As our company grows, our Visionary keeps bringing shiny new ideas to the leadership team mid-quarter, which derails our progress and confuses our staff. How do we keep our Visionary engaged without causing operational whiplash for the leadership team?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic Visionary trait. Visionaries are designed to generate ideas, but when those ideas are injected directly into daily operations, they create chaos. To protect your leadership team's focus, you must establish a healthy barrier between the Visionary's ideas and the team's execution.

First, use the Same Page Meeting™ process. The Visionary and the Integrator must meet regularly, usually weekly or bi-weekly, to align their thinking. During this meeting, the Visionary can pitch all their new ideas directly to the Integrator. The Integrator's job is to act as a filter, deciding which ideas are viable and when they should be introduced.

Second, introduce a physical or digital tool called the parking lot or the V/TO® long-term issues list. When the Visionary has a new idea mid-quarter, it goes directly onto this list. It is not discussed by the leadership team until the next quarterly planning session. This gives the idea time to breathe and prevents it from derailing current Rocks.

During the quarterly meeting, the team can look at the idea objectively alongside all other strategic priorities. This allows the Visionary to feel heard while keeping the leadership team focused on executing the plan.