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The relationship between mentors and mentees is at the heart of the induction program.

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The relationship between mentors and mentees is at the heart of the induction program.

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Our program meets and exceeds standards set by the CTC.

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Our program meets and exceeds standards set by the CTC.

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We increase capacity and decrease dependency through coaching and mentor.  Without evaluating our mentees.

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We increase capacity and decrease dependency through coaching and mentor.  Without evaluating our mentees.

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We mentor new teachers as they obtain their clear credential.

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We mentor new teachers as they obtain their clear credential.

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We provide individualized "just in time" coaching support for our teachers based on what they need and when they need it.

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We align our Induction Program to CTC Induction Program Standards, Common Standards and Pre-Conditions and have systems in place to promote reflection, feedback and growth at all levels (Program, mentors, teachers).

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We support new teachers with preliminary credentials to earn a clear credential through completing standards-aligned requirements, guided by a mentor, within a state accredited induction program.

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TIP provides high quality, individualized and differentiated coaching support for new teachers.

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We provide a consistent support system to our new teachers. We are able to guide and encourage them when they are discouraged and feeling vulnerable as a new teacher. Our ability to build relationships with our new teachers allows them to feel valued and cared for by their employer. This helps to foster a true commitment to our district and the scholars.

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We use data to drive our decision making process. Seminar data, mentor surveys, and candidate surveys, and CTC requirements inform our practices.

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TIP provides consistent and focused individualized support. TIP coaches provide a wealth of knowledge along with structured program processes that allow new teachers the opportunity to set goals, complete action research, reflect, and grow in their teaching practices.

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We provide new teachers support and guidance in the growth of their teaching practices. We also assist them in successfully completing state credential requirements.

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The confidentiality aspect of our practice is beneficial to our teachers because they have a safe environment to share, reflect and grow which affects student safety and growth. ~Krista

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The confidentiality aspect of our practice is beneficial to our teachers because they have a safe environment to share, reflect and grow which affects student safety and growth. ~Krista

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We use guidance from the CTC and data from mentor and  teacher surveys to make decisions and give meaningful support to meet established goals. ~Krista

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We use guidance from the CTC and data from mentor and  teacher surveys to make decisions and give meaningful support to meet established goals. ~Krista

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We are trained to support new teachers and prepared to attend to their differentiated needs and qualified to clear their credentials. ~Krista

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We are trained to support new teachers and prepared to attend to their differentiated needs and qualified to clear their credentials. ~Krista

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Our team supports beginning teachers to help ensure their success and in turn their students' success while clearing their credentials. ~ Krista

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Our team supports beginning teachers to help ensure their success and in turn their students' success while clearing their credentials. ~ Krista

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Transform teachers to evaluate, reflect and refine their instructional practices in order to make a positive impact on students daily lives academically, socially, emotionally, and mentally.

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Teacher self-efficacy growth through CSTP Focus Pre/Post Self-Assessment; student data growth from pre/post assessments; PD feedback; mentor attendance rate and feedback, the coaching effectiveness survey pre/post that Shana has teachers do

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Establish an individual supportive climate for teachers and mentors (TPA Support, teacher networking opportunities at TIP Seminars, mentor/cohort support, remove barriers as they arise (observations so we use DEMO videos), demonstration teacher network/support)

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Prepares teachers to be highly effective teachers either in person or virtual based on their teaching prefernce

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Mentors improve and practice coaching skills from attending mentor meetings.. or are we only focusing on teachers?

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Teachers learn and implement instructional strategies from attending TIP Seminars in order to improve their practice and obtain a clear credential at the end of induction

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We use data driven decision making (i.e Advisory Board input, participant surveys, PD feedback)

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We use data driven decision making (i.e Advisory Board input, participant surveys, PD feedback)

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We use a PTRA cycle to to support best practices, apply new learning, and evaluate the effectiveness of our efforts

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We use a PTRA cycle to to support best practices, apply new learning, and evaluate the effectiveness of our efforts

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When teachers complete TIP they are equipped with a plethora of tools and information to help them continue to have a positive impact on student achievement.

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We help teachers align their goals to have the greatest impact on their growth.

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We provide on-the-job support to assist new educators with earning their clear credential.

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We develop lifelong learners who are reflective practitioners

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We develop lifelong learners who are reflective practitioners

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Teachers are collaborative,  positive thinking and focused on student acheivement.

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Every teacher that completes their TIP requirements will successfully clear their credential.

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Teachers learn how to align their core values to their purpose in teaching and reflect deeply on their practice. Leads to high level of student achievement.

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We help teachers obtain their preliminary credential.

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The support our teachers receive is life-changing!

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TIP has a 99% success rate of teachers completing Induction and receiving their credential.

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TIP provides highly trained coaches to every teacher in Induction.

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We provide the support needed to ensure teachers successfully complete their credential.

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How to Write a Good Vision Statement for 2022, Step-by-step + Examples

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How to Write a Good Vision Statement for 2022, Step-by-step + Examples

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A vision statement is the anchor point of any strategic plan. It outlines what an organization would like to ultimately achieve and gives purpose to the existence of the organization. A well written vision statement should be short, simple, specific to your business, leave nothing open to interpretation. It should also have some ambition.

