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The recent discussion regarding mission statements typifies
the turmoil that characterizes strategic planning. In turn, no
small part of this turmoil stems from a lack of commonly-held
definitions. Authors and experts use the same terms but with
very different meanings. I'm no academic but I am a scholarly
practitioner and I recently completed a rather extensive review
of the literature and the practice of strategic planning. This
review included the umbrella notions of strategic thinking and
strategic management, and related concepts such as strategy
formulation. The now obligatory best practices study was a
part of the effort, too, as were sessions with consultants and
practitioners. Let me share with you where I came down on
the matter of mission and mission statements.
The first thing to do is to draw a distinction between the two.
A company's mission is its purpose, its reason for being. It
is the organizational equivalent of what an individual might
refer to as "a calling" -- one's mission in life -- the grand
purpose one is to fulfill.
A mission statement is a high-level control device. On the
one hand, it is an attempt to communicate the mission. On
the other hand, communicating the mission is done to provide
guidance and direction -- to channel organizational energy
along desired lines.
Efforts to write mission statements without first clarifying and
gaining consensus regarding the organization's mission are
bound to result in empty mission statements. In trying times,
an empty mission statement can also be dysfunctional.
The organization's wordsmiths can help immensely with crafting
a mission statement once the mission is clear, but the work of
clarifying and developing consensus regarding the organization's
mission is a task that falls to the organization's leaders. Nor can
they simply decide on their own and then announce the mission
to the rest of the organization. Broad-based discussion and
consensus regarding the mission are needed if the subsequent
mission statement is to have any value.
But, once the mission is clear and consensus has been attained,
the mission is embedded in the culture and the mission statement
serves as a current and relevant reminder. At the risk of stating the
obvious, when mission statements lose their power, the appropriate
response is to revisit the mission before rewriting the mission
statement.
How then does one clarify the organization's mission so as to
subsequently be able to craft a meaningful mission statement?
Here's a short list of the things I'm doing:
- Examine the organization's origins, charter, by-laws
- Examine the founder(s)' purposes and intentions
- Review the organization's history, its past actions and
decisions
- Discuss your views with other people in the organization,
lots of them, especially the formal and informal leaders
- Seek the views of others, lots of others, especially the
formal and informal leaders
- Think about it; reflect on all the above
- Try stating the mission, aloud and on paper; try it out
with others; revise accordingly
- Keep at it until you get it right
Regards,
Fred Nickols
Executive Director
Strategic Planning & Management Services
Educational Testing Service
MailStop 02-E
Princeton, NJ 08541
(609) 734-5077 Tel
(609) 734-5990 Fax
fnickols@ets.org
nickols@aol.com
*** All views expressed are mine and not those of ETS ***
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