Turning mission statements into reality

Practical strategies on how to anchor mission statements sustainably in the organization

We've all been there: a mission statement has been developed in the project team and the agency (or the intern with the graphic design talent) has prepared it in a visually appealing way. It was presented, sent by e-mail by the management and now it is hanging on the wall - clearly visible to everyone. So mission statement introduction complete? Unfortunately, it's not that simple. In the following, I will highlight the prerequisites for a sustainable mission statement process and provide specific tips on how mission statements can make the leap from workshops and presentations into reality.

And often enough I see how visions, missions, purpose statements or manifestos lead a shadowy existence in presentations by management and communications departments, while the new strategic direction has either not reached those actually affected, has not been understood or it has simply not been agreed what this dazzling and shady statement has to do with the reality of the team's and individual's lives.

The potential of mission statements

In principle, mission statements are powerful tools for sharpening the internal self-perception of an organization, promoting a sense of unity and creating identification and motivation. They also improve the organization's image and credibility in the eyes of customers, suppliers, potential applicants and the general public.

Well conceived and implemented, a mission statement can change people's awareness, attitudes and behavior in the long term. A poor mission statement process only creates a brief and usually expensive flash in the pan that, at best, lives on as an isolated solution in individual minds or teams, cut off from the rest of the organization.

The success levers

So what are the levers that a company can set in motion so that a mission statement has a holistic and sustainable effect and is really supported and lived by everyone? In my experience, there are five success criteria on the way to a sustainable mission statement:

1. turn those affected into active participants
Personal influence and involvement create identification and commitment. Impressively logical, but often not given enough consideration. It is also a fact that your own company is perceived and evaluated completely differently by different departments, teams and individuals. This is why it is so important to integrate a wide range of perspectives into every mission statement process: A project team should represent different areas, hierarchies, biographies or at least integrate them via surveys, interviews or advisory board formats.

2. create docking potential
A mission statement is like a piece of clothing that has to fit everyone involved. The trick is to bridge the gap between being unmistakable, concrete and relevant on the one hand and universally valid and sustainable on the other. I often find that the mission statement is honed until all that remains are arbitrary, generic phrases that could apply to pretty much any organization. The idea of guiding through a mission statement is therefore a thing of the past. What is needed is a common denominator of relevance across all stakeholder groups that has a differentiating effect beyond the boundaries of the organization.

3. building a bridge to operational business
That's where the mission statement stands now. Relevance denominator? Check! External differentiation? Check! Great, then it's a no-brainer from now on, right? Unfortunately not, because the translation into operational business is missing. In 1:1 interviews, I often speak to employees who can recite the corporate mission statement by heart like a poem. When asked how this statement is brought to life at team or individual level, they become very, very quiet. What is missing is the operational translation, the breaking down. In my experience, sustainable success is achieved, for example, in workshop sessions in which the common understanding of the mission statement is sharpened and concrete measures are derived in response to the question "What does this have to do with us / me?".

4. don't be afraid of repetition
Evolution has made it so that our brains are sluggish and find it difficult to overwrite what we have learned with something new. Familiar stimuli are easier to process than unfamiliar ones. And it has been scientifically proven that topics that were initially assessed as neutral are assessed more positively simply through repeated perception. Therefore, do not rest on the fact that you have already presented the mission statement on two occasions in a larger group, but make sure that the mission statement is repeatedly brought to the attention of everyone involved. No, this is not a plea for a dull endless loop, but rather a suggestion to use storytelling to bring the developed mission statement to life from different perspectives in all relevant platforms.

5th beta version forever
Once a mission statement has been adopted, it is not set in stone. Only as a living construct can a mission statement fulfill its guiding function in times of omnipresent change. It should therefore be dynamic and take current framework conditions and influences into account in order not to lose any of its relevance and topicality. Those involved are therefore cordially invited to rub up against the status quo of the mission statement, to question it and update it. The following applies to mission statements: Beta version forever!

A holistic concept and well thought-out strategies are the be-all and end-all when it comes to turning theoretical models into reality.