About Shared vision

Talking about the time when the organization helped me to mobilize behind a shared vision makes me recall my time with the previous company in Imagine Designs. It’s an IT company with it’s based in the United Kingdom. At the time, I was working as Program Coordinator of IT of the company and handled overall development activity from Nepal. The workflow was just normal and things kept on repeating itself, a new project will come, I’ve to assist the team here for the development, communicate with clients and likewise; there was nothing that I could see achieving with the same. But when I attended the board meeting, I realized the company’s vision of being one of the leading development company providing viable solutions for an online presence to other business. The organization also aimed at providing a certain percentage (20%) of the profit to the people in need by donating it to the organization working on the area or mobilizing its own team as per the need. This vision as mentioned by our Head of Operations John Simmons made me rally behind the idea as I always wanted to give back to the community while doing what I’m best at. It matched perfectly and that was something which motivated me to rally behind this shared vision of me myself and the company.

I consider myself as someone who is never ready to settle for anything small. I always wanted to give back to the community and when I was just in college, I envisioned an idea of a project which I started implementing in small scale. At that time, I neither had skills or resources to bring that dream into reality fully. I met a likeminded person in Sujan and several other joined forces. The support and motivation provided me a good team to start it off with. We started learning about things that we wanted to do and few years down the line, we were able to register the company for the website with resources like academic advice with a panel of experts, subject notes for college students, a platform to share their creativity and several others. I envisioned a website where students from all backgrounds can come in and share their resources while gaining knowledge and I was able to bring everyone together behind this idea to give their precious time for the project. Knowing the greater good that we aimed to do, everyone that we approached joined the team. I assisted them by providing various training and organizing knowledge sharing events, allowing a common sharing culture and lead from the front by setting an example and working every moment of the day and night to make the project a success. We as a company together were able to achieve what we started to do with several thousand people viewing or using the resources every single day for several years now in succession. The platform was able to transform digital education in some way by providing much-needed resources and assistance at a fingertip. Through the organization that we initiated ourselves, I was able to bring people with common vision together to help mobilize behind the shared vision of ourself and the fundamental ground on which the organization started.

A shared vision is a picture that everyone in the company carries in their heads and hearts (Streetdirectory.com, n.d.). In his book, “The fifth Discipline”, Peter Senge describes shared vision as a force of impressive power and a force of people’s hearts (Senge, 1990).

A shared vision gives direction to the people. It is essential for the growth of an organization. An organization can only move ahead at a good rate if the organization and the employees have a collective shared vision.

Assistance for Shared Vision:

I am associated with a start-up which supports entrepreneurs. The company has a dream of investing in a hundred problem solving entrepreneurs in a decade. One of the main reasons that I am working with the company is because of the campaign it has initiated namely “WorkInNepal”. I have always believed that the path to development for our country is mobilization of skilled workforce within the country itself. While, others presume in going abroad for settlement as there are a lot of problems in Nepal, I always considered it the other way round. These feelings led me to work with organizations working for similar causes. With the determination to do something for the nation, I once started a company which didn’t do well for a number of reasons. There are a number of factors that leads to success. I might have possessed some but was short in having others. However, in the current organization I am working with, I get to understand things from the basic level. I have been helping other entrepreneurs when they get stuck in their due course of business. I had a vision but association with this company has helped me gain clarity on the way I can move towards my vision. As, we share a common vision, I have been able to work effectively and efficiently. My seniors help me in my confusions and help me decide the path I should take. We are also doing well in our projects because of the synergy we have created due to the common goals. And at this rate, we believe that we can not only create a hundred but a multiple of hundred entrepreneurs in a decade.

My efforts in mobilizing a Shared Vision

“A poorest person in the world is a person without a dream.” (Nmeribe, 2015). A person should dream and work rigorously to achieve it. However, it doesn’t happen overnight and one should take small steps to reach the desired goal. At times, we miss out on our works resulting to a number of meetings. Discussions are necessary but working to achieve it is more necessary for me. As a result, I believe in working more than spending time on discussions. I push my team members to give me the smallest of details and keep the meetings precise and to the point.

References
Nmeribe, F. (2015, 07 01). linkedin.com/pulse/poorest-person-.... Retrieved from linkedin.com/pulse/poorest-person-... linkedin.com/pulse/poorest-person-...

Senge, P. M. (1990). The fifth Discipline. New York: Currency Doubieday.

Streetdirectory.com. (n.d.). streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/2... . Retrieved from streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/2... streetdirectory.com/

The underlining vision that my humanitarian organization, Caritas Nepal, shares is that we work for the people in need. In the recent earthquake that shook Nepal, there was need for humanitarian workers to assist the people in need. My seniors had earlier shared their stories of hardship and how they overcame them, what it was like when they had worked in the previous assistance programs. . “Leaders forge unity of purpose by showing constituents how the dream is for the common good. (Kouzes & Posner, 2003, p. 11)” These sharing were so interesting and appealed to me. Thus when it came time for me to give my part, without hesitation, I started to work on the logistics of bringing in humanitarian consignments for the people in need. With the vision at heart I was motivated to give my best and so we did. We were able to collect all the goods sent to us and dispatch to over 8 districts amidst the fear, the confusion and the ad reline rush from the still shaking ground.

