Mission and Vision Statements Demystified

Maintain on to your whiteboards, of us. I’d wish to go full Company and discuss mission and imaginative and prescient statements. These items of firm messaging typically get a foul rap—usually for good purpose. Sometimes drafted by committee, they will grow to be refuges for platitudes, quite a lot of compromise and fuzzy pondering. 

Now, if you happen to aren’t precisely clear in regards to the distinction between a mission and imaginative and prescient assertion, you aren’t alone. Even the individuals who write them aren’t at all times positive.

In the present day, I’m going to set the document straight. 

Most mission and imaginative and prescient statements get little consideration as soon as they’ve been formulated. That’s as a result of they weren’t created with a particular technique in thoughts. With out a clear enterprise goal, they don’t drive habits. 

So right here’s Rule Quantity One: Your mission and imaginative and prescient statements are technique. You must write them with particular targets in thoughts. And people targets ought to drive the best way your staff behaves.

Many management groups wish to put their mission and imaginative and prescient statements on their web site. Perhaps they suppose this helps folks see what massive, ahem, targets they’ve. Right here’s the issue: Most potential shoppers simply don’t care. When weighing one service supplier over one other, a agency’s mission and imaginative and prescient don’t even register. I’m not making this up. At Hinge, we’ve done the research. When requested what standards consumers search for when selecting a agency, mission or imaginative and prescient by no means come up.  

That leads us to Rule Quantity Two: Your mission and imaginative and prescient ought to communicate to an inside viewers. They aren’t advertising and marketing messages. As an alternative, they’re instruments to encourage and steer your staff.

Far too many mission and imaginative and prescient statements are too lengthy and have little relevance to the folks they’re for. Prolonged lists of difficult-to-achieve targets or values aren’t going to stay in anybody’s thoughts. They may even be de-motivating if they appear out of contact or out of attain. 

Which brings us to Rule Quantity Three: Maintain them quick. One or two sentences at most. And write them in energetic, concrete language that may encourage your staff. A great way to start these statements is with the phrase “To”.

Now let’s get right down to the nitty gritty.

What Is a Mission Assertion?

Your mission assertion ought to impress and encourage your staff—and describe how your enterprise is altering the world. 

Let’s have a look at an instance, this one for an precise environmental engineering agency:

Our Mission

To beat in the present day’s most pressing international environmental challenges one group at a time. 

Does it fulfill the necessities of a mission assertion? Let’s break it down. This agency aspires to deal with the world’s greatest environmental challenges. And it’s doing it on the group stage. Easy. Brief. And galvanizing.

What Is a Imaginative and prescient Assertion?

Your imaginative and prescient assertion describes your agency’s best future state. What do you wish to obtain? And the way do you wish to be perceived?

Right here’s how the identical environmental engineering agency wrote theirs:

Our Imaginative and prescient

To grow to be the nation’s main environmental consulting and contracting agency, delivering significant, lasting change.

Whereas their mission assertion centered on the agency’s bigger goal on the planet—what motivates their staff on daily basis—the imaginative and prescient assertion describes what they wish to grow to be. On this case, they wish to grow to be the highest agency of their class. That could be a distant objective, however one they imagine they will work towards and obtain over time. The concluding phrase, “delivering significant, lasting change,” softens their enterprise targets, injecting their values and dedication to construct higher communities.

Your individual mission and imaginative and prescient statements are prone to be very totally different from these. In spite of everything, your targets, tradition and values are distinctive to your agency. However many companies have by no means thought of their goal or top-level targets on this manner. The method of engaged on a mission and imaginative and prescient assertion is extremely useful in itself. It forces you to focus your technique and take into account your enterprise from new angles. 

Whether or not you sort out these workout routines by yourself or rent an skilled knowledgeable that can assist you, the method of distilling your enterprise technique into two concise statements can deliver new power, concepts and goal to your staff.