Mission Statement
In every organisation, the workers are the ones who deliver on the plan of the company. For this purpose, encouraging good habits of communication and openness within your team is essential to success. Your mission statement is a strong, unifying communication tool that can inspire and guide the company to where it wants to go.
It pays off in more consistent execution to consumers when the team embraces and shares a well-designed, high quality mission statement. Without a codified declaration, well-trained and inspired workers will be going in the direction they think is best (individually or in small groups), risking being out of line with the overall strategic focus leaders want.
I have been analysing mission statements for the past two decades and found that they appear to fall into one of five groups based on both the priorities of the senior management and the reaction of the employees. Including:
The well thought-out, widely accepted mission statement
Senior management knows where it is taking the company in category # 1, the well-designed mission statement, and works with workers to keep it in their minds top of the list. Employees feel motivated, and are driven by a clear direction for their work.
We have a statement of purpose and now let's get back to work
Class # 2 involves companies that represent the ethos: "We finally have a mission statement — now get back to work." Senior management suggests that "this project thing" is not really relevant with this group.
Management thinks that only meeting the budget is more important, and is just issuing a mission statement for the public and the analysts. It sees the argument as simply full of words with which no one really can disagree.
Employees are shocked by the reaction. Ask these workers about their job, and only a few can tell you what it is (sort of), but they quickly confess that it is not what they do every day and so it really doesn't matter.
Vague to the extent that this is not helpful
In category # 3, "We don't have a goal — can you suggest a conceptual plan, intent plan or overarching objective? "Senior management here suggests that 'specificity is not just our thing; we tend to be ambiguous.' Workers respond by understanding just vaguely what they want. They think it's a good thing this argument isn't having an effect on them every day.
Initial call to action
Valuations but no course
Companies in category #4, if they are truthful, might say: "We're not sure who we are, but we have 'values.'" Here, senior management means that everything goes as long as the workers uphold these principles. Unfortunately frustration reigns for the staff. Leaders are finding themselves losing corporate assets in an attempt to define the principles of value, whilst the organisation is spending unnecessary effort exploring all potential for growth.
Overriding preference for flexible retention
Leaders in category # 5 are likely to be motivated by the belief that "statements of some sort might limit our choices, so we have none." With this, senior management says it would do anything to make revenue, gain market share and grow the business. The approach leaves workers feeling disempowered, sometimes feeling desperate. Company money are pumped into every development opportunity, and politics wins the day.
Why your company supports the well-designed, well-adopted mission statement
A great mission statement has a remarkable potential to direct any employee's attention within the organisation if, and only if, it is well crafted and executed with a clear emphasis that positions it above all the everyday firefights of the company.
Doing "fine" on the average employee's day is not enough for the company to really differentiate itself from the rest of its rivals. What one employee considers to be "good" can exactly offset the efforts of another employee's perception of "good." Even on a small scale, this produces a situation in which everyone works incredibly hard, and yet the organisation appears to produce only average returns on a continuous basis.
There is a people's organisation to achieve what the man can not achieve on his own. Coordination and communication are the most pressing issues which emerge as the organisation develops. As Henry Mintzberg pointed out in his seminal book on structuring organisations several years ago, the problems of teamwork and collaboration are really the ongoing challenge to keep employee attention centred on the organisation's unique purpose.
If you've figured out what constitutes the organisation's competitive advantages, executing the strategy logically starts with a practical, centred plan, based on those advantages that can be used by every person in the business to make decisions.
My long experience of helping organisations create effective mission statements has led me to establish a five-point approach to developing effective mission statements. These five points should guide the "art" of drawing up a statement of quality. Statements on project should be:
Brief. It suits in on a mug of coffee.
Easy. Easy. The mission should be something everyone can learn and understand inside the business.
Administrative. Every day it should direct every single person in the business.
Real. It shows us exactly what the firm is doing and not doing.
Maybe observable. For any part of the mission statement a metric can be created.
