Recharge Your Team

As most managers know, you need a vision to motivate employees to achieve goals. But people, and companies, lose focus, and the future appears hazy. People say, We're getting stale, or, I just don't know where we're headed. Leaders know they need a vision to bring people together. And they know a good vision will renew enthusiasm and commitment. But waiting for inspiration rarely works—sometimes you need a vision now. But how? Recharge Your Team not only shows managers how to create an effective vision—it shows how to do it in as little as four hours, using a time-tested, proven approach.Traditionally, companies call in consultants to help create a vision. Experts can help—for $4,000 per day plus expenses. And then there's the time involved: Visioning efforts can take months. This book offers a less-expensive, faster method. Called Grounded Visioning, and based on a concept called appreciative inquiry, the process allows groups to come up with a revitalizing vision that everyone buys into in half a day or less. How? As this book shows, the key is to be sure everyone takes part, to base the vision on how the team acts when at its best, and to imagine a vision bold enough to inspire but practical enough to feel achievable. This book covers the six quick but essential steps that ensure such results—with small teams or large groups. And any manager, not just trainers or HR people, can lead a successful Grounded Visioning session. Grounded visioning is a breakthrough concept of breathtaking simplicity and power that any leader can put to use today. It works, because it frees employees to share their dreams, hopes, and aspirations. As they soar, a vision naturally arises that recharges the team.

"Read, convene, reminisce, re-vision and re-charge. Jay Vogt's pioneering methods will re-invigorate any work group, be it a small public library staff or an entire community."-Barbara Powell Director, Concord Free Public Library, "Do you believe that every person's voice adds value? Are you seeking a proven organizational change process that is exhilarating and meaningful, yet quick? If so, this book is your roadmap to long lasting collective commitment regardless of the group's size or difference of opinion."-Mary L. Fifield Ph.D., President, Bunker Hill Community College, "Grounded Visioning focuses on the positive, giving organizations a powerful process for overcoming even bitter disappointments, efficiently setting the groundwork in place to move together toward a more positive future. This group planning process really works. Gathering together a skeptical group of stakeholders and helping them focus on the positive allowed the organization I had just taken over to break away from a very negative place and envision a more positive future by remembering the good things this organization had originally meant to them. Remarkable progress was made in a very short time and Grounded Visioning proved to be just the process needed to regain our momentum."-Thomas Herrera-Mishler, Chief Executive Officer, Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, "Grounded Visioning-outlined in this book by Jay Vogt-has the unique attribute of capturing the positive and optimistic components of your organization; encouraging your key stakeholders to speak from the heart; articulate their most positive experiences and then develop an aligned plan for your work ahead. Our organization benefited greatly from the quick, positive and action focused approach to developing Strategic Task Groups focused on the future."-Carole Wedge, President, Shepley Bulfinch, "I have watched and benefited from Jay helping to untangle organizational messes for two decades. The guy is a genius. If you've got an organizational challenge, you will not want to miss his book."-Gary Hirshberg, President and CE-Yo, Stonyfield Farm, Inc.

Jay W. Vogt is an organizational and human development consultant who founded Peoplesworth, a consultancy, in 1982. Clients include Nortel Networks, Stonyfield Farm, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and many other mission-driven organizations.