4D Human Being Podcast

Crafting Tomorrow: The Power of Shared Vision in Communication

• 4D Human Being • Season 4 • Episode 44

Share episode

What separates an inspiring leader from a forgettable one? What transforms a difficult conversation into a collaborative breakthrough? What pulls us out of the quagmire of problems and onto the path of possibilities? The answer lies in communicating with vision.

In this episode, we explore why vision is the missing ingredient in so many of our professional and personal interactions. While our natural tendency (reinforced by media and social algorithms) pulls us toward focusing on problems, difficulties, and uncertainties, truly effective communication paints vivid pictures of shared futures that people can step into together.

Drawing from research on high-performing teams and persuasion psychology, we reveal why shared goals create more powerful motivation than any other factor. 

We share practical examples from sports teams like Wrexham FC to corporate turnarounds to everyday scenarios at the coffee machine, demonstrating how vision and storytelling creates connection even in moments of conflict or disagreement.

You'll learn specific techniques to elevate your communication through visionary language, including how to engage all senses, focus on the right number of goals (hint: the brain loves threes), and make your vision "sticky" through repetition. We also explore how to apply these principles not just at work but in personal relationships, transforming everything from family holiday planning to resolving disagreements.

The joy of creating "a thing that wasn't a thing and is now a thing" is one of life's greatest pleasures. By mastering the art of communicating with vision, you'll not only inspire others but discover how to happen to the world rather than letting the world merely happen to you.

Speaker 1:

Hello, my name is Philippa Waller, my name is Penelope Waller and we are two of the directors at 4D Human being. And welcome to the 4D Human being podcast. What's it all about, pen? It's all about your personal and professional relationships. It's about your communication skills, how you lead, how you work and build teams, how you are looking after yourself and your well-being, and how you are much more at choice. What do we mean by that? Well, sometimes we can get a little caught in patterns in life and we can all be a little bit on our automatic pilot. So 40 Human being is all about helping us get back to choice and being a four-dimensional human being. Your fourth dimension, of course, is intention. So, whether it's about your impact, your leadership style, your team dynamics, whether it's about your well-being, it's about your communication or your presentation skills Anything that involves human beings interacting with other human beings 40 Human being are here to help. We're gonna take a deep dive and look at some tools, insights, theories that are gonna help you go from a 3D human doing to a 4D human being, so that you can happen to the world rather than the world simply happening to you.

Speaker 1:

Hello, good afternoon. How are you doing? Very, very well. Do you know? I have realised we've got matching cups for our colour tops. Oh yeah, it's jolly coordinated, isn't it? And a sound effect of slurping that was in real time. Laura didn't have to put that on.

Speaker 1:

I went out for an afternoon tea yesterday it being a sunny Sunday We've talked about cups and in England and the lady came up, so we had a glass of Prosecco included, which was very nice, that kind of tea, it was that kind of tea. And then the lady came up and she said you know who would like tea and who would like coffee? And we all looked at each other like she was completely insane. It's like nobody wants any of that. Well, who drinks coffee? I mean, oh, I see, add a tea, add a tea. I mean. And she was English and I thought, hmm, odd, obviously nobody had coffee. They wouldn't have asked that in the 1920s. No, in a tea shop on High Street, that's what I thought. You'd. Go to a coffee house. I love a tea, phil. I love a tea and a cream.

Speaker 1:

On listen, who was talking about it? Somebody like um, it was somebody. It was a us late night show presenter. Previous late night show presenter talking about uh, he's a bit older than he's, probably I don't know what he's in his 60s. Maybe he was basically saying it's madness, the carbs is over. Like, oh no, it was, it was david letterman the carbs is over. I know it's over. Well, it wasn't yesterday afternoon, but it needs to be now.

Speaker 1:

Here's a stat that's really not related to this podcast, but my chiropractor, who does a lot of weight training, said carbs absorb four times more water than you know anything like a protein, which is basically like eating small sponges. Yeah, eating small sponges. Yeah, that can't be good. That can't be good on any level, on any level. So we I'm we're not talking about coughs, I was laying in bed last night really really looking forward to this topic.

Speaker 1:

Oh, we are talking about communicating with vision. Oh, yeah, now, while, that's a while, that's a general communication topic around, because you, we could be talking about giving a presentation. We could be talking about giving a presentation. We could be talking about leading an organisation, leading a team. We could be talking about one team meeting. It actually serves as a really really good bridge for managing conflict, because, whether you're talking about conflict, difficulty, disagreement or change, if you only go into the difficulty and the conflict and the weeds you might. You might get some empathy, you might get some understanding, but you haven't got shoulder to shoulder. We know where we're going. No, and I think it's really problematic, both globally, corporately and personally. I think there's more of a tendency because of how we're wired, negatively biased, because of, perhaps, how we digest news, perhaps how social media algorithms work we could go into any number of reasons. I think we're a little bit more likely to be talking about what's difficult and problematic or uncertain, rather than where could we be going and what's possible, and I would offer that, and then we're not going to go anywhere.

