The 5 Bold Steps Vision® Canvas was created by David Sibbet, of the Grove International.

A vision statement can be thought of as a compass. When creating your initial vision statement you are essentially articulating your dreams for your business and answering the question, “Where do you want to go?” A clear and compelling vision provides direction in everything you and your colleagues do by bringing focus and providing an anchor point for bold strategic choices. It should inspire, engage and activate people and set up the framework for your strategic planning. Ask each other this question every day: does this action, activity, experiment, project get us closer to realizing our vision and the things that matter to our customers, clients, and other stakeholders? If the answer is no, then don’t waste time, energy, and money on it.

Design Your Vision Visually With a Model

The 5 Bold Steps tool will help clarify what supports your vision, what challenges your vision, and what opportunities are created in working toward your vision. Best of all, the model will help you derive design criteria for your business model(s) and strategy. Probably the greatest aspect of the vision canvas is that your entire vision, including actions, supports, opportunities, and challenges, will be on one sheet of paper versus a large business plan. It’s simple to share and easy to translate into guidelines to base decisions and communication on or around.

Here is how to best complete the model:

1. Vision Statement
What is the future state of our company? How are we going to help our customers?

2. Essential themes
What are the essential themes supporting your vision? Is it about customer centric? About Quality? Innovation? Mention 3 to 6 themes in 1 or 2 single words that support your vision.

3. How it shows up
How will the themes show up in our company? How will we make the vision themes concrete and how will we inspire others?

4. Supports
What are the supports that enable us to reach our future? The key to capturing the supports for your vision is to ask yourself (and your team): “Why us? Why now/then?” What does your organization need to do to support your vision?

5. Challenges
What are the challenges that hinder us from reaching our future?

6. 5 bold steps
As you and your team begin to create the ideas of your future together, you’ll also need to capture the aspects of your organization, your strategy, and the broader steps that are necessary to achieve this vision. What are the 5 bold steps to take in order to achieve your vision?

7. Key values
What are the crucial values that form the foundation for your vision and steps? How can we align those values?