Development Plan Questionnaire

Name

Title

(Make one up that conveys in 3 words or less what you offer. Sound bite elevator pitch)

One liner

Given a whole line rather than a few words, how would you want your most admiring peer to introduce you?

Make it first person:

What is your mission?

a)      What do you want to do? What action do you want to take? Think of the distinctions between “direct, activate, manage, grow, develop, foster, initiate, drive” and other similar action words. Which best describes the action you want to most take?

b)      Where do you want to see more of by taking that action?

c)      How do you want to do it?

d)     What is the story behind your mission?

Write a mission statement using the above answers. The following format can be a starting place: “My mission is to [a.] more/better/superlative [b.] by/through [c.].”

What is your vision:

a)      What are the values at your core? List top 5, reduce to 3 and write them here:

______________   ______________   ______________

b)      What size community do you want to touch?

c)      Who do you see as agents (people/organizations/sectors/governments with the power to act) within that community?

d)     What do you want people to have? What do they get in your ideal vision?

e)      What is the story driving your vision?

Write a vision statement. Get started on your vision statement with your version of this format: “I envision a [value] [b.] where [c.] have/experience and [values].”

What is your unique ability?

a)      What do you do that no one else can do quite as well or in the way that you do?

b)      Working from the assumption that you are the ideal person to do this work, why are you specifically and especially qualified to manifest this mission and make this vision come into being?

What are your goals for the year?

a)      Be specific—what do you want to achieve? Even if you start out amorphous, bring it down into tangible terms. From “To see more good in the world.” Move towards, “To notice less garbage on my street, more positive comments in conversations, and make more intentional gifts to causes I believe in.”

b)      For each goal, develop a  strategy you want to take to achieve it?

c)      How will you know you have achieved it? It is hard to know there is more “good in the world” if you don’t know what that looks like in the world around you. When looking for evidence, consider what you can sense—feel, see, taste, smell, or hear.

Motivation

a)      Why is this –mission, vision, and goals– important to you?

b)      What is your motivational story? Do you have a “wake-up call” that prompted you to action and reinforced your commitment? (A wake up call is that moment when the world stops moving and you realize what is supremely important in life.)

c)      What do you get out of it? How do you benefit? Emotionally? Financially? Socially? Etc.

Audience

a)      What audience(s) do you want to reach with your work?

b)      Identify the ideal values of your clients.

c)      How else will you know them when you meet them?

Boundaries

a)      What boundaries do you want to set for yourself and for your work?

b)      What are you going to say no to in order to focus on what is important to you?

c)      What are you going to make sure you do more of?

d)     If there are areas of your life in which you waiver, what commitment can you make now to strengthen yourself later?