Speaker 1:

Well, exactly, and if you look at any research at all around teams, collaboration, influencing anything at all, they all point in the same direction. So if you look at, for example, Lencioni's triangle of high performing teams, right at the top are the shared goals, the team result. If you don't have that, you haven't really got a team. If you think about Robert Cialdini and his influencing model, number one by a mile is liking and within liking he puts compliments and appreciation and similarities, but he also puts shared projects, shared goals. So you know whether it's down your local sports club of an evening or if it's an out of dramatic society or it's a team at work, you've got a shared commitment and a shared goal and any research will tell you if you don't have that, it's very difficult to get anywhere and and actually often there isn't a clear. Far too often, far too often.

Speaker 1:

And, as I say, I think politically at the moment, quite often not always, but also professionally, because of so much change, I think there's a huge tendency to spend much more air time talking about the problems and the difficulties and what we're in and the quagmire. And if you think about because you mentioned, like a, you know, like a shared community or sports team, if you think about any sports team, they neither have no goal or vision, yeah, or neither do they sit around going, oh, you know, in the olympics, well, the australians are really good at cycling, yeah, it's. And, and we've had to change our strategy and it's really hard, and that's not, that's not a shared vision. No, the shared vision is gold. Yeah, exactly, and we need to apply the same thing, yeah, and we need to really talk about it.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I think a really good example of this and some people may either not know this or really not appreciate the analogy or comparative, but a really good example of this is the football club in the UK, wrexham. You love that team, I do. I really love it. You love that team. But do you know why I love it? Because I'm not a big football fan fan. But the reason I love it is because they have such a public, visible narrative. Because of the tv series. Just for anybody who doesn't know.

Speaker 1:

So this is a documentary on netflix, partly or a lot because the club was taken over, was bought by um, ryan reynolds and rob mccallany never say no, um and so they've got a lot of publicity. Yes, of course, the documentary, but they really have gone up now. They have been promoted nearly every season, no, every single time in the last three years and they're going to go into the championship next year, which is absolutely incredible. And lots of people don't like the club, of course, but of course the fans really like it. But what I really admire about them and obviously the two people who bought the club understand narrative and storytelling extremely well but what I really like about it is that they have a very public, shared and very moving narrative that, whether whether you agree or not, for me definitely, definitely contributes to the success and and the the sort of collaborative impetus behind that team. It's so much more important, I think, than we think it is. You know who it makes me think of.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to give a shout out to Dave Wilson, who has been a client of ours for many years and worked for one of our very large international clients, and we worked with Dave at the beginning of the pandemic and one of the things that we integrated into the work that we did with him and his team was the moon shot, was the shoot for the moon, and there's a couple of things around that which really makes me think. You know, the Wrexham story reminded me of that. It's the courage to be bold and the courage to risk falling a little bit short. But if you shoot for the moon and this is what dave was so brilliant at we had a really nice set of visuals where, in if the, if you're shooting for that goal of however much money or however much kind of market share or however kind of a new product or whatever it is, or some new innovation, if you're shooting for that, even if you fall short, you've done amazingly. That's right and it's having the, having the courage to risk that? Yeah, rather than being lost in the quagmire. Yes, because otherwise, otherwise we've got there's, there's, there's nothing to shoot for.

Speaker 1:

And I remember seeing a documentary about a group of people who'd been hired by I think I've talked about this before a a new Kentucky fried chicken, and there was an outlet in an area that was struggling with the job numbers and so they had a huge number of applicants to work in this Kentucky fried chicken and what it really demonstrated, this documentary, was that these people, when they came together with a shared goal of really making a success of this restaurant other chicken shops are available goal of really making a success of this restaurant other chicken shops are available that that when they hit their targets and they were all new to this industry it was a really new thing for them. They'd never done it before. So you watch them kind of grow in the roles and when they hit their targets, the celebration was just so heartwarming and it wasn't about all we've made money for, you know, a chicken retailer. It was about the vision that we we had that wasn't a reality and we made it happen. It's like I said to you and emma on our team recently I love a thing that wasn't a thing and is now a thing like that is one of my favorite things in the whole world.

Speaker 1:

It wasn't a thing, the creation of we, we imagine the thing that wasn't a thing and then it became a thing and I just. For me, that is one of the most joyous things. It's like falling in love. You know, yesterday you weren't in love. Now it's a thing I know. It's the most wonderful thing. Do you know?

Speaker 1:

I so often say when we're doing storytelling workshops, that is going to be your thing. Yeah, when we do storytelling workshops, we talk about the fact that, yes, of course, storytelling can be used to craft really great stories about things that have happened in the past brilliant, absolutely fantastic in terms of communication. I think we also underestimate how much story and narrative can be used to create the path that people feel they're able to step into for the future, and we underestimate it. I think we can get you know, I can hold my hand up this we can get lost in the sort of nuts and bolts of life and the problems in the day to day, and if people can't see the path in front of them, it's very, very difficult to get motivation or know what to do. And I think you know, for some of us it can feel a bit intangible to be so connected and believe that the words and the narrative can really have an impact on people and their behaviors, their choices and their motivation. But it it really does.

