Agency Vision Tool - Ultimate Agency

Introduction

Agency vision is the pinnacle of the planning pyramid.
It will set the ethos, the characteristic spirit of what you are endeavouring to build with your Ultimate Agency

In a few steps you will clarify your scattered perceptions of what your Agency will stand for, do and how it will achieve value and results for all those involved.
It will set the standards for stakeholders whether they are customers, team or principals and others.

PLEASE WRITE YOUR ANSWERS IN SENTENCES

From here the planning process will flow to:

Establishing where you business is positioned at the current time.
Designing the detail and structure of your defined Ultimate Agency.
Setting a Strategic Plan for the journey to become your Ultimate Agency.
Refining more detailed goals for the next year.

Then the mission towards the vision can begin.

Next Save and Exit

As the Business Owner or the Team

As the owner of the Agency you can write your Vision and then have it validated by your team. You may also opt to have your entire team involved in the creation of the vision that they are going to be part of delivering. This tool caters for both approaches.

As the Business Owner
If you would like to create the Agency Vision as the owner click here Continue as owner

You may like to take a look at the team section just in case it inspires you to get your team input. Then continue to the body of the creation of the vision and follow the prompts.

Team Involvement
This is a practical and an inspirational project. It is therefore most effective when it captures the imagination and enthusiasm of those who will be charged with delivering on it. To create a document that appeals to the widest range of motivating impulses gives the most effective result. The Vision statement is most effective when it is internalized by the team and thus involving the team in its creation is the most likely way for this to happen.

A vision of the business owner alone is like a dictatorship. However, in most cases the business owner has all the capital invested and takes ultimate responsibility for the success of the venture, so the exercise is not a simple democratic one where the group can determine the outcome. This is where true leadership skills are put to the test to arrive at a consensus that is agreed to and motivating to all.

Continue as team Next Save and Exit

Team Creation of the Vision Statement

This is best done as a team workshop. It will take half a day and is best done with your team off site to create an objective viewpoint about the business.
You will need a whiteboard to record the answers to the questions that appear in the remainder of this tool.
The trick here is to distil the results. Long rambling lists will not yield as good a result as clear short statements.
Brevity and clarity is the game.

Avoid referring to what we call "Motherhood statements". For example : "We are Professional". What does that mean? Define it in terms of what your business does eg same day response, elite dress code or whatever your version of professional means.

Run the workshop in a "Facilitator style" ie a consultative discussion based interaction using the QUESTIONS on the agenda to elicit the answers and questions to resolve the final form of the text.
It is usually best if it is facilitated by someone other than the Agency Principal.

Photograph the results of each whiteboard so they can be later input into the template that is the remainder of this tool.

AGENDA FOR THE TEAM WORKSHOP

STEP	SUPPORTING QUESTIONS	OUTPUT REQUIRED
1. INTRODUCTION 👉We are here to develop The Agency Vision Definition of Vision Example of the outcome	Do you all see the benefit of clearly understanding where we are taking this organisation? Do you want to have input to the direction and future development of the business?	Team understanding of the motivation and results of this exercise. Team buy-in to the future direction.
2. Discuss the components of the document.	What aspects of our Vision do we want to capture and document? The destination for the business (What we are going to achieve together) What makes us different and better than others in the industry What we stand for (Our ethics and values) Our Key Result Areas Our commitment (The WOW Factor) Our common undertaking to each other.	Team understand the objective of the workshop and a framework for how we are going to get the result.
3. Create the destination for the business	Using the questions in the remainder of this online tool, develop a sentence or two that captures that aspect of the future for the business. Some of this will require discussion to ensure that all in the group are "Buying in" to the vision and direction. Care must be taken that this segment is not dictated by the business owner but does reflect their plans.	A sentence or two for each component identified.
4. Visually Paint the Picture.	What images do we want to support our statements A team photo A photo of our business An image of what we create or sell	A series of ideas for images that can be captured.
5. What title are we going to give our document?	The document does not necessarily have to be called "Our Vision"	A title for the document.

Back Next Save and Exit

Part 1. Gather the Components of your Vision

Answer the questions about your Ultimate Agency, ie. As it will exist, not necessarily how it exists today. PLEASE WRITE YOUR ANSWERS IN SENTENCES
Define the business you are in:			INSTRUCTIONS
List the Services your Agency offers:			INSTRUCTIONS
What problems do you solve for your Customers and what value do you deliver to them?			INSTRUCTIONS
What target market / geographical area are these services offered to?			INSTRUCTIONS
List the core values that your Agency embraces (Max 5)			INSTRUCTIONS
Highlight what sets your Agency apart from others in the industry			INSTRUCTIONS
What is your WOW Factor?			INSTRUCTIONS

Back Next Save and Exit

Part 2. Distil your Vision

It's now time to combine all the results above into your Vision Statement. The outcome we are after here is a coherent written statement that encapsulates all your thinking from above.

