Hi David A. Sam
You quest for Mission stories seems to have generated a group of responses
wanting to also hear more.
I have worked with groups in both not-for-profit and for-profit
environments and watched others venture into the area of creating "Mission
Statements". There has been a lot of activity without a great deal of
advantage to the organizations.
My experience has been that those interested in creating mission
statements have looked to the production of a printable/publishable
statement as the goal of the process. One organization was even so brave
as to engrave their mission statement on a brass plate and celebrate the
event with a party. This is not my favorite story on mission statements.
The lack of understanding of the dynamic and changeable requirements of a
mission statement was obvious.
The best story I have concerns the evolution of a mission statement for
the University of Calgary Credit Union. It occurred while I was President.
The statement gradually crept into our meetings and no one could claim to
have authored it, myself included. The statement was "Our mission is to
pay the savers at the highest possible rate, while charging our borrowers
at the lowest possible rate". In applying this mission we worked within
reasonable banking/loaning practices and did give every opportunity abd
benefit to all. This statement was never written down and was repeated at
most meetings for four years. In that fourth year it appeared in bold
print on the cover of our annual report. Our steps towards this mission
were to first excercise the phrase until it became common understanding to
all board members. The advantages in this statement were that it could be
said quickly and was used most frequently when we had to make a decision
between two or three possible/desireable alternatives for action.
Invariably one of the alternatives was clearly closer to that statement.
As a result the board found the mission to be very useful as a decision
tool and used it at every opportunity, thus insuring that we kept on the
right track.
>From this experience and my experiences in working with other boards as
participant and workshop facilitator I stress the need for "COMMON
UNDERSTANDING" to be developed first before any written form exists. This
puts some impetus on regular dialogue and focused conversations around
what the business or the endeavour is really about. I have also put
together a check list that follows and use it with companies and
organizations wanting to test their mission statements to see if it meets
working, living criteria that will allow frequent use and adaptation,
promote understanding of the business or organization and act as an aid in
decision making. In supporting the latter the shorter the statement the
better(15 worlds or less). The check list that follows has evolved through
experience and dialogue in making the fosu of the organization/company
clear and commonly understood(at a conversational level):
-Identifies real competencies of the Organization
-Identifies special contribution of the Organization
-Converts to specific actions
-Leads to goals for everyone
-Is reflected in individual contributions and actions
-Clear enough to see what can and can't be done
-Promotes Values and Beliefs of the Organization
-Promotes personal commitment
-Makes opportunities for action visible
-Is clear, concise and reviewed regularly
-The written form only represents what is commonly understood
I am currently work with a small communications company that has lost
it's(the companies) sense of direction in the whirl and dash of a busy
successful operation and the stresses that are resulting are quite
naturally falling in to personally divisive comments, opinions and
perceptions. They realize the problem but need an anchor around which to
gather their energy. There is a lot of conversation about WHAT is to be
done and nearly none around WHY?. We are going through an initiating
process to free up the inner(company) dialogue so that necessary
observations can be made without careless distructive comments that would
only serve to damage existing working relationships. Everyone in the
company is strong on dealing with and caring for the customer but have
forgotten to talk about the company. All were formerly with a large
bureaucratic communications company and not in organizational leadership
roles. They are brave and willing to cautiously stretch the boundaries
toward success. Mission consciousness will help guide, once the doors to
dialogue are open.
I also look forward to other adventures in missioning.
PS. The present version of the Communication company statement is 15 words
in length and will be included in their Yellow Pages advertisement,
and........ they built it and like it.
--
Jim Campbell e-mail: CAMPBELL@upanet.uleth.ca
Public
Access Internet - via the University of Lethbridge
190 Oxford Rd. West Phone & Fax: (403) 381 3774
Lethbridge, Alberta Myers-Briggs Type: ENTP - easy to get to know hard
to understand
Canada T1K 4V4
"Life-learning: creating new forms, and in turn not diminishing possibilities"