Speaker 1:

The thing is, once you've imagined it, yeah, it's a thing, yeah, and we talk I talk about this a lot with clients in therapy that when we feel incredibly stuck and we'll stay stuck if it's tolerable we might take a jump if it's just so intolerable. So you think you know the burning platform. Or we talk about boats a lot. So you're on a boat in the middle of the ocean. It's a bit leaky or it's burning a bit, but it's sort of tolerable, so you'll stay there. But this is all because you can't see another boat. We might jump without seeing another boat. If it's so it's burning so much that there's. You know there's no option, but actually we're much better off imagining that other boat, yeah, to step into, to step doors, because you're right, the reason that we talk about uncertainty a lot is because we dislike it so much. You start talking about a shared vision and what it could look like. That's not uncertainty anymore. What did you say to me the other day? Was you that said to me the opposite of uncertainty isn't certainty, no, it's self-trust. Yeah, exactly, but this really ties in with that, you know, it's trusting that you can do it. There's a book I've just started reading. There's such good timing, this podcast and, as I say, this is a real bridge for managing conflict because it's really. We'll talk about how this ties in with a personal relationship as much as a wider, you know, organizational lead. Well, as we said on the last podcast, create or destroy those. Those are options, exactly, and even if you're standing still, you're probably not creating.

Speaker 1:

I'm reading a book by ezra klein and derrick thompson calledundance, and they're both American and they're trying, from the political climate that they're in, they're trying to kind of really analyse like what's going on, what's happening and how do we create a vision for the future that we can potentially share, that we can see that isn't only based on things are terrible, yeah, and in the opening chapter or two, ezra klein has got a fabulous voice. He does a podcast. I love his, love, his voice. He, for about five, ten minutes, he does a section where he describes this way, this way of living, where you've got this clean energy, where you've got, you know, abundant food that doesn't require any animal cruelty, where you know the transport system, the education system, the air that you breathe, the communities that you live in. That he describes it and I was so taken with it. I mean, it was, you know, I suppose you could apply it to anywhere I mean, he was talking about america, but, but anywhere but I was so taken with it.

Speaker 1:

And what struck me about it was, firstly, it was so wonderful to hear and and the pictures came into my mind you know vegetables that aren't grown across tracks of land but are grown vertically upwards, so suddenly we've got all this land which we can rewild and go back to nature. But what, what was so wonderful about, was imagining this, this vision, and also it made me realize how rare that was. Yeah, how rare it is to hear people, to hear and imagine a way of living where everything is, everything is being geared towards producing and innovating for the best possible experience of life. And I just went, we don't hear this whole holistic, pulled together narrative. We just don't hear it. We hear bits of it, maybe. Well, what's interesting about that, I mean, aside from the fact that we don't hear enough people speaking like that, which we'll come on to.

Speaker 1:

But what's really interesting about this is that you have now got a visual in your head and I bet you've got a particular visual. I've got, you've now got that visual and we very often say to people, when we're doing presentation skills, start with an attention grabber. And we very often say, use the phrase can you imagine or picture? And then you describe something, and then they've got an image in their head and that image will never leave them. They'll always have that image and it feels real. It's a thing. It's a thing in your head.

Speaker 1:

It's like I always think of theatre and I love, you know, I love lots of theatre, some theatres, you know it's better than others, but I particularly love that kind of the scale, the theatre that has scale and musicals and kind of ballet and it's. I've been on stage and still I can sit in the audience and will the show not to end because I want to stay in that reality. Yeah, and that is, and that is about. I can see in front of me the scenery and the people and the world feels so real. It feels so real. Now, I know it's not real. I you know, I've been backstage with the arguments with other actors. When you come off, you know from a musical and you've you just done the big number but somebody forgot to hand you the proper, or that you forgot to hand them the proper, and there's all these arguments backstage. You've got a quick change and you know where's the costume person to do whatever. That's really what's going on. But even knowing that, my disbelief is, my belief is completely suspended and I believe that that's how powerful painting a scene is is completely suspended, and I believe that reality, that's how powerful painting a scene is.

Speaker 1:

Well, it goes back to the fact that you know about 95% of the time your brain is in that kind of system. One of this is what you're presenting. It's not sort of fully, fully intentional and awake, and that's how we operate a lot of the time. And so in those states your brain doesn't really know the difference between what is a picture or a description and what is a reality. And we talk about this a lot in terms of you know communication skills and how we're influencing other people. But you know, unless you're having a really terrible time in a theatre, you're not sitting there for an hour and a half saying to yourself remember, this isn't real. Remember, this isn't real. You're just in it. You're just in that slightly, slightly subconscious brain state where you're just lost in it and your brain doesn't know the difference.