INSPIRATION

Distill the answers so far into a one page statement

Make it realistic yet ambitious. Strike a balance between setting challenging goals and maintaining attainability. It should be memorable, impactful, and capture the essence of your agency's future, the "Vibe" of what you are setting out to create.

Craft the statements until the outcome is something you are proud of; Something you would "Shout from the rooftops". Write your statement in the space below.

If you need an alternate way to construct this statement you can do so using ChatGPT. To see how to do this continue to the next page and paste the resulting statement back into the space below:

Back Next Save and Exit

Part 2. Distil your Vision Using ChatGPT

If you want an alternative method we can use AI to create your statement. In order for ChatGPT to create an amazing Vision Statement for your Agency you have to give it very specific instructions. Here is how:

Open a word doc that we will use as a workboard to create the instruction to Chat GPT
Write your instruction in the following format. It can be as long as you like.
- I want you to create a Vision Statement for a Real Estate Agency. It should be about 2 to 3 paragraphs long and written in a motivational style. In order for you to have the context of the company the following elements describe it.
- The company history and background is ...
- The core values it embraces are ....
- The Unique Selling Proposition is ....
- It serves the target market of ...
- The culture is .....
- In the long term it strives to be .....
- The Wow-factor of the Agency is .....
Open ChatGPT https://chat.openai.com and copy your statement into the prompt box. See what it generates and then you could ask it to rework the answer into a:
More casual style, more formal style, shorter, more punchy, etc. and keep generating versions until you find one you like or paste together excerpts from what is produced to give you exactly what inspires you.
If you don't get what you want from ChatGPT try BARD https://bard.google.com
When you have generated / and edited the Vision Statement so you are delighted with it copy and paste it into the space on the previous page in this tool.

Back Next Save and Exit

Part 3. Picture it

Having a Vision is great. Having it displayed is POWERFUL. When people can see your vision daily it reinforces your purpose, standards, direction and inspiration.

Now that you have invested all this time and effort it is counter-productive to get a less than perfect result. Select a graphic designer with good credentials and send all the components you have collected together with a copy of this document to act as a "brief" and get a professional to compile your masterpiece.

There are a number of ways you can display your vision but they all have one thing in common - Don't be boring!

Take a look at the examples on the inspiration tab of this page.
Decide what style and format you want for your Agency
Get your team input on creating the brief for your designer
Contact your graphic designer to build something spectacular from the text that you have so far.
Try to use photographs of your business rather than resorting to stock images
When the draft layout comes back, check that it covers all the bases - it should make your heart skip.
Consider having the final document signed by all those who are making the pledge to secure ist success and realization.
Display the results in the best place to get the impact of your vision

INSPIRATION

We cannot over-emphasise the importance of this step as it means the total difference between success and failure. A substandard document will raise a feeling of wasted effort and apathy towards the vision, whereas aesthetically pleasing document will secure buy-in and commitment.

The outcome can then be proudly displayed as a signpost to the future and a check on direction.

Back Next Save and Exit

Part 4. Make it Real

We are creating a SHARED VISION
Great leadership is the art of empowering others to deliver a shared objective.

Hopefully your whole team has been involved in creating your vision statement. There has probably also been some time between the creation of the raw material and the final version in its inspirational formal. To ensure it is enshrined in the psyche of the organisation its now time to have a "Launch event" or a "Reveal Party"

Set a time for your team to celebrate this milestone in the development of the Agency.

As much champagne as you think fit, or whatever format of event is appropriate in your organisation but don't let this opportunity to align your team pass without something taking place.

Agenda elements for the function can include:

Thanks for your input
Here is the result
We all have to now live by this
If people are breaking the code - call them on it
This will help ensure that the great culture we have endures
It is a clear visual set of standards that future people who join us will have to commit to as a condition of being part of our group
We will review this to keep it current as the business and world evolves
This is part of a number of future plans for the business including .....
In some cases the team sign the documented vision showing their commitment to delivery and the rest of the team

Back Save and Exit

AGENCY VISION INSTRUCTIONS

Introduction

As the Business Owner or the Team

Team Creation of the Vision Statement

AGENDA FOR THE TEAM WORKSHOP

Part 1. Gather the Components of your Vision

Part 2. Distil your Vision

Part 2. Distil your Vision Using ChatGPT

Part 3. Picture it

Part 4. Make it Real

AGENCY VISION
INSTRUCTIONS