Defining your north star: a few notes on mission
I prefer “quest”, or “commission”, to the term “mission”. Unfortunately we’re a bit handcuffed - we need to call it “mission” so we understand each other when we say things like “mission statement” later on. But man oh man do I wish we’d picked a different word.
A quest is something beautiful that we’re striving for. A commission is an external calling, something bold and driven by God or the Muse or the Flying Spaghetti Monster or whatever you believe.
Mission feels so…military. It’s something like a task, or a duty.
Despite my (pedantic) misgivings about the vocabulary, we need a mission, because we need alignment. Organizations are only two things: people, and decisions. Mission is about aligning people on decisions. When done right, it’s baked into everything.
Mission statements are a kind of ultimate filter, a question that sifts through all of our organizational decisions in a way that’s almost magically automatic. Once a mission is internalized, the crucial question (“does this serve {mission here]?”) is applied to every decision a team makes.
There’s a few pitfalls to avoid. The worst missions are too generic to be useful. One of my favorite examples is a popular grocery chain who went on and on about customer satisfaction. That’s not a bad thing, of course, but if you dragged and dropped their mission statement into the organizing documents of any retail company, it would have applied to all of them. Most crucially, they failed to mention what they actually did - feed people! I listed a few other pitfalls here, but these are far from comprehensive.
-Lack of alignment: A mission statement should align with the company’s overall strategy and goals. Don’t disconnect it from the company’s day-to-day operations or long-term objectives.
-Lack of actionability: A mission statement should be actionable, meaning that it should clearly convey the actions that the company will take in order to achieve its mission.
-Lack of authenticity: A mission statement should be authentic and reflect the company’s true values and beliefs. Avoid crafting a statement that is not genuine or that is not representative of the company’s culture or goals.
-Complexity: A mission statement should be simple and easy to understand. Avoid using complex jargon or industry specific terms that may be difficult for employees and stakeholders to understand.
-Inflexibility: A mission statement should be flexible enough to adapt to changes in the company’s industry or environment. Avoid crafting a statement that is so specific that it won’t be relevant to changing circumstances.
-Lack of engagement: A mission statement should be inclusive and engaging, involving employees, stakeholders and partners in crafting it, this will help to ensure that the statement aligns with their expectations and that they feel a sense of ownership and commitment to it.
One of the best mission statements is Target’s “to help all families discover the joy of everyday life”. Compare a Target shopping experience to a Wal-Mart one and you’ll see the difference right away.
And it’s not that Wal-Mart’s is worse, it’s stellar too: “to save people money so they can live better”. Shop at both locations, and you’ll see that one is about joy while the other is about savings.
Neither right or wrong, but their missions drove them to build very different retail companies. They’ve both found success in their areas of expertise.
Because a mission focuses a team on what’s important, it’s not the kind of thing you should change or re-evaluate every year. Our missions should be our north stars. They should be evergreen - a perfect mission could last 100 years or more. If we lose our missions we risk losing our organization altogether.
One nice perk - missions can attract and retain employees who are aligned. Because they can guide gut-level decisions and help us allocate resources, they allow us to prioritize the right activities (both in hiring and in keeping a team engaged). It can give us a sense of purpose, which is a liferaft in the ever-changing nonprofit seas.
Keeping a nonprofit mission front and center is so much more than a plaque on the wall. Build it into as many communication opportunities as you can find. Look for the corny, overzealous opportunities to shout it from the rooftops. No communication of mission is a wasted communication. Bring mission into every strategic decision.
And of course, live it. If we aren’t living a life aligned with our mission and values, it will show up in our decision-making. I know at least one fast food CEO who never eats at his restaurant. Do you think he believes his company’s mission?