Many teams «keep busy» without knowing exactly where they are going and, above all, why they are doing what they are doing. As Henry David Thoreau said: «It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?» Before embarking on a new development project, clarify your team's purpose and objectives. What makes it special and how does it create value? What products or services does it produce much better collectively than its members would individually?

• Start by identifying your why. Make sure the team knows perfectly well why it does what it does. Take the time to identify common goals and make them explicit. Why do the team and the organization exist? More pragmatically, why do you get up in the morning? And why is it important to others? As Simon Sinek says: it all starts with why. In adversity, this why will be a solid anchor point and will serve as cement for group cohesion.
• Make your why alive, visible, audible – and even tangible. Drive the point home by using different means to communicate it internally and externally. For example, by formalizing this why in a charter, a video, a mission statement – or any collective achievement likely to materialize and root it.
• Make your vision as clear, precise, and attractive as possible. This will make it easier to motivate the team to work in the desired direction. A compelling vision allows for anticipating an exciting future. If you convey it with confidence, you will launch a rallying cry that will give people the energy to accomplish great things.
• Use your why to create a sense of commitment and attachment to a higher purpose. You hold a way to make teams understand that personal contributions add up to a common interest. Even if objectives have been set for them, groups should not work in isolation. Instill a sense of interdependence and belonging: everyone must feel like they are pulling in the same direction.
• Make sure your purpose and vision statement reflect the team's deep values, aspirations, and motivations, and ensure everyone adheres to it. When people with shared interests unite around a common vision, collective energy automatically intensifies. And success will also have a shared meaning.

• Developing a vision that seems too abstract or too idealistic. If your vision foreshadows a vague, nebulous future, people will likely struggle to adhere to it and trust the guiding forces.
• Thinking that a vision is just a concept that is not really important or that does not fundamentally add value to the organization. Leaders who focus exclusively on results (thus neglecting the why) fail to instill purpose in their teams. It will therefore likely be difficult to obtain better performance from them.
• Doing the exercise just to «tick a box». You risk being out of sync with your team's values and true purpose. Your vision would probably appear too generic.
• Choosing the solo approach. Each person has their own idea of what is important to them. If you advocate for a goal that only makes sense to you, you might «lose» a good part of your team. Only taking your point of view into account limits your thinking and will prevent you from generating real buy-in around you.
• Defining the group's objective at its creation and then forgetting it. This is what I call a reduction factor. Make sure to stay by your team's side to support them in their objective. Encourage the emergence of ideas on how they can continue to evolve in the desired direction. Frequently remind them of the common goal to mobilize energies and strengthen the sense of belonging.