Business Plans Help Leaders Visualise Success
Visualisation is an essential step in achieving your goals. Here’s a useful exercise to help your team plan for success in the new year.
At the start of every 24HR Business Plan Session, we ask our clients to imagine they’re at the work Christmas party in 3 years’ time, celebrating the success of their plan. They’re somewhere exotic. Let’s say Hamilton Island. They’re standing on a super yacht dressed to the nines. And their CEO is popping bottles of champagne off the side of the yacht with a sword.
Then we ask them, “what happened to achieve that success?”
Sounds like a fun icebreaker, no? Better than the old two truths, one lie exercise at least.
Although we use this exercise to loosen everyone up, the reality is that it’s grounded deeply in visualisation techniques. A concept that we believe in wholeheartedly and one that is backed by years of evidence.
For example, a French study in the 70s found that Olympic long jumpers who visualised their jump and went through the actual motion of it performed better 45% of the time.
We know what you’re thinking. That’s just one example. And maybe you’re not into sports. How about another?
In 1985, before he was famous, Jim Carrey wrote himself a $10 million dollar cheque for ‘acting services rendered’. He dated it 10 years in the future and he kept it in his wallet at all times.
In November 1995, he landed a leading role in the hit movie ‘Dumb & Dumber’ for - you guessed it - $10 million dollars.
There’s so much more to unpack in Jim Carrey’s story than just the power of visualisation. Like the importance of setting time-bound goals. But let’s save that for another day.
All in all, it’s a great story. But you’re right. It’s not a business example. This one is. 71% of the fastest-growing companies have a business plan and business plans increase your chance of growth by 48%.
Do you see what we’re getting at here? Business plans help leaders visualise and achieve success. How? By starting with the end in mind and then working backwards to map what needs to be done in order to get there.
So given we’re 3 months out from the new calendar year, we encourage you to try this exercise with your team. Perhaps followed by a planning session where you document some goals and tactics for 2023. And if you need some help, be sure to reach out.
