Mission Possible: 4 Secrets to Building and Achieving Big Missions
If you read our blog regularly (and if you don’t, um, why the heck not?), you know we love dynamic, communicative mission statements. A lot. We view an institution’s mission statement as its touchstone—it should be both foundational and ambitious, combining knowledge, hope, passion, and purpose. If written effectively, your mission statement can save you from a world of indecision and confusion. It can and should be your compass when navigating difficult decisions or deciding when and how to expand. We could (and might) talk about mission statements for days—they’re that important. For today, though, we’re going to discuss a few mission-critical (ha, see what we did there?) aspects that don’t always get the attention they deserve.
1. Reviewing the Mission
Yes, this can feel tedious at times. “We know the mission, we’re the ones that wrote it. Why do we have to keep going over it?” Good questions. Despite my best efforts, I have never been a pirate. That being said, I’m willing to bet that when captaining a ship on the open ocean, you wouldn’t pull out your compass one time, check your direction, and then never reference it again for the remainder of the journey. Change happens incrementally. If you sail your ship in the direction of the sun all day, even though you might not see the sun perceptively move, you’re going to spend half the day going east, and half the day going west—i.e., not being a great captain. If you regularly reference your compass, you’re going to have a much better chance at continuing to sail in the direction of your destination. The same principle is true with mission statements. Change is inevitable, but your mission helps you perceive, adjust, and even leverage that change, avoiding ‘mission drift.’
2. Avoiding Mission Drift
A wise man once said, “If you try to go in every direction, you’ll end up nowhere.” That man was my neighbor Carl, and he was explaining that I was mowing my lawn like a moron, but his prudent words apply to missions and landscaping alike. It’s easy to get distracted. No matter what kind of institution you work for, there are endless opportunities for farther reach, more money, more prestige. These aren’t bad things, but if you’re not careful, you can quickly lose sight of what you’re supposed to be doing. Your efforts can become unfocused, and it will be very tempting to twist your mission (or make your mission overly vague) to support the pursuit of something new and unrelated. This is mission drift. It happens when the focus of your attention and resources (the doing of things) changes, but your stated mission (the saying of things) does not. It is particularly insidious because if left unchecked for too long, mission drift can eventually render your institution dishonest (i.e., you tell your neighbors you are going to mow your lawn in neat lines, but in actuality you get distracted and create something that looks like an alien communique). This is not to say that your focus can never change, but mission drift is inadvertent; mission evolution is purposeful.
3. Understanding Mission Evolution
In the early months of 1919, Oops Medical Supplies (a company I have 100% made up for the purpose of this blog) was hypothetically founded. Oops was dedicated to supplying the highest quality medical-grade leeches and mercury to healthcare practitioners and hospitals. Their mission statement was, “Providing bloodletting and cure-alls for the health of all men.” This example is, of course, absurd (though, perhaps not as absurd as we might wish), but makes an important point: your mission is central, but that doesn’t mean it never changes. Your mission should be a living statement, and though its sentiment might not change (supporting the health of all patients), the wording and execution might need to (bloodletting, cure-alls, all men). Communicating your intention in current, clear, and accessible ways, is, after all, almost half the battle.
4. Publishing the Mission
So, let’s say you did it—you have a well-crafted, communicative mission statement; it’s the envy of all who read it. You’re going to review it regularly to make sure your institution evolves and grows according to the values and passion it was founded upon. Good! Tell people that! Your mission should be both inspirational and aspirational, but, almost more importantly, it needs to be visible. How you convey and publish your mission says a lot about how (and whether) your institution values it—the medium is the message. If you have a powerful mission statement, but you choose to only publish it on the bottom of your toilet seats, what does that say about it? If you claim to be a mission-driven institution, but your mission is hidden in a footnote of a 900-page document or a sub-sub-subpage of your website, something’s not right. An institution’s mission is its unique identity--its one-sentence elevator pitch. Publish it respectfully, publish it consistently, publish it frequently.
There are many more mission statement-related things we could discuss here (we haven’t even touched on style, word choice, or structure). But hopefully an overarching point has been conveyed: a mission is as useful as you allow it to be. If you can put the time and thought into its construction, a mission will serve your institution well, keeping you focused, honest, current, and on Carl’s good side.