Speaker 1:

Then it's why are we still absorbing story so much? I mean, you know books, film, theatre, theater, each other. I mean, even if we think about social media, it you know, love it or loathe it, it's still about that reality, that visual and audio reality that we are constantly being pulled into. I mean, we are absolutely wired for it and it is crazy if you are not using this at work and not I'm going to say this again not just because you own the business and you're sharing a five-year strategy, not just if you're a leader and you're sharing a one-year plan, not just if you're a, you know, a team leader in a meeting for the next, you know, two months project, literally, if you're standing at the coffee machine or even online with a colleague and they're having a moan uh, which fair enough.

Speaker 1:

Like you know, we're all human. We need to vent our emotions they're really feeling negative and and playing down what's happening and and complaining about the uncertainty or the difficulty or somebody. You have a choice in that moment to to go along with that or to offer them a shared vision of what might be possible. I really hear you. That's really tough. I'm I'm really curious about the idea that's been presented to us, or like where, where this is going.

Speaker 1:

I'm wondering if, in a week's time, we could be in a different place. What if, by friday, we were sat down with that person and having a bit of a laugh and imagining the you know, moving through that deadline and actually sharing out these tasks? What if we, you know, went for a walk in the park with them like, build, yeah, build the visions, even in those personal situations, or somebody that you're having a conflict with, where you know it's all about the argument or the responsibility, or they did, they didn't sit down, yeah, and put in front of you on a piece of paper or draw it or, together, imagine it. Where do we want to go? It's also giving you what would we love. It's also giving yourself permission to do that, isn't it?

Speaker 1:

It's, you know, if we're talking about, whether it's personal brand or storytelling, I often use the phrase, you know, break down the walls of the office or the work environment that you're in, because very often when we're talking about our work and what we would like, we we can keep it quite small, based on what we think is possible or what we think our role is or what we feel permitted that we can talk about. But if we think about really inspiring speeches, like you say before, it doesn't necessarily mean that we will achieve 100 of that vision. But really impressive storytelling and vision and really sort of motivating speeches, they tend to break down the walls and by that I mean they are thinking big in terms of what might be possible, what, what could we do? Yeah, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's a little, a little bit of dreaming and if we don't get there, okay. But as you said, everything starts with a dream. Nobody walks down the aisle going, oh well, it'll probably be a bit crap, and we'll probably argue most of the time, and most of the time I'll be cleaning a hob or putting the bins out. I mean, of course, of course, of course we're dreaming, to be honest. Of course we're dreaming, of course we are, you know. Of course we're holding the hope of, you know, whether we're going to buy a house or get a dog or have children or build our careers.

Speaker 1:

I did this with my. I did this with our lovely niece. We can be disappointed on some things, but we can also achieve some of those things. Well, it's a really good example, actually, when we think about love or, you know, perhaps having children, we're pretty good at it as human beings in terms of that. Well, we keep, we keep going. So you know why can't we apply that in other areas of our life? In fact, I did it with our niece the other day, didn't I? When you know she's, she's two weeks away from being due to have a baby and I said something like oh, get a lot of sleep, you're gonna be really tired.

Speaker 1:

But of course, that's not really how we speak to people who are stepping into something so exciting, amazing. We're saying it's an adventure, yeah, exciting, it's wonderful. And which is also true. Yeah, exactly, it is also true. Both are absolutely true. Of course, there's going to be challenges. I mean, and that's true in the workplace, it's true in the workplace, exactly. I mean if we look back at whether we're thinking about 4d or our lives. I mean, I, that's true in the workplace, it's true in the workplace, exactly. I mean, if we look back at whether we're thinking about 4D or our lives. I mean, I'll share with you.

Speaker 1:

Yesterday, on my phone up popped a photo that said 11 years ago today and it was Tom in the airport in Kefalonia, gosh, and of course, he died in 2016. This is a previous partner of mine and as it came up I kind of thought, wow, time really does move on, things really do change. And I don't look at that now and think, oh god, life has just been an endless. You know, he and I had a vision. It still exists. You know, we have the company. It's 4D.

Speaker 1:

Things won't go how you necessarily plan. They'll be different, but if we stop dreaming, I mean, there's one thing I would say about him my goodness, he was a dreamer, he was a dreamer. I mean, he was a creator and a dreamer. Well, but the other thing to say about that? Of course, everything, if you think, you know, sometimes, if I just sort of stop and I look around me and look at, look at everything, whether it's my garden or the washing hanging on the line or the house or, you know, the computer, or everything had to start with a thought and a dream. Everything, yeah, nothing, exactly this, this didn't all pre-exist? No, exactly, and you know if, if you're not having the ideas and the vision, then somebody else will be having the ideas and the vision and that might be brilliant and it might not be the path ahead that you want to walk down.