If you're looking for more guidance on how to write a mission statement for your organisation, or if you're looking for mission statement examples, check out these links.
It pays off in more consistent execution to consumers when the team embraces and shares a well-designed, high quality mission statement. Without a codified declaration, well-trained and inspired workers will be going in the direction they think is best (individually or in small groups), risking being out of line with the overall strategic focus leaders want.
I have been analysing mission statements for the past two decades and found that they appear to fall into one of five groups based on both the priorities of the senior management and the reaction of the employees. Including:
The well thought-out, widely accepted mission statement
Senior management knows where it is taking the company in category # 1, the well-designed mission statement, and works with workers to keep it in their minds top of the list. Employees feel motivated, and are driven by a clear direction for their work.
We have a statement of purpose and now let's get back to work
Class # 2 involves companies that represent the ethos: "We finally have a mission statement — now get back to work." Senior management suggests that "this project thing" is not really relevant with this group.
Management thinks that only meeting the budget is more important, and is just issuing a mission statement for the public and the analysts. It sees the argument as simply full of words with which no one really can disagree.
Employees are shocked by the reaction. Ask these workers about their job, and only a few can tell you what it is (sort of), but they quickly confess that it is not what they do every day and so it really doesn't matter.
Vague to the extent that this is not helpful
In category # 3, "We don't have a goal — can you suggest a conceptual plan, intent plan or overarching objective? "Senior management here suggests that 'specificity is not just our thing; we tend to be ambiguous.' Workers respond by understanding just vaguely what they want. They think it's a good thing this argument isn't having an effect on them every day.
Initial call to action
Valuations but no course
Companies in category #4, if they are truthful, might say: "We're not sure who we are, but we have 'values.'" Here, senior management means that everything goes as long as the workers uphold these principles. Unfortunately frustration reigns for the staff. Leaders are finding themselves losing corporate assets in an attempt to define the principles of value, whilst the organisation is spending unnecessary effort exploring all potential for growth.
Overriding preference for flexible retention
Leaders in category # 5 are likely to be motivated by the belief that "statements of some sort might limit our choices, so we have none." With this, senior management says it would do anything to make revenue, gain market share and grow the business. The approach leaves workers feeling disempowered, sometimes feeling desperate. Company money are pumped into every development opportunity, and politics wins the day.
Why your company supports the well-designed, well-adopted mission statement
A great mission statement has a remarkable potential to direct any employee's attention within the organisation if, and only if, it is well crafted and executed with a clear emphasis that positions it above all the everyday firefights of the company.
Doing "fine" on the average employee's day is not enough for the company to really differentiate itself from the rest of its rivals. What one employee considers to be "good" can exactly offset the efforts of another employee's perception of "good." Even on a small scale, this produces a situation in which everyone works incredibly hard, and yet the organisation appears to produce only average returns on a continuous basis.
There is a people's organisation to achieve what the man can not achieve on his own. Coordination and communication are the most pressing issues which emerge as the organisation develops. As Henry Mintzberg pointed out in his seminal book on structuring organisations several years ago, the problems of teamwork and collaboration are really the ongoing challenge to keep employee attention centred on the organisation's unique purpose.
If you've figured out what constitutes the organisation's competitive advantages, executing the strategy logically starts with a practical, centred plan, based on those advantages that can be used by every person in the business to make decisions.
My long experience of helping organisations create effective mission statements has led me to establish a five-point approach to developing effective mission statements. These five points should guide the "art" of drawing up a statement of quality. Statements on project should be:
Brief. It suits in on a mug of coffee.
Easy. Easy. The mission should be something everyone can learn and understand inside the business.
Administrative. Every day it should direct every single person in the business.
Real. It shows us exactly what the firm is doing and not doing.
Maybe observable. For any part of the mission statement a metric can be created.
If you're looking for more guidance on how to write a mission statement for your organisation, or if you're looking for mission statement examples, check out these links.
