Mission, Vision, Values Revisited

 

I spent a career helping organizations and their leadership teams come to consensus on their brand's positioning (target customer, brand essence, brand promise, reasons to believe, brand personality and brand archetype). I worked with organizational brands more than product brands, and what I discovered in the process is that many organizations needed work on their mission, vision and values before pursuing the brand positioning process. So, I began conducting mission, vision, values workshops. I could do a separate post on just mission and vision. But today I want to focus on values. 

Most organizations list their values as individual words that are then often amplified by a terse description. However, I found that most organizations pick from a small number of what I would characterize as standard values: leadership, innovation, quality, diversity, excellence, hard work, integrity, collaboration, accountability, continuous improvement, teamwork, flexibility, social responsibility, professionalism, etc. Frankly, this seems to be pro forma and does not communicate passion for the values. 

This is when I started working with organizations to craft their values as "We believe..." statements instead. This has made a huge difference.  These statements are much more powerful and very motivating for employees and customers alike. 

I am going to provide you with one example of this. I was on Writers & Books board of directors for eighteen years, serving as its board president for two years. Writers & Books is a Rochester, NY | Finger Lakes community literary organization, promoting reading and writing as lifelong pursuits. During my stint on the board, I led the board and staff to create a new mission, vision and values statement. It is one of my all-time favorite examples of this. Admittedly, we spent months on it and the participants were all avid readers, writers and wordsmiths. But here it is. I think you would agree with me that the statement, and especially the values, gives you a strong sense of the organization and is emotionally compelling.

Writers & Books Mission, Vision & Values

Mission:

• Writers & Books promotes reading and writing as lifelong activities for people of all ages and backgrounds to enrich their lives and the intellectual, social and cultural vibrancy of their communities.

Vision:

• To be a leading resource that celebrates diverse voices and fosters thriving communities of readers and writers.

Values:

We believe...

• In the power and importance of the written word.
• In celebrating the value of the written word both as a communication tool and as an art form.
• That storytelling is a vital aspect of human experience that unifies humanity.
• That reading builds empathy and brings people together.
• In creating a safe space for voices of all backgrounds, beliefs, origins and abilities.
• In engaging children and youth to have a lifelong passion for literature.

I would encourage every organization to craft their values not as individual words but as "We believe..." statements.