Team vision
How to create a team vision people care about
A team vision only works if the team cares about it. That rarely happens when it's written by one person and handed out. Here's how to build one with your team that is simple, memorable and connected to the bigger strategy.
The short answer: a good team vision is a short story about where the team is going and why it matters, in everyday language, written with the team rather than for them. In a large organisation it translates the company strategy into what it means for this team. Start with open questions, listen, find the common threads, and keep it somewhere everyone sees it.
The laminated vision nobody remembered
Years ago, inspired by a book about how a fast-growing tech company was run, I spent weeks writing a one-page vision for the business I ran. At the top it said we wanted to build a £100 million company. I had it printed, laminated and put on every desk, and I referred to it in every team meeting.
Months later, at a management meeting, I asked a simple question: "Can anyone tell me what our vision is?" There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Then one of our analysts offered: "I think it was something to do with a number."
A £100 million company meant a lot to me. It meant nothing to them. I had written a vision about my ambitions, using the word "I" rather than "we", and expected everyone else to be inspired by it.
What a good team vision looks like
When Captain Michael Abrashoff took command of the USS Benfold, it was ranked near the bottom of the US Navy's Pacific Fleet, with poor safety and worse morale. The story he gave the crew was simple: "We're going to be the best damn ship in the Navy." No long-winded mission statement, no management speak. Within a year the ship was among the best in the fleet.
A good team vision has the same qualities:
- Simple. One or two sentences anyone in the team can repeat.
- In everyday language. The way the team actually talks, not the way a strategy deck is written.
- Emotional. It should make people feel something, ideally pride.
- Outward-facing. About the difference the team makes for customers or colleagues, not just a number.
- Co-created. People commit to a story they helped write.
Turning the company strategy into your team's story
In a large organisation you aren't starting from a blank page. There is a corporate vision and a strategy, and your team's story needs to fit inside them. But a strategy rarely tells someone why their work matters on a Monday morning. Your job is to translate it.
Think of the story of President Kennedy visiting NASA in 1962. He stopped to ask a man carrying a broom what he did. "I'm helping put a man on the moon," came the reply. The janitor saw his part in the bigger mission. That's what a good team vision does.
How to create it with your team
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Share the bigger picture honestly
Explain the organisation's direction and what it asks of your team. Be clear about what is fixed and what the team can shape.
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Ask open questions
Make it clear there are no wrong answers and you don't have one in your back pocket. Good questions include: "What would make us proud to be part of this team?", "What would we love to be known for?", "Who are the customers or colleagues we would most like to help, and how?" and "What do we enjoy doing most, and what would we like to do more of?"
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Find the common threads
Look for the ideas that create energy across the group. A data analytics team I led spent several sessions on this and settled on a mission to become "the world's best data treasure hunters", digging into client data to find the stories hidden inside. It was simple, a bit playful and it stuck.
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Agree it in a reasonable time
Your role is to pull the threads together and help the team reach a consensus without the process dragging on for months.
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Keep it visible and keep using it
A vision filed in a drawer is forgotten. Put it somewhere people see it every day and use it to make decisions: "Does this help us get there?"
A quick test
Ask your team: "What's our story? What are we all aiming at?" If the answers don't match, or don't stir any feeling, you have found your next piece of work. It may be the most valuable thing you do this year.
Try this week: ask three people in your team, separately, to describe in one sentence what the team is trying to achieve. Compare the answers.
Questions people ask
What should a team vision include?
A short statement of where the team is going and why it matters, in everyday language, connected to the organisation's strategy and focused on the difference the team makes for others.
How do you write a team vision statement?
Write it with the team, not for them. Share the bigger picture, ask open questions about what would make the team proud, find the common threads and agree a simple sentence or two everyone can repeat.
How is a team vision different from the company vision?
The company vision sets the overall direction. A team vision translates it into what it means for one team and the part that team plays.
Related guides
Sources
The stories and practical ideas on this page come from the book. The figures in the blue boxes come from the published research below.
- Harter, J. (2026). U.S. Employee Engagement Declines From 2020 Peak. Gallup.
- Dhingra, N., Samo, A., Schaninger, B. and Schrimper, M. (2021). Help your employees find purpose, or watch them leave. McKinsey & Company.
From the book Be More Human
The ideas and stories on this page come from Be More Human: Rethinking the Rules of High-Performance Teamwork by Caspar Craven: what he learnt, often the hard way, about building teams in business, at home and at sea. It's written for anyone asking why their team isn't getting the results it could, or what's wrong with the culture.