Developing a Shared Vision by Resolving Ambiguities about Quality

A shared vision is what all members of a team or an institution collectively want to accomplish. A shared vision in quality matters can be called a goal or objective before the team, e.g. achieving accreditation of all programs or preparing all individuals to assimilate quality behavior in their day-to-day activities or establish a common strategic plan across all verticals, departments and programs. A shared vision is therefore a product of common interests and a shared purpose. Personal constraints and socio-cultural and linguistic barriers often create attitudinal issues in some individuals, who are reluctant to be a part of a collective or a shared vision of their team. There are many reasons for such an attitude, but the most important is the limited access to information related to rules and procedures and their meaning and purpose. In this era of standardization and accreditation of educational programs, there is a need to orient all individuals with all the required terminologies, jargon and procedures. The absence of such orientation builds a narrow outlook and creates several ambiguities in them.

The presence of ambiguity at workplace is inevitable due to the increasing diversity of the workforce. In quality matters, the ambiguity may be when any information, fact or regulation suggests more than one meaning or interpretation; or when there is more than one solution to a problem. For instance, one may not be able to differentiate between learning objectives and learning outcomes or between direct and indirect methods of teaching and assessment. There is also a lot of ambiguity and a limited approach in mapping the course learning outcomes with the program learning outcomes or aligning institutional KPIs with the Program KPIs, and so on. There is also ambiguity seen in aligning vision, mission and goals statement of programs with those of the institution at the macro levels.

Ambiguities are obstacles in establishing a quality culture in institutions and prevent developing a shared vision. A few techniques are found to resolve these ambiguities, for instance:

1. Discuss ambiguity with all team members patiently and use the consensus style of decision making. This will ensure participation of all team members and lead the way to a shared vision.

2. Ambiguity often originates when a thinking mind takes the challenge to see a thing differently. So, take ambiguity as an opportunity to introduce creativity and innovation in work.

3. Use an ambiguous situation as an opportunity to bring a change, as it allows you to respond to people’s queries, doubts and confusions.

4. Develop such personal characteristics that help you to deal with ambiguity of your team, e.g., interpersonal and communication skills, so that there is clarity in what you speak or write; stress and time management skills so that you can be patient in dealing with ambiguity; a flexible mindset rather than a fixed mindset to see ambiguity as a learning opportunity; and so on.

Arie Kruglanski (1991) developed a “cognitive closure” scale to measure to what extent individuals are willing to “close” their “confusion and ambiguity". The scale devised a standardized way to measure the need for closure in human beings. Those high in need for closure are keen to develop their cognitive domains, accept judgments and team decisions, and never think to exit out of a shared vision. Others low in need for closure, grope and fumble, raise doubts, question the team initiatives and are rarely in agreement with state of affairs, thus remain surrounded by ambiguity and confusion. A team leader in a quality assurance unit can devise a scale or use his wisdom to differentiate between these two types of individuals.

Finally, a shared team vision depends much upon collective action, based on communication, teamwork and collaboration. The Delphi technique is a good method to ensure a shared team vision. The leader with the help of a few creative team members builds a shared vision and plans strategies to realize it with full ownership.