How Can A Corporate Mission Statement Create Passion?

By Myriam Callegarin • April 24th, 2009

businesspresentation Mission statements are trendy. There was a time a few years ago when every company wanted to have one. Or many at least, the ones that understood its power.

Now tell me about a mission statement that really moves people

Do you know of any? In large as well as in middle and small sizes organizations you can find mission statements: a set of beautiful words. However, beautiful words mean nothing if the person reading them doesn’t feel them.

A successful and thriving organizations needs passionate people, a management and staff who believe in what they are doing, who put their heart in their work for a common goal.

But what do you do when your staff shows no real motivation and enthusiasm?

There are several things that could be done, and one of the most effective ones is actively involving your staff in the organization’s processes. This could include involving your management and staff in the creation of the company’s mission statement.

What’s good about it?

Involving your staff in this process can be an extremely powerful way of focussing your company’s forces towards your goals. When the vision, mission and goals are shared, every member feels as an active part and contributor. This will motivate them to be more productive and to improve their internal relationships with their colleagues as well as their external ones with customers and suppliers.

How can this be achieved?

1. Every employee is invited by the owner(s) of the organization to create a corporate mission by:

sharing their vision about their ideal workplace, workload, processes, relationship with management and colleagues
sharing their vision about their ideal relationship with their customers, suppliers, business partners
sharing their vision about how each of them can actively contribute to these improvements

This process could ideally take place in a team-building workshop, or many depending on the size of the organization.

2. Every manager goes through the same process, in order to collect both the employees and the management’s visions.

3. All these answers are collected and processed to draft three possible mission statements

4. The three mission statements are submitted to the employees who can choose the one they prefer and they can best identify with

5. The chosen mission statement will become part of the organization’s internal and external communication.

How does this feel?

Such a project can only be successful if the top management honestly believes in its power and value. It takes a “stretch” in order to acknowledge the power that our staff can have for our organization, and an even bigger one in order to use it. But it’s definitely worth it. How could your organization benefit from this?