Speaker 1:

So I think we all have a, we all have a partial responsibility to have a little bit of vision in our lives in terms of what we want. There's a really nice analogy there with acting. Again is that you, you know, you might not be the set decorator or the lighting person, so you might say, actually that's, that's, I'll take that. You know, whether we're thinking about computers or transport systems, right, well, I'm not going to design a train system, so I'll take the one I've got, or I, you know, I might complain to my local councillor if it's not, you know, good enough, but what I will do is so you know, I'm the person who does the props, or I'm the actor. I'll, I will contribute my bit to this vision. So it's not always that you've got to kind of reinvent the wheel, but actually contribute. Like, what's your part here? What are you adding into the mix? Yeah, the other thing I would say on that is to start noticing who are the people that get promoted or get picked for projects, or the set designers that keep getting more and more work. They will very often be the people that are putting a bit of vision into the mix.

Speaker 1:

And we heard somebody speaking the other day again, it was in the US and they were sort of speaking about who's going to be the next leader of the Democratic Party in the US, and the person being interviewed said the number one thing that will define who is the next leader will be somebody who can carve and communicate a vision. That's right, full stop. End of story. That's right, and I thought it's so true. Yeah, it's so true, and I think we can.

Speaker 1:

It's an interesting one because I think we can get lost in the politics of a you know organisation or the like I said earlier the challenges and of a you know organization or the like I said earlier, the challenges and then you know, sort of head down, nose to the grindstone. It's really difficult. Everyone's annoying me. No one's putting their weight as much as me and I'm working hard. Why haven't I been promoted?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and the reason being because, exactly as you say, you might be achieving your deadlines even, but that is so different from inspiring the people around you to want to follow you and go with you and achieve more and expand and be bigger and be optimistic. I mean, I was looking at um, you know the 10 percent, you know give what you can. Or effective altruism, and again I thought, you know it's so easy to just it's the. It's so easy to dismiss things. It's so easy to say, well, what's the point I could drop in the ocean. It actually takes a little bit more effort to go. What if I could? What if I could contribute my bit to that? What might change? What might change? You know what might be the ripple effect of that? It's an easier position, isn't it? The cynic yeah is an easy place to go to. Yeah, and actually just check how quickly you feel you might slide there. You know, take a breath and think, actually, can I, can I energize myself here to talk about what might be possible?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so whether you're leading a team, whether you're in an interview situation, whether you're thinking about your ambition and your career, or whether you're you know, as philip said, selling the coffee machine with your, with your colleagues, there are so many opportunities to bring a bit of vision into into your life into the workplace, I mean even in families. I think it's really nice to have a bit of vision about what's possible. Well, even if even if you're talking about a summer holiday, just notice, if you're like, this is a good example. There's disagreements, don't mention the cat, don't mention the cat. I might mention the cat, I might mention the cat, but this is a good example.

Speaker 1:

If you've got disagreements about where you will want to go on holiday, for example, it might be with friends, if you don't have a immediate family, and you can kind of you can roll your eyes at that, throw your arms up in the air and say, oh, forget it, there's no point, no one can agree. Or you can step into that and actually, why not? Or pitch your ideas. Or what's the? You know what's the whole new idea? What's this? You know what's the melding of the beach holiday and the adventure holiday? You know what's the? What's the new innovation on that? What happens in?

Speaker 1:

If you imagine that group and everyone's oh, I want to do this, I want to do that, or there'll be no wi-fi, whatever it is, what would change if, rather than you know, huffing and puffing, you offered up what if? Well, what if it looked like this and showed some photos like you send me, yeah, on like instagram of these amazing places, I'm like, yes, china, I want to do that. Well, I, I did. I offered up a what, if didn't?

Speaker 1:

I to my youngest daughter this summer, which was in a crazy moment, and she said, now, that's a thing. That wasn't a thing and now it is a thing. She has a cat at her dad's house in Italy and she said you know, I want to bring the cat over to England. Now, bearing in mind that I'm not a huge fan of cats and I have a dog who doesn't like cats, who doesn't like cats, and it's not easy actually transporting a cat across Europe, particularly outside of the continental Europe, into the UK, anyway, I sort of said, oh, you know, you can bring the cat over here. And then I just sort of placed it there and it's sort of expanded, ballooned. It's ballooned into this whole road trip adventure with a cat. It's cat on tour, isn't it, I think? But my daughter is so excited I think you should document it. I think you should take photos and video along the way.

Speaker 1:

I've never travelled with a cat. Yeah, I imagine this cat racing around the car, I know, in a confined space, scratching the room, because at one point I was thinking, oh, I could go with you, we could take the dogs. And then I stopped at that point and was like what am I thinking? A tiny, confined space for thousands of miles with two dogs in a car? Anyway, well, we could document it. I do look forward to that, though I think let's shoot for that, but let's shoot for the moon. But now, like I mean, I haven't done it yet, to be fair, but because I've been visioning it so much, it feels really easy. Well, I'm, I'm really looking forward to that one. But that is a very good example of that.

