A vision board is more than a collage of dreams. It’s a strategic tool that turns abstract aspirations into a tangible blueprint, especially when you're shaping your organization’s future. Whether you’re kicking off a strategic planning cycle or re-aligning your leadership team, a vision board can help you visualize the path ahead and bring your strategy to life.
In this guide, we’ll walk through what a vision board is, how to create one, and how to use it to supercharge your strategy creation process.
What Is a Vision Board?
At its core, a vision board is a collection of images, words, and symbols that represent your goals. While popular in personal development circles, vision boards are also powerful for business strategy. They can clarify your organization’s purpose, align stakeholders, and kickstart meaningful discussions about the future.
For strategy leaders, a vision board becomes a creative artifact of intent, a rallying point for your leadership team.
Why Use a Vision Board in Strategy Creation?
Vision boards are a natural fit for the “Orient” phase of the OODA Loop. They help teams surface shared ambitions and uncover hidden assumptions. In strategic workshops, vision boards act as visual anchors that spark debate, build buy-in, and guide prioritization.
Vision boards become part of a larger ecosystem of collaborative strategy design. They complement structured frameworks like SWOT and PESTLE by giving voice to emotion, aspiration, and intuition, critical but often overlooked elements in strategic thinking.
How to Create a Vision Board
1. Define Your Purpose
Are you aligning your team on a three-year strategic horizon? Exploring transformation themes? Decide the focus of your board before you begin.
2. Gather Your Inputs
Collect visuals, phrases, headlines, and data that resonate. These could include:
- Photos of successful initiatives
- Quotes from customers or executives
- Market trends
- Your mission and values
- Industry headlines
3. Choose Your Format
You can create your board physically (poster board, magazine clippings) or digitally. We recommend digital boards for collaborative strategy workshops.
4. Build Collaboratively
Invite your leadership team to contribute. Use a dedicated session where each person adds elements that reflect their hopes and priorities for the business.
5. Synthesize and Reflect
Group themes together. Ask: What patterns emerge? Are there competing visions? Use these insights to shape your strategic themes or OKRs.
Vision Board Examples
Here are a few common themes from strategy vision boards:
- Transformation Goals: Innovation, digitization, ESG
- Cultural Aspirations: Agility, collaboration, transparency
- Customer Outcomes: Delight, retention, experience
- Growth Ambitions: New markets, product launches, revenue targets
Final Thoughts
In a strategy world dominated by KPIs and dashboards, vision boards offer a refreshing, human-centered way to think about the future. They help you orient your team, reveal shared purpose, and lay the foundation for bold, aligned strategy.