This comprehensive guide will take you through the entire process of writing a well thought out and effective business vision statement, with examples and resources to help along the way.

Let's start off by reminding ourselves of what our end-game looks like in terms of our finished plan:

What is a Vision Statement for?

Here's a quick reminder of what we're trying to achieve when writing a company vision statement (not everything will apply to every organization, but you'll get the gist...)

Creating the pinnacle of the funnel, which every significant action we do going forward will ultimately be contributing towards.

A memorable and inspirational summary that describes our reason for existence as an organization - one that will help to motivate existing employees and even attract high-quality new ones.

A succinct statement about what our organization is trying to achieve to help third parties such as investors or the media better understand us.

A 'limiter' that helps us to rule out certain opportunities which do not ultimately contribute to our vision.

Act as a reminder and a sense of hope for an organization during the tough times.

This article is part of our mini-series 'How To Write A Strategic Plan'. You can download our free 'How To Write A Strategic Plan' eBook which contains all of the articles from the series.

We've also incorporated this strategic planning process into our strategy software which you can try free of charge here. Cascade walks you through a guided strategic planning process with real-time analysis and feedback to help you create an effective strategy.

You can also find the individual articles here:

1. How To Write A Strategic Plan: The Cascade Model

2. How to Write a Good Vision Statement (This Article)

3. How To Create Company Values

4. Creating Strategic Focus Areas

5. How To Write Strategic Objectives

6. How To Create Effective Projects

7. How To Write KPIs

You can use these guides either alongside a free trial of Cascade Strategy (our cloud-based strategy platform) or standalone.

Vision Statement vs Mission Statement

What's the difference between a vision and mission statement? A commonly asked question in 2021 with a relatively simple answer, the main difference is the state in time. The vision statement is the company's desired future position for the business. Whereas, the mission statement is essentially the definition of a company's current business state and objectives.

What a good Vision Statement SHOULD be:

There are a few common rules that pretty much every Business Vision Statement will follow:

1. They should be short - two sentences at an absolute maximum. It's fine to expand on your vision statement with more detail, but you need a version that is punchy and easily memorable.

2. They need to be specific to your business and describe a unique outcome that only you can provide. Generic vision statements that could apply to any organization won't cut it (see our examples below for more on this point).

3. Do not use words that are open to interpretation. For example, saying you will 'maximize shareholder return in 2022' doesn't actually mean anything unless you specify what it actually looks like.

4. Keep it simple enough for people both inside and outside your organization to understand. No technical jargon, no metaphors, and no business buzz-words if at all possible!

5. It should be ambitious enough to be exciting but not too ambitious that it seems unachievable. It's not really a matter of time-framing your vision, because that will vary by organization, but certainly, anything that has a time-frame outside of 3 to 10 years should be challenged as to whether it's appropriate. Writing a vision statement in 2021 Cascade recommends you aim around the year 2026, this is ambitious and far enough in the future to work towards, but not so far that your organization loses its faith and commitment.

6. It needs to align to the company values that you want your people to exhibit as they perform their work. We talk more about company values in this article - but once you've created those company values later on, revisit your Vision to see how well they gel.

Following these rules should give you a solid starting point for creating a vision statement. To help refine things further, we'll now look at some examples of vision statements that did not follow these rules. We've also created a free PDF eBook that you can download: 100 of the World's Greatest Vision Statements.

Some not-so-good Vision Statements Examples (and why)

Here are some real-life vision statement examples that in our opinion, could do with a little tweaking. For each one, we'll try to justify our thinking...

Our company vision is to make every brand more inspiring and the world more intelligent by 2023.

Well, this one gets a tick on the 'ambitious' test if nothing else. But.....is it realistic that 'every brand' will use the services of this company? How about 'making the world more intelligent.' Let's try to quantify what that might actually look like. Or let's not. Because it's impossible. Not to be too harsh though - there are strong elements here; 'making brands more inspiring' makes a lot of sense and has some depth.

Provide maximum value for our shareholders whilst helping our customers to fulfil their dreams.

This 'vision' could pretty much apply to any company, anywhere (it's an insurance company in this case - but would you have guessed that?). It's sort of like saying 'Our Vision is to succeed as a business'. Not wrong - but certainly not inspiring or unique.

Last one...

We are committed to achieving new standards of excellence by providing superior human capital management services and maximizing the potential of all stakeholders - clients, candidates and employees - through the delivery of the most reliable, responsive....[and it goes on, but that's probably enough]...

It would be quite hard to write a vision statement filled with less tangibility and more subjectivity than this one. 'New standards of excellence'. 'Superior human capital management'. 'Maximizing the potential'. There are simply far too many buzzwords, intangibles, and vagueness here for this to be either memorable or inspiring.

We are of course being rather harsh. But hopefully, the above examples illustrate well some of the pitfalls to avoid when creating your own vision.

