points. Your vision should:

1. Describe what the future state will feel like, as well as what it will look like

2. Be relevant and understandable to service users and staff

3. Create “pull” by making the future state attractive

4. Inspire and generate action by being realistic and attainable

5. Be general enough to allow people to work under their own initiative.

Developing a clear vision creates a common goal and shared purpose. It will help people to understand why change is under way and their role in making improvement happen.

• Liberating Structures
• Kotter’s 8 Step Process for leading change