I was motivated to work to the best of my potential. This made my team members give their best. I still talk to some of the volunteers who share how they worked all night. They share how they worked the way they did because they followed my work and for the vision I had shared with them. Those times we were driven with the will to do what we could for the people in need and so did not complain about the hardship, the hunger or the wee hours into the night. After working to sheer exhaustion for over 3 months we were proud to accomplish our task at hand gaining high praises form my seniors. “My own practice is always to try to work ‘at the edge of my competence’. By this I mean to expose myself to the potential pain of change by seeking new learning experiences as well as fulfilling the leadership expectations placed upon me by the office I hold. (Gorringe, et al., 1994)”

Reference

Gorringe, R., Bridge, W., Silver, R., Henry, T., Limb, A., Ruddiman, K., . . . Togher, J. (1994). Changing the Culture of a College. Coombe Lodge Report; v24 n3 1994 , 51. Retrieved from files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED37472...

Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2003). Inspire a shared vision. In B. P. Jim Kouzes, THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE Workbook (p. 11). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

According to Kouzes & Posner (2009), a shared vision is a picture that everyone in the company carries in their heads and hearts. It gives a direction to the people. It is essential for the growth of an organization. An organization can only move ahead at a good rate if the organization and the employees have a collective shared vision.

Assistance for Shared Vision

I am associated with Jobs Dynamics, a 360-degree human resources services offering firm headquartered in Kamalpokhari, Kathmandu offering recruiting, training, consulting, outsourcing and complete human resource solutions at various levels (Jobs dynamics, n.d.). The company set their vision of being one stop solution for human resource management service. Here, I had a vision on working in this human resource management field, but association with this company has helped me gain clarity on the way I can move towards my vision. As, we share a common vision on human resource management, I have been able to work effectively and efficiently. My seniors or say mentors help me in my confusions and help me decide the path I should take.

My efforts in mobilizing a Shared Vision

"A poorest person in the world is a person without a dream” (Munroe, 2007). A person should dream and work rigorously to achieve it. However, it doesn’t happen overnight and one should take small steps to reach the desired goal. At times, we miss out on our works resulting to a number of meetings. Discussions are necessary but working to achieve it is more necessary for me. As a result, I believe in working more than spending time on discussions. I push my team members to give me the smallest of details and keep the meetings precise and to the point.

References

Jobs dynamics. (n.d.). About us . Retrieved from jobsdynamics.com/cms/about-us

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2009). To lead, create a shared vision.

Munroe, M. (2007). Releasing your potential: Exposing the hidden you . Destiny Image Publishers.

A shared vision is a picture that everyone working in the organization carries in their hearts and minds. It converts the organization into “our organization” by allowing everyone to work together for a common purpose. It helps in creating common identity. People are committed to a shared vision because it reflects their personal vision. Shared vision captures collective minds and will. Senge define shared vision as “ a force in people’s heart… a force of impressive power… At its simplest level, a shared vision is the answer to the question, “What do we want to create?”.

To talk about the team helping in mobilizing behind a shared vision, I would like to recall the experience of Teach for Nepal. Teach for Nepal is a movement where the young professionals and university graduates come together with a commitment to end education inequity prevalent in Nepal starting with a two year fellowship teaching in a public school. The vision of Teach for Nepal is “One day all children in Nepal will attain an excellent education.” Every person who is not satisfied with the current education system and want to contribute towards education will feel connected towards the vision like I was. Since teaching was a profession I never thought I would pursue, initially I was in a dilemma regarding my choice. Though I wanted to contribute to the vision, I had doubts on my teaching skills. The training and development team of Teach for Nepal initially supported me with a residential training where I was given the necessary sessions, trainings, exposures and techniques about teaching. They prepared me well regarding the unforeseen circumstances I may face during the two years of my fellowship journey. Even after the placement, our respective leadership development managers were there with whom I could talk and seek help regarding both personal and professional issues. My co-fellows with whom I had to teach in the school and who were also driven by the same vision helped me throughout my two years journey by providing suggestions and constructive feedbacks about my performance that will eventually effect the vision we were working for.

Currently I am working in a home health care organization named Health at Home Pvt. Ltd. Health at Home is an institution that provides customized health care services at your home at reasonable costs. The services includes doctor visits, counselling, nurse placement, lab tests, physiotherapy, vaccinations, drug delivery, equipment rental amongst others. There I look after the operations and communications. The vision of the organization is to bring inspiration and hope in the life of people through care and everyone in the organization works for the same. I help the team members especially who look after the care department by communicating the feedbacks we receive from our client regarding the care part so that they can plan the service delivery effectively. Since I communicate frequently to the employees working outside the organization, I communicate the team regarding the staff issues to be addressed and suggest the ways to address them as in the service industry like ours the quality of care is highly dependent on the performance of the employees. I also assist in trainings conducted in our institution in weekly basis by giving some insights about the non-medical part of the care service.

References

Senge, P. (n.d.). The Fifth Discipline.