To help managers create a vision with their team, Google offers the following steps to help teams define their values and connect them to their short-term goals:

• Core values describe the team’s deeply held beliefs; these feed into the team purpose and mission.
• Purpose is the reason why the team exists, and how the team impacts the organization. If the team didn’t exist, what would happen?
• Mission describes what the team is trying to achieve.
• Strategy is how the team plans to realize the mission. Strategy can be long-term.
• Goals break down the strategy into shorter-term, achievable objectives and help align the team’s efforts.

Together, the values, purpose, mission, and strategies make up the team vision — why the team exists, what the team is trying to achieve, and how it’ll get there.

The team exercise below is designed to be a manager-led session of eight hours over two days. You can customize the content to fit your team’s needs. The exercise is intended to help your team understand the importance of a team vision and articulate the core values, purpose, mission, and strategy that drive your work, as well as how you intend to get there. The focus of the session is intended to be on facilitating group discussions and activities rather than presenting slides.