Had an opportunity to help someone craft a Mission and Vision statement for a new product line recently. It was an interesting experience, and gave me a chance to demonstrate how focusing on the intangible, humanistic side of things is so much more than just pie-in-the-sky “fluff.”
While struggling with the concept, he was doing what many of us do – he was so focused on creating a highly prosaic statement that justified the product’s existence that he completely lost sight of why the product was developed in the first place. What I asked him was, “Never mind the words in the ‘statement.’ Let’s just have a conversation and see what comes out of it. Tell me….what is this thing’s purpose? What problem is it trying to solve?”
Off the cuff, he launched into a simple, succinct description of why the product had been created and who would benefit from it, and why that benefit was important to the people involved. ”There,” I said, “that’s your mission statement.”
Next, I asked him what he’d like to change in the world with this product? If he could give it away instead of sell it, what good would come about in the lives of the people he gave it to? Once again, he stated his ideals simply and created a picture of something he could be proud of. As a result, he now had his Vision statement.
From Business school exercises to real-world working sessions, I’ve seen people engage their brains all the way up top 11 when trying to craft something that’s supposed to create guidance and alignment throughout the organization. My best advice: forget the rampant intellectualism and speak a little bit more from the heart.
Your objective, when crafting a Mission and Vision, isn’t to show the world how smart you are. It’s to show how much you honestly care about the people you serve.
Copyright © 2011 David Kasprzak
