What's in a mission statement?
I was prompted to write the following by a comment to my recent post “Another Public Service Announcement”. I decided not to squirrel this away as a reply to a comment after considering what came out as I worked on it - and deciding it doesn't reflect well on me.
Tom the answer is ‘not much’ in my opinion.
Google “How to write a good mission statement”* and get an idea of how many superannuated and wannabe consultants there are in cyberspace churning out something along those lines.
But take it from me, and remember I was one once (but I’m better now), management consultants cannot make your organisation better let alone perfect.
I’ve not yet come across an organisation with a mission statement that hadn’t either been done over by the zealots from one or other MC firm or fallen under the sway of some moderately to very senior executive with a brand spanking new, ink barely dry diploma from one of other minor business school.
The answers to a couple of questions are essential if progress is to be made. So, what is a mission statement, and how will having one make your small organisation any better – and one for luck, is there no better way of investing the few precious moments of your time it will take to write?
I offered up your mission statement to someone I trust who looked perplexed for a moment and then ventured Police Officer. Actually this is an interesting suggestion for the author of your mission statement and perhaps you even like it.
I’ve a personal preference for the Don Chip approach to mission statement-ing: “Keeping the Bastards Honest” was his ambition. The language is probably too earthy for twenty-first century sensibilities. I’m the product of another country and another era.
Surely your mission statement, if you must have one (because your backers require one?) should be an expression of what you intend to do in terms that reflect your values. Your mission statement should also be something you believe in wholeheartedly. But reading that mission statement who could guess that you develop websites that help the British* monitor the activities of and contact their elected and unelected representatives. It’s a possibility, but there are others as my friend pointed out.
At the end of the day it is and will be your Mission Statement and I can’t write it for you, because if I did it wouldn’t be yours. Without seeking to excuse my behaviour in failing to provide something less unconstructive than a snide dig I must point out that I’d only recently been at the Home Office site which promised so much more than it delivered and I was carried away on a tide of frustration.
I must also point out that I spent years lining the pockets of partners by luring organisations into spending money so that I could put their people through all sorts of hoops that basically boiled down to a meeting room, post it notes in various colours and flip chart paper around the wall. We’d use responses to a proforma questionnaire circulated more widely as the basis for the prompts in our focus group work and write up our inordinately lengthy reports according to a pre-approved template, with the findings subject to client approval via a 'draft final' document.
I thought I was fully recovered but like an alcoholic with the whiff of cheap scotch in her nostrils I'm reaching for my box of magic tricks and ready to bedazzle my audience before you can say 'cliche'.
So there you have it Tom, a considered response, whether ill- or well- I’ll know tomorrow. And now I am cross because this is just about the bitterest post I’ve drafted. Maybe other people can’t detect it but I can and it hurts. The shame is that I’ve written this because of a web venture I’m essentially entirely enthused by and wholly supportive of.
So if you’re not Tom and you’ve got this far ignore all the bile fuelled preamble and have a look at:
www.mySociety.org
www.TheyWorkForYou.com
www.PublicWhip.org.uk
www.HearFromYourMP.com
www.WriteToThem.com
because they’re much more worthy of your attention than this is. Better yet, but only if you're British plug in your post code ... with a space between the first part and the second and use capitals to be on the safe side. Register your interest in your MP and drop him or her a line.
*Googling ‘How to write a good mission statement’ brings up approximately 99,300,000 pages. That’s the very best part of one hundred million web pages the world would not miss were they to vanish. Oh, and inadvertently Googling on How to write a good misssion statement brings up another (?) 604 pages.
** British Citizens doesn’t work for me, it offends my republican sensibilities. Subject sounds clumsy though more honest. Hence the choice of phraseology.
Tom the answer is ‘not much’ in my opinion.
Google “How to write a good mission statement”* and get an idea of how many superannuated and wannabe consultants there are in cyberspace churning out something along those lines.
But take it from me, and remember I was one once (but I’m better now), management consultants cannot make your organisation better let alone perfect.
I’ve not yet come across an organisation with a mission statement that hadn’t either been done over by the zealots from one or other MC firm or fallen under the sway of some moderately to very senior executive with a brand spanking new, ink barely dry diploma from one of other minor business school.
The answers to a couple of questions are essential if progress is to be made. So, what is a mission statement, and how will having one make your small organisation any better – and one for luck, is there no better way of investing the few precious moments of your time it will take to write?
I offered up your mission statement to someone I trust who looked perplexed for a moment and then ventured Police Officer. Actually this is an interesting suggestion for the author of your mission statement and perhaps you even like it.
I’ve a personal preference for the Don Chip approach to mission statement-ing: “Keeping the Bastards Honest” was his ambition. The language is probably too earthy for twenty-first century sensibilities. I’m the product of another country and another era.
Surely your mission statement, if