Visioning Case Study: The Future of Quality Connections
In late 2019 Quality Connections CEO Armando Bernasconi asked Moline Creative to facilitate a fun, interactive visioning process for the leadership team. After an initial conversation, we decided to draw a vision map that shows where QC was and where they wanted to be and worked through the visual process described below during a half-day retreat. The final 2020 Vision Map (scroll to bottom) hung at QC for several years until they accomplished much of what they set out to do - including digital connectivity, a preschool, and almost acquiring land to build a campus and farm!
We met again in 2022 to revisit and update the vision, which morphed and grew during the pandemic. The QC 2022 Vision (above) now hangs in the main conference room where the leadership team uses it to walk visitors, donors, and new employees through the current organizational structure and QC's vision for the future.
We met again in 2022 to revisit and update the vision, which morphed and grew during the pandemic. The QC 2022 Vision (above) now hangs in the main conference room where the leadership team uses it to walk visitors, donors, and new employees through the current organizational structure and QC's vision for the future.
Part 1. How will we get to the future?
Prior to the meeting the CEO of Quality Connections and Moline Creative decided that we would ask the leadership team to look at the organization as if it were a vehicle. We used the visual metaphor of a bus. This is a sample of some of the questions we discussed:
- What's the bus like? The rules are posted on the bus. Everyone is wearing seat belts. It is warm and comfortable. All seats are equally good.
- Who drives the bus? All six members of the leadership team take turns driving, but the CEO picks the route and passengers have input.
- What powers the bus? It's a hybrid: gas, electricity, rocket fuel, billable hours, sales of office supplies, love...
- What is the name of the bus? Ben's Bus - dedicated to the inspiration behind Quality Connections.
Part 2. Where are we now, where are we going, and what gets in the way?
Each of the leadership team members talked with Angie before the workshop about how they see Quality Connections now and what they'd like to see in the future. Angie took some of these general ideas and created a rough Vision Map that shows where QC is now, where the organization is headed, and the gap (bridge) that needs to be crossed. Then, the leadership team collaboratively generated a clearer vision of Quality Connections' future during the workshop.
Part 3. QC Vision (2020). Ben's bus will take QC into the future.
The final vision map shows where QC was in 2020 - a small regional organization with a lot of love - and where the organization wanted to be - a statewide organization that is digitally interconnected, diverse, and sustainable. The final drawing is a combination of ideas that were generated during the workshop and additional ideas submitted on individual participant drawings. Angie created this digital drawing in her studio so it could be easily scaled, printed, and even animated according to the client's needs. The version hanging in the office has text annotations, which are not present on this copy.