What is the Process of Writing a Good Vision Statement?

There are literally hundreds of articles out there that give examples of good and bad vision statements. There's also plenty of articles that give a high-level overview of what to consider when creating your own. However, what we noticed was lacking was a concrete process to go through to help you create one. As such, we've outlined a process that we have used with clients in Cascade that might work for you too.

There are plenty of great vision statements out there that will not conform to the process below. But if you're struggling or just need a place to start, then hopefully this will help.

Step 1: Define what you do as an output

Start by being exceptionally clear about what it is your organization actually does. Be careful to remain 'output focused' rather than 'input focused'. For example, Microsoft famously had a vision statement to Put a Microsoft powered computer on every desk in the world (slightly paraphrased). Strictly speaking what Microsoft 'do' is make computer software, but for the purposes of their Vision, they looked forward to the actual outcome of this process - i.e. computers on desks.

Let's look at some other hypothetical examples:

A bakery makes bread. But the outcome is consumers enjoying that bread.

A consulting company gives advice. But the outcome is the success of others based on that advice.

A government department does...lots of things. But the outcome is better lives for the citizens they serve.

Whilst this process may seem obvious - you would be surprised by how rarely organizations actually go through this process in a formal, written way. Doing so will take you a long way towards creating your vision statement - BUT it's not enough alone! If it was, all bakeries, for example, would have the same vision statement - which is hardly inspiring!

Step 2: Define what unique twist your organization brings to the above outcome

Very few products or services these days are truly new - most are more like reinventions of something that exists already, but with a different approach, focus or spin.

At some point in your organization's lifespan - someone will have believed that the reason that THIS organization would be successful where others have failed, was because of.........something.

You need to define that something!

Let's take our bakery example. So far, our vision statement is looking pretty generic, along the lines of customers enjoying our bread. But why will they enjoy our bread MORE than the bread from the place next door? Is it because we use centuries-old traditions passed through generations of our family? Because we only use premium grade locally sourced ingredients? Whatever your unique selling point is - let it shine through in your vision statement.

Step 3: Apply some high-level quantification

A common problem with a vision statement that isn't as good is ironically, that it's too visionary! With no possible end in sight (or a totally unrealistic one) - the initial inspiration derived from a solid vision statement can quickly turn to frustration or even cynicism among employees and customers.

That said - don't be too specific or apply specific metrics at this stage (they will come later in our planning process).

Sticking with our bakery example, we might want to refine our target audience to 'every customer who walks through the door'. That's fine, or maybe we want to be bolder: 'every customer within walking distance of a store'.

The quantification we apply could also be industry specific. If you're a B2B - are you shooting for SMEs or multinationals for example?

Step 4: Add relatable, human, 'real world' aspects

OK, your vision statement by this point should be getting pretty close to finished. But one final trick you can apply to help make it even more memorable is to add a real-life aspect. This will allow people to conjure up a solid mental image to associate with your vision statement. Let's look at an example - which of the following statements is likely to be more memorable:

a) To have every working person in the world using Microsoft product.
or...
b) A Microsoft powered computer on every desk.

I would argue that (b) is more memorable because as I read this, I'm actually visualizing a computer (in my case) sitting on a wooden desk in a room. There's nothing wrong with (a) but it's highly conceptual and thus difficult to transform into a mental picture. Let's look at another example:

Ensure that every customer who leaves our store, does so smiling.

Here, using the word 'smiling' as opposed to 'happy' is powerful, because it conjures a mental image of a person smiling.

It won't always be possible to bring this level of tangibility to a vision statement - but if it is, I would strongly encourage doing so.

Free Access to Vision Statement Toolkit!

The toolkit includes examples of 100+ vision statements & a step-by-step process for building your own. Click the download button below.

How to Bring your Vision Statement Together

Let's finish off with a look at what a well devised vision statement could look like for our bakery. Based on the above:

Producing and selling locally sourced cakes and pies that are so delicious and satisfying, that every customer who leaves our store does so with a smile.

If we deconstruct this into our various steps, we can see each at work as follows:
Producing and selling locally sourced cakes and pies that are so delicious and satisfying, that every customer who leaves our store does so with a smile.
Step 1 - The output
Step 2 - The twist
Step 3 - The quantification
Step 4 - The human connection

Let me reiterate - there are other ways to write a well thought out and effective vision statement. Even if yours doesn't look like this at the end, following the process above will help you to bring structure and purpose to your effort.

In our next article, we'll be looking at creating a great set of company values. The article will discuss how values should link to your vision statement, and how they can support your strategic planning. You can download the entire series 'How To Write A Strategic Plan' as a free eBook.

We'd love to hear your own thoughts about the above process of creating a good vision statement. Comment with your own examples of a bad or good vision statements that really stuck with you!

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How to Write a Good Vision Statement in 2021, Step-by-step + Examples

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A vision statement is the anchor point of any strategic plan. It outlines what an organization would like to ultimately achieve and gives purpose to the existence of the organization. A well written vision statement should be short, simple, specific to your business, leave nothing open to interpretation.