Guided Practice: Negative Vision

“The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will change. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want you to stay where they are. Friends that don't help you climb will want you to crawl. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that don't increase you will eventually decrease you.

The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate - for the good and the bad.

Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.."..”

―Colin Powell

Context of Exercise: The overall goal in a partnership process is to build identification, ownership and commitment to a positive vision and plan. There are times and situations however, that necessitate a not so subtle push to get groups going. A negative vision is developed during the beginning stages of a group in order to push a group through apathy, conflict, denial or immobility. The goal of this process is to create a very bleak picture of the future that personalizes the negative consequences associated with maintaining the status quo. This is a vision that they would want to “move away from” because it is so unacceptable.

A negative vision is developed by brainstorming the negative consequences that occur when a team is ineffective in their task. This bleak future leverages personal responsibility. Psychologically three conditions must be met for a person to feel responsible:

  • Individual perceives a real need.
  • Individual understands that the task is theirs to do.
  • Individual feels capable of completing the task at hand.

In the Negative Vision process the group is taken through a guided visualization and asked to identify what it would be like if nothing were accomplished through their work together. The role of the facilitator is to make certain that the negative consequences become highly personalized to each team member. At the conclusion of the process, the negative vision is posted in an area of the room that is separate from the major working area of the room, yet is highly visible to any team member while in the room (on the doorway as people enter and leave the work space). This original chart is brought out and posted in the same location of the room for each meeting until the group is well into the task phase of their work. At times of conflict, resistance, or turf struggles, the facilitator can point to the negative vision and challenge the group to work creatively through the current barrier. The negative vision is the future this team will experience as the alternative to working through their issues.

Suggested Process Steps:

Step 1:Probing the Group with Questions:

Questions should be designed to fit the specific context of the team. The following are provided as guides. The questions are asked and the responses are charted using a bold color not normally used by the facilitator (red or black). The facilitative leader needs to push the group with these questions. The facilitator often takes considerable flack from the group for being so negative. Some people in the group will try and hijack the process and turn it into a positive discussion. This should be avoided. The purpose is to break the lethargy of the group by making them face the negative consequences of their inaction or lack of commitment to the team process. The sequence of the questions normally starts out probing consequences to the system or the client, and gradually moves to identifying personal consequences of inactivity:

What would be the consequences to the clients we served if we didn’t accomplish anything through our work? And so what?

What would be the consequences of stagnation to our organization or to our team? So what?

How would you feel about your participation in this team or this organization?

What impact would this have on your job or continued employment?

What impact would this have on your family?

Step 2:Challenging the Current Status Quo

At the conclusion of the questioning and charting, the group is challenged with the question, “Is there any reason to believe that this won’t be your future if we are unable to find creative ways to work productively and collaboratively to achieve our outcomes?”

Step 3:What Needs to Shift

The final conversation has to do with what must shift for people in order to get focused to achieve the desire outcomes. This is an evidence discussion and ultimately generates some new conditions and agreements for the group in order to move forward.