Speaker 1:

Started from a that started from a difficulty. That started from how can your youngest daughter leave her cat? What are we going to do? How are we going to get that cat, you know, looked after enough, or what if people are away? And event. And then it, you know, increment by increment. And let's be honest, you did not start, you were not starting from a place of no problem, I'll bring the cat. You were starting from a place of this is a problem. I don't think we can have the cat. And but, you know, incrementally you have created a shared vision and now it's a thing I have got to share this vision with my dog. We are definitely definitely doing a follow-up podcast on cat road trips.

Speaker 1:

Okay, have a vision, have a vision. Some visions are going to work better than others, you know. Okay, so how can you bring more communicating with vision to your everyday life? Well, firstly, you need to take some time, because if we don't take a bit of time to dream up or to actually almost shift gear, then we will either just carry on as we are because nothing's going to change. But also the other thing about time I've really been thinking about this is, if you're in uncertainty, if you're in a bit of conflict, a bit of difficulty, the emotional self that might have taken over yeah, may well not be the emotional self of inspiration, joy and possibility. It's probably the emotional self of anxiety, challenge, difficulty, irritation. So if we don't take time to stop and recognize that and say, okay, I think I'm caught in a bit of a spiral here, a bit of a loop, I need to take a bit of time, and literally I it feels to me like almost shifting gear. Yeah, so I'm just going to park that because I've been stuck in that reality. I'm going to park that.

Speaker 1:

What do we really want here? What would I really love for this relationship or this project? Like what, if I pitch forward one month, six months, a year, what would I love and that I am going to pretty much guarantee, unless it's a really, really kind of you know the kind of situation that you know you've got to make a break, or even then the vision is going to be freedom. That is going to be a very different vision from blaming, having a go 100%, getting your you know, getting your weapons ready to make sure you win the argument. Suddenly, you're going to be asking questions like what are we both really? What would we love? What might be possible? Questions like what are we both really? What would we love? What might be possible? Yeah, and this question which I was thinking about last night, which I absolutely loved how can we take care of each other? Yeah, how can we take care of each other over the coming months? Nice, I mean, imagine if you asked someone that who's irritated with you or struggling, and you said you know that might not be your first question. They'd be very discombobulated. They would be really discombobulated because you're not even saying how are you going to take care of me? You're saying how would we love to take care of each other? Through that, that is going to be such a gear shift for them. Yeah, I'm going to build on this and push everyone into what do we really want this to look like? I'm going to build on this with something you just said about.

Speaker 1:

You know those photos that pop up on our phones and say 10 years ago, today or whatever it might be. And do you know what? I don't think we perhaps some of us do enough is recognizing how far we've come? Oh, absolutely. And you know, there's lots of sort of science and stats out there to suggest that our brains are not very good at predicting things, the future. And by that I mean our brains tend to assume that, despite the amount of change that's happened in the past, that amount of change won't happen in the same period in the future. That's not, that's not how our brains work. And so sometimes, if we stop and go right where was I five years ago? Where was I 10 years ago? We've got the past, we've got the present, and then we might be in a better position to envisage or talk about. Well, if, if that was possible, what might be possible in the next period?

Speaker 1:

I love that pen. I absolutely love, love, love that, and not only that. To even even be more granular, that. Where have I come to internally, subjectively, my own personal development, yeah, and where have I come to in terms of the life I've built, or the career I've built, or the personal well, who doesn't recognize myself exactly because you think you're going to be the same as you are now and it's because it's both. You know I, you know you can look at your house and go, oh, wow, I did that. But you can also, if you look internally and go, I am much better than I'm dealing with stress now, like that, god, that's better, that's so. And then if you pitch ahead, you're like I'm gonna be like some kind of guru on a beanbag, exactly. We could almost do it mathematically. You could almost think about your life in terms of, I don't know, your career success or whether you were doing what you wanted or how emotionally regulated you were. Give it a number in the past, give it a number in the past, give it a number in the present, and then, if you got the same score again over the same period going forward. Wow, where could you be.

Speaker 1:

And actually, on that, before we finish our list of things you can do to communicate the vision, you know, when people ask, well, how are you or what are you up to, you always have the choice not to talk about. Well, I put the bins out today you could talk about. You know what I'm really excited about? I've been thinking. I've really been thinking about what, where I want to be in. I mean, your garden is an absolute tribute to this. It's incredible and you would not call yourself a gardener, and it's so beautiful. And you, you just decided a year or two ago that you were gonna redo it and have that vision and it's so lovely. Yeah, so anything's possible. I've kept the plants alive, exactly, even with a dog. Okay, so the other.

