Aligning Mission, Vision & Goals
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Many organizations fail to align their mission, vision, goals and strategies. Most often this is because each of these documents are created or revised in isolation of the others. Or perhaps, mission, vision, goals and strategies are something that are looked at once per year, and then successfully avoided until the following year.
The first task when dealing with mission, vision, goals and strategies is to have a clear definition of each:
What is a Mission?
When writing your mission, vision, goals and strategies, the mission statement is your foundational document:
- A well-crafted mission articulates why you exist as an organization.
- Answers the question, “Why are you here?”
- Describes what the organization does in clear terms
- Describes the purpose of the organization, product, or service
- Your mission does not generally change over time.
What is a Vision
Of the mission, vision, goals and strategy document, the vision is the one that should provide inspiration:
- Paints a clear and compelling view of the future.
- Answers the question, “Where are we headed?”
- It must motivate, be ambitious and stretch people.
Strategies
Strategies provide a pragmatic roadmap of how mission, vision, and goals will be accomplished over time:
- Explain how the business will be successful over time
- How the company will compete
- How the organization will differentiate
- What markets will be served.
- What opportunities and strengths will be leveraged
Goals & Objectives
Goals and objectives are the building blocks of achieving the mission and vision:
- Goals are directly related to vision, mission & strategies
- Goals measure progress towards achieving vision, mission & strategies
- Objectives are the plan or stepping stones towards the achievement of a goal
Alignment & Sustainment Plan
It is not enough to simply articulate your mission, vision, goals and strategies. You need to do something about it. Unfortunately, this is where many organizations fail.
- Once you plan what you need to do, you need the discipline to follow through on that plan.
- What actions will be taken? By whom? By when?
- How will you hold people accountable?
- How will you reinforce and reward?
3 Things to Remember
- Don’t make it harder than it needs to be. Many organizations spend a ridiculous amount of time writing their mission, vision, goals and strategies. Sometimes, a few words on a single page can be far more effective.
- Any plan is useless unless you execute it. Don’t bother to write your mission, vision, goals and strategies unless you intend to do something about it.
- Your documents should be “alive”. Don’t file them away, and dust them off once per year. If you are using these tools wisely, you will use them to guide your activities throughout the year.
Watch the ’3-Minute Crash Course’ about aligning Mission, Vision & Goals. Note: The full length Aligning Mission, Vision & Goals video (15 minutes) is available in the members-only area below. Become a member today!
Get the Complete ‘Strategy Starter Kit’ Topic Bundle
The ‘Strategy Starter Kit’ Topic Bundle includes:
- Strategy Starter Kit Workbook (pdf, 40 pages) – A series of questions and fill-in-the-blanks that result in your completed Business Planning Document, containing aligned Mission, Vision, Strategies, Goals & Objectives, as well as a Sustainment Plan to ensure success.
- ‘Aligning Vision, Mission & Goals’ Full-Length Video (approx. 15 minutes) – Audio (mp3) and Visual Slides (ppt) can be downloaded separately
- ‘Aligning Vision, Mission & Goals’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
- ‘Mission Statements’ Podcast + Podcast Slides (mp3, ppt)
- ‘Mission Statements’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
- ‘The Vision Statement’ Podcast & Podcast Slides (mp3, ppt)
- ‘The Vision Statement’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
- ‘SMART Goals and HARD Goals’ Podcast & Podcast Slides (mp3, ppt)
- ‘SMART Goals and HARD Goals’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
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In my organization, we don’t ever talk about mission, talk about vision when something has gone wrong, and only talk about goals during performance review season — and usually it’s about the goals we didn’t achieve!
A great exercise for those of us who work in mid to small size companies that might not have a well articulated plan.
Just make sure you don’t let the exercise get away from you. If you make the articulation of your mission, vision and goals more labor intensive than actually getting the work done, then you’ve done it wrong. You might want to grab the Strategy Starter Kit off the WM website (free to members). It’s a great fill-in-the-blanks way to get started. Good luck.
In my experience, mission and vision are just words on a poster in the lobby. I’m dubious that they could actually have an impact on the front line.