Mission Statements and Vision Statements
Mission Statement
Mission statements define your organization's purpose and its main objectives.
- Use the present tense
- Explain why you exist as a business
- Short, clear and powerful.
- Communicates to both internal and external audience
Process of Creating
- Find the unique selling proposition (USP) of your organization.
- Clarify your goal - list the most important measures of success for your USP. What are its key performance indicators?
- Define what success looks like
- Combine your USP and success measures into a general, but measurable goal.
- Refine the words until you have a concise statement that expresses your ideas, measures and a desired result.
Vision Statement
Vision statements focus on the goals and aspirations of the organization.
- Uplifting and inspiring
- Timeless: even if the organization changes its strategy, the vision will often stay the same.
Process of Creating
- Find the Human Value in Your Work
- How does your organization improve lives? How do you make the world a better place?
- Identify what you, your customers and other stakeholders value the most about how your organization will achieve this mission. Distill these into values.
- Combine your mission and values, and polish your words.
- It should be broad and timeless, and it should explain why the people in your organization do what they do.