Mission Statement and Mission Fidelity
Everyone has a mission statement, and therefore, everyone agrees that a mission statement is important, right? Not really. Walk around your shop and ask everyone to recite the mission statement, and likely you will get one of two responses. Either, they cannot recite it by heart because it is too long, too complex, or simply never mentioned. The other response you might get is to hear your mission repeated back to you with a sigh that belies a feeling of boredom at the trite or oversimplified phrasing. What you rarely get is a sincere and energetic fist pump, a burst of energy that arises from the mere articulation of the mission of your organization.
So why do we have mission statements at all? Well, first and foremost, your mission statement tells the public why you are in existence. In essence, it is the selling point of your organization and should, therefore, be clear and concise. Secondly, the mission statement of any organization is used as an internal means of directing the activities of an organization. Thus, the mission statement serves a dual purpose, both an external neon sign telling the world why you exist, and an internal roadmap helping your people find their way to meaningfully fulfill your organization’s purpose.
This article focuses primarily on the latter purpose. During these difficult economic times, using your mission statement as a roadmap is more important than ever. Doing so will help you and your people to prioritize correctly so that you can accomplish more, better for less.
Mission Statement as the Touchstone for Strategy
When developing your strategies, either for the long term or the short-term, you should be able to compare the objectives of these strategies to your mission. It is an excellent way to ensure that you will be staying true to the services you have promised to offer to the community. That’s right. You made a promise to fulfill a specific mission. Keep in mind, your mission statement was reviewed by the Internal Revenue Service to verify that the organization’s purpose matches the requirements obtaining tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) status.[1] It is essential to make sure that the mission statement you are sharing with the public matches the services that you are offering.
In order to align strategy with your mission, you have two choices: either change the mission statement or change the strategy. Most mission statements do not need a complete overhaul, so it’s more likely you need to work on Mission Fidelity more than you need to write a new mission statement. But it is possible that your statement could use some sharpening.
Take some time to examine your existing mission statement. If you don’t have one, now is the perfect time to create one. The mission statement of your organization needs to flow out of the way that you answer three questions:
- What do we do?
- Who cares?
- How do we motivate them to action?
What do we do?
The answer to this question, ideally, should be your mission statement. This is your elevator speech: a solid ten to twenty words that provide a summary of your organization’s reason for existence. It should be a statement that can be easily taught to everyone who does business with you. Your employees, donors and constituents need to internalize your mission in order to get the sense that their activities play a role in the organization’s purpose. It’s best if everyone is able to memorize your mission statement, so that when people say, “What do you do?” you can recite it confidently. The ability to articulate your organization’s purpose through a profoundly simple mission statement will get you further than any other marketing tactic.
Who cares?
In having answered the question of what you do; ask yourself whom this work will impact. And don’t say, “everyone.” Be honest with yourself. Most people don’t know and don’t care that you exist. It hurts, but it’s true. The liberating conclusion, then, is that somewhere out there is a group of committed people who really do care. But they may be scattered hither and yon. You need to find them. Think of it this way. When a campfire has burned for some time, you can put it out simply by spreading the coals apart. But by the same law of physics, you can rekindle the fire by gathering the glowing coals together. This is your job – to find the glowing coals, to find the champions for your cause and bring them together. Only when you are absolutely clear as to who really cares about the efforts of your organization can you actively seek, find, and motivate those people.
How do we motivate them?
Motivation is at the heart of any non-profit’s activity. Your daily to-do list should contain a majority of outward-focused activity. Your job is to motivate people: donors, constituents, employees and volunteers. You’re not a “think tank” you’re a “do tank.” You have many things to accomplish and you cannot do it alone. You need money (donors) you need cooperation from those you intend to serve (constituents), you need hands and feet (employees) and you need more hands and feet (volunteers). This is where prioritizing comes in. Everyone on the payroll needs to be constantly asking themselves, “What is the highest value task I could be completing right now in order to fulfill our mission?” When you look at it this way, you can see the need for a crystal clear and simple mission statement. Without a sure sense of what you’re trying to accomplish, and for whom, you cannot even identify what your highest value task is.
Having a clear, concise and focused mission statement is the key to creating effective strategies. Asking these three questions is the first step in that direction: What do we do? Who cares? How do I motivate them?
Finally, keep in mind that the best strategy often involves knowing what you should not be worrying about. The prioritizing of your activities and programs should lead to the creation of a “stop doing that” list. A good example could be that one program of your organization that has not proven beneficial for quite some time and everyone agrees it will never do so. Stop trying to keep it alive. Or maybe a significant amount of employees tend to leave early on Friday afternoons. Be ruthless in your assessment and focus only on the highest value tasks.
When you take these key steps towards greater effectiveness and efficiency, you will begin to do more, do better for less, and you will become a sought after organization which attracts donors, talent, and positive attention from everyone who matters.
Articles for Further Reading
- How to Write a Mission Statement. This article provides you with a brief tutorial on how to create your own mission statement along with examples of existing organizations’ missions. Good article to look over before you begin your mission statement creation process. http://www.tgci.com/magazine/How%20to%20Write%20a%20Mission%20Statement.pdf
- Mission Haiku: The Poetry of Mission Statements. This web source turns the task of writing a mission statement into writing poetry. An interesting turn on the writing process as well as a different view of how to create your own non-profit’s poetic mission. http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/content/view/510/
[1] 1 Internal Revenue Service, “Exemption Requirements,” 05 Jan. 2009, 20 Jan. 2009 http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=96099,00.html.
For more information, please visit the Giersch Group at www.gierschgroup.com or contact us at prosper@gierschgroup.com.
