Mission Statement
I have formulated a new mission statement for epicdialogue.com:
Our mission is to globally facilitate leading-edge collaboration and idea-sharing in order to create ‘outside the box’ thinking with 100% on-time delivery.
Okay…actually I didn’t. I was playing with a free app on my iPhone called “Mission Statement Generator” by A2rt. This app helps get the “creative” ball rolling for those writing organizational mission statements. Here is another one I generated with the app:
We have committed to holistically create alternative catalysts for change and continue to promote ‘outside the box’ thinking while maintaining the highest standards.
I’m sure many of us are involved with organizations (i.e. churches) that have developed a missions statement strangely reminiscent to the ones above. Most I have read (or written for that matter) are are poor copies of the trendy church of the month and shed little light on the actual identity of the organization in question.
This makes sense in some ways. The cards are stacked against the statement writer. It is a daunting, dare I say impossible, task to sum up a community, organization, or movement in a few short phrases. Words are woefully inadequate. Add to this the fact that people’s expectations are so bland and formulaic.
So, why do we do it? Partially, because it was all the rage in businesses 25+ years ago. But also because people want to know what they are getting into. We want to know what to expect of our churches, organizations, employees and the like. And of course, what they expect of us.
This makes the mission statement dangerous territory. If we say we are a community that loves, we sure better love. Or, if we say we exist to serve our community, that should be something we actually do. We are tempted to express our goals and ideals in these type of statements, but they must be tempered with a dose if reality. Unfortunately, many organizations have a skewed self image.
How does your church (or whatever) approach the “all important” mission statement?
church, creativity, iPhone, language
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A2rt, business, church, iPhone, language, mission statement, Mission Statement Generator, organization
Richard,
I am reading a book for my Personal Evangelism class called Family to Family. One thing it spends time focusing on is the creation of a family mission statement. Their focus is that it if a family focuses on fulfilling their mission statement, which is written with Christ’s mission in mind, it should help their kids to better understand the Christian faith as well as instill into them evangelistic attitudes.
As a box to be checked rather than a philosophy with buy-in.
is there a better way to communicate values?
Like you said, the actions and stated values must match. The reason I think I haven’t seen much buy-in is that there is more focus on pushing the mission statement externally rather than developing the mission within the community itself. I’ve heard too many recitations of purpose statements by people that I know don’t care about what they had to say. Best analogy that comes off the top of my head is that when I go to Chick-fil-a, I know what I’m getting: a great chicken sandwich, waffle fries, and it’s their pleasure to give it to me. The analogy breaks down because it’s a business, but I sure feel like part of the organization, and I’ll speak highly of them. I think taking the time to build that foundation uncompromisingly is well worth it. It’s difficult to re-brand.
This is why it’s way better (and churches are getting it now) to just start over. Again though, we are just rebranding the church like we are a soft drink company or a shampoo manufacturer. Basically, how can I make the same thing look “cooler”. That my friends is pretty darn lame, no offense to the writers of the book Chuck is reading but the idea of a family mission statement seems kind of lame too.