Speaker 1:

So some more tips on communicating with vision use all your senses. Really nice way to bring a vision to life for people is to really think about what it's going to look like, feel like, also smell like. That's our strongest sense. Yeah, it's our strongest sense exactly smell. And when you, when you describe these things or what it's going to sound like, you know this office is going to be buzzing with people, with ideas. We're all going to be, you know, chatting away. It's going to be a really exciting space, um, with you know, full of people. It's going to feel like the place that everybody wants to be. Well, that's already you know. It's going to. We're going to put. It's going to be really colorful, whatever it might be. That's how I'm going to go away and talk about, yes, how you're going to go away and talk about it. But also, your brain is now all of your olfactory, your motor cortex, you're all of your sensory core. They've all lit up, yeah, because of the language and the and the imagery that I've used.

Speaker 1:

So, use your senses to communicate from a 4d. Of course, we would also say, use your four dimensions. So how are people going to feel physically, emotionally, intellectually, intentionally, in the context of the two contexts relationship and environment. So you could talk about really easily, talk about a project or an organization. From the physical perspective, we're all going to feel reallyised and kind of. You know we're going to step in. We're going to step in and we're going to feel really connected and much brighter and more positive. We're going to all be really clear about where we're going. Intellectually, we're going to be. We're going to have three top goals that we are all going to be aligned to. Our intention is going to be absolutely to have the most positive impact on our clients that we can have. And, in terms of the relationships, we are going to have a organization, a culture of really high trust and healthy conflict, and I'm going to model that for you and if anybody you know finds me wanting, I want you to come and talk to me. And in terms of environment, I'm really excited to tell you we are going to make over these offices. We are going to make sure that everyone get everyone, get a plan yeah, everyone get a plan plan lighter, brighter, far more plants, and we're going to have a really beautiful communal eating area that we're going to celebrate in at least once a month. So, you know, build it with the four dimensions physical, emotional, intellectual, intentional. That's your shared purpose. And then, of course, relationally and the environment.

Speaker 1:

Three things use that one. Be really really clear. Yeah, you know we so often say this. Don't tell people a million things that we're going to look like in the future. There's one thing to add on to this. So, if we're thinking about the vision for the future, one thing is if it's too woolly and too fluffy, people have got nothing to get hold of. On the other hand, if you've got sort of 16 goals, people cannot remember them and they certainly cannot prioritise them. Also, it's going to pull people apart because I'm working on goal three and you're working on goal 15. Exactly so.

Speaker 1:

If you're using mission statements, it's tangible as possible. We love the three things. If you give your team or your colleagues that there's three things that we're going to aim for in a year's time, it's tangible, it feels possible, it's realistic, they can remember them, they can go and repeat them to somebody else. The brain loves the three. So, um, structure around your vision is really, really useful. We have a number of structures that we use at 4d, so we'll use three things for that those sort of goals really clear and crisp. We also have a lovely visioning future storying structure as well, but it's about being inspiring and motivating but also giving some tangibility. Yeah, absolutely and unlimited. Like you know, people are not going to remember a 10 page dialogue.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly, we're going to be about three things over the coming year. We're going to be about sharing ideas on a regular basis, that's at least once a week. You're going to be in an idea sharing meeting. We're going to be all about a four day week. We're going to make sure that actually we have compressed hours. I want you to have time off to come up with, to have some brain time to relax more, to connect more. So we're really going to we're going to be very focused in terms of how we use our time and, thirdly, are going to be more customer focused than you can even imagine. We are going to be absolutely. They are top, top, top of the list. We are going to delight our customers this year.

Speaker 1:

Great, there are three things that I'm clear, what we can do exactly. I'm going to add a couple more in here. To communicate with vision, write it down, have a shared document or a kind of shared poster or a screensaver or something that is outside of your heads, because if you and I write down, it's like having a contract, isn't it? If we have it outside of ourselves, it's much easier for me to say, oh, I'm just noticing that, um, you're not listening to my shared idea here. I just want to check in. Can we just go back to our, you know, agreement, our kind of shared vision? How? How might we, you know, just serve that a bit more. It just feels a bit less personal. I know we all get caught up, we're all busy. How can we really go back to that external shared agreement? I'm going to add one as well, which is going back to what you said about the four dimensions.

Speaker 1:

Very often, depending on your background in terms of your education and the job that you do, it can be that the emotional dimension can get missed out of visioning and goals. It can you do. It can be that the emotional dimension can get missed out of visioning and goals. It can be going a bit to the intellectual. So I often say, if that is your tendency, if you're a bit more sort of, as I say, nuts and bolts, facts and information yeah, targets or sort of numbers just try adding two or three adjectives into your vision visioning speech. It will make all the difference in terms of how it feels.

Speaker 1:

I couldn't agree more and I've been in workshops where I've been asked to come and do some creativity and what they've, where they've been at, is they've set the parameters around a monetary goal to reach and that it's okay. It's okay, but it's not the full picture in terms of getting people connected and motivated. It's just we're not heart and right hemisphere of brain not quite engaging there. Because what I would say about that goes back to what I said about breaking down the walls of the organization. Yes, great, Of course we've got a profit target or turnover target. Of course we have. You know, we need to have that. What does that mean Exactly? What does that mean exactly? What does that mean for your employees? What does it mean for your customers? What does it mean for the world at large? It's not. It's not that don't have it, but have it connected to. Some of the boys are going. They'll be worse. That's not a cat. They'll be worse when the cat comes.

Speaker 1:

And if, if that, if that goal or vision is either not connected to some emotions, some emotive feelings for your people, or our sound's gone off the roof on GarageBand or if it's not connected to a sort of a broader purpose outside of the organisation, it's just a little bit harder for people to feel motivated. I heard a really nice one on that the other day is, if you think about what you do and the value that you bring, what would be different if you stopped doing what you do and the value that you bring, what would be different if you stopped doing what you do? So, if you didn't all serve this vision, what would be the loss in terms of the value and the impact on other people, to the customer or the end consumer? To the customer or the end consumer exactly? And my final one is repeat, rinse and repeat. Oh yes, so re-refer, don't just say it once, because that's, that's not sticky. We want this message to be repeated and repeat it, repeat it and repeat it again.

Speaker 1:

I think a lot of politicians could learn this. And you know, I, I very often say, actually you stop adding more to the list, yeah, because, and you think, well, I've said that no, no, no. And I very often say, even in conflict, you know, going back to how we started this conversation, if you're, if you're in a sort of slightly difficult discussion with somebody, of course you can get pulled off. That's right down a path and you end up just sort of saying different things to justify or explain. You've got to stick your stake in the ground with your sentence or your three things and just hold firm that if you repeat enough, it will become clearer. And if you find yourself, if you find that the culture is turning a bit negative or you find people are in disagreement or conflict or feeling demotivated.

Speaker 1:

Use the shared vision to come back to. I really hear you. It's a really tough time. I really want to remind you. We are going to share some ideas today. We're going to break through this. We're going to set up a meeting. Let's have a lunch meeting 45 minutes because one of our main shared visions is to share ideas and we are we're going to break through today. Use it to come back to, to solve problems rather than, well, tell me about how you feel. Totally yeah, but there's a place for that. I'm not saying it's not a place for that. And, of course, at 4D we we say all the time behaviors matter, like it matters to put these things into action.

Speaker 1:

And we do still need to use the language repeatedly. You know it's no good coming up with a vision saying at the annual kickoff meeting and then never saying it again like it's. It needs to be repeated exactly. There's a, there's a game show, uh, in the UK called mastermind and you have a chosen subject and you wouldn't read like if you were doing I don't know Charles Dickens as your chosen subject. You are not going to flick through those books once and be an expert on them. You're going to read them again and again and so you know them. And if anybody asks you anything on them, you absolutely know them. So things don't become sticky because we we hear or watch them.

Speaker 1:

Once we don't watch a movie and then are able to repeat it verbatim the only reason we can repeat pretty woman verbatim. I knew you were gonna choose that. I knew you were gonna choose that movie because we watched this baby, this baby. God is like it's not real. I can do the whole script of pretty woman. That was basically my teen and twenties. Exactly, I'm Downton Abbey. I love that film.

Speaker 1:

There was talk about a pretty woman too. I know that's happening. Stop it. So I love it. I love that. You knew I was going to say that, but you know how powerful is it. It's so funny. You say that because I was in the woods this morning with Ben. He's looking really, really shaggy. He needs a haircut Fluffy, fluffy, shaggy. And this guy and his family walked by and he went oh, a little Wookiee. And I went and he went. You know Star Wars and I went. No, I was watching Pretty Woman. That wasn't sticky for me. So, exactly that.

Speaker 1:

So what you don't want. If you are a leader or your team member or running an organization, you do not want your people to be like rookie what you don't want them to be that person who has never heard of the movie that you've been trying to describe. Your vision needs to be their version of Pretty Woman or Star Wars, whatever they are a fan of. Exactly that, exactly that, okay, good. So go, communicate with vision. Build that vision of the future. It's so exciting. It's like having a blank page that you can create anything on. Remember, one of the most exciting things is having a thing that wasn't a thing, yeah, and it's now a thing, woohoo, woohoo.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the 4D Human being Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. Do take on board some of the insights, tools and tips, because every time that you try something new to get back to choice, you are making a vote for the you that you want to become and I love that phrase pen, I do too and please do share this episode with somebody that you know would really benefit from the lessons and learnings we've been chatting about today and, of course, if you're interested in more from 40 human being. Do get in touch. We run workshops, trainings online, in person, conference events and keynotes. We've got the 4d on-demand platform for your whole organization and we do have a free essentials membership where anybody can sign up for absolutely free to access some of our insights, tools and tips. So do get in touch with us if you'd like to hear more. We cannot wait to hear from you and to carry on the conversation.