Shared vision fuels optimism, teamwork, and increased productivity towards the realization of the organizational long-term goals. Educational institution’s vision should be well communicated through a transformational and visionary leader at the helm, this inspires teamwork and a sense of purpose for the stakeholders. Common vision immensely contributes to increased productivity because of its capability to foster effective teamwork. The possibility and success of teamwork when an educational organization advocate for a shared vision, is the much-needed energy for team learning since it fosters collaboration and sharing of ideas leading to increased performance.
Introduction
The educational organization comprises different types of people with varying traits, origins, beliefs, and values. It is the goal of every learning institution to organize all the stakeholders and motivate them in one direction. This kind of motivation can be achieved through the crafting of a well-thoughtful vision, that is ambitious and aims for the improvement of the organization and community. Educational organizations with clearly defined visions often outperform those with opaque visions. A shared vision is a fuel that drives the organization and keeps it grounded every single day. This paper seeks to deconstruct the benefits of a shared vision in an educational organization and its impacts on team learning.
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Shared Vision
The success of any educational organization is pegged on its vision and competitive strategies in place to realize it. Vision connotes the organization’s desired future or the direction they intend to inspire its stakeholders towards. During the development of a shared vision, an institution has to assess its purpose and the core values to establish what the future holds for them. This assessment enables the organization to see the future from a clear lens, enabling them to develop steps needed to be executed daily to achieve such a vision (Matinheikki, Rajala, & Peltokorpi, 2017). A vision qualifies to be shared if all stakeholders in an educational organization play part in the establishment of the organization’s vision. The stakeholders involved should be administrators, teachers, students, parents, community members, local businesses, local leaders, state representatives, school board among others (Matinheikki, Rajala, & Peltokorpi, 2017). The participation of stakeholders, helps the organization incorporate their needs and concerns in its goals.
Educational institution’s shared vision enables it to attract aggressive leaders willing to inspire their teams towards the realization of their goals. For instance, an institution would want to foster the development of compassionate students from their teaching approach. This is a long term vision that not only impacts the performance of the institution positively but also the society at large. From such a vision, the institution chooses to look beyond the normal grades and add a value-based curriculum in its initiatives to develop well-equipped students (Martin,et.al, 2014). For an organization to realize such a vision, a competent leader has to be at the helm to inspire and compel the team to see the vision, take ownership, and aggressively work towards the achievement of the same.
The progress of the organization has to be inspired once the stakeholders are cognizant of their present situation; whether within or without the institution. This kind of realizations reveals to them where they ought to be and the steps needed to get there. A vision becomes a basis for the assessment of all operations, behaviors, investment, and outcomes (Stewart-Banks, et.al, 2015). This assessment allows the institution to apply checks and balances in their operations to ascertain that they are aligned with their long-term vision. Shared vision boosts stakeholders’ morale, especially; staff members, administrators, teachers, and students. When the vision is clear, the actions and tasks needed to be performed by each member tend to be clear (Stewart-Banks, Kuofie, Hakim, & Branch, 2015). This clarity enables teams to execute their part to contribute to the achievement of the organization’s vision.
Shared vision inspires a culture of belief and proud ownership of the organization’s values by all stakeholders. This pride and ownership automatically inspire the need to develop and improve the image of the institution. Such a culture creates togetherness and bonds which transcends the differences among the members. It enables them to relinquish such differences and focus on the common goal. Office politics is the root cause of distractions from the main goal of the organization (Boyatzis, Rochford, & Taylor, 2015). However, a strong and clearly defined vision rids off such politics because everyone identifies, understands, and commits to working their part in the realization of the institution’s vision. Such kind of undistracted focus and attention cannot be destroyed by politics bound to occur in an institution.
Impacts of Shared Vision on Team Learning
The presence of strategies that are deeply rooted in teamwork philosophies within educational institutions fosters team learning. This model of learning creates room for collaboration, discussion, and sharing of ideas at every stage (Willenbrock, 2017). Strongly shared vision in an organization brings all members together and motivates them to adopt organizational values and optimism to a projected future (Berson, Da'as, & Waldman, 2015). Common vision fosters collaboration and relationships among different members in an organization and eventually contributes to the formulation of a formidable team. This becomes the much-needed recipe for the success of team learning (Berson, Da'as, & Waldman, 2015). The bonding realized from having a common vision fuels teams towards great productivity, through taking ownership of the vision, identifying with it, and striving towards its realization.
Vision enables stakeholders and teams to find purpose within the organization, allowing them to focus such energies towards the transformation of their organization. Such a transformation can be realized through the achievement of the clearly defined common vision. Team works prosper because transformational and visionary leaders inspire them to see and be optimistic of a fruitful future. The same inspiration contributes towards collaboration in learning, which results in increased productivity and performance within an educational institution
References
Berson, Y., Da'as, R., & Waldman, D. A. (2015). How Do Leaders and their Teams Bring about Organizational Learning and Outcomes? Personnel Psychology, 68 (1), 79-108.
Boyatzis, R. E., Rochford, K., & Taylor, S. N. (2015). The role of the positive emotional attractor in vision and shared vision: toward effective leadership, relationships, and engagement. Frontiers in Psychology, 6 . doi:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00670/full
Martin, J., McCormak, B., Fitzsimons, D., & Spiriq, R. (2014). The importance of inspiring a shared vision. International Practice Development Journal, 4 (2), 1-15.
Matinheikki, J., Rajala, R., & Peltokorpi, A. (2017). From the profit of one toward benefitting many – Crafting a vision of shared value creation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 162 , 583-593.
Stewart-Banks, B., Kuofie, M., Hakim, A., & Branch, R. (2015). Education Leadership Styles Impact on Work Performance and Morale of Staff. Journal of Marketing & Management, 6 (2), 87-105.
Willenbrock, N. L. (2017). Team Learning: New Insights Through a Temporal Lens. Small Group Research, 48 (2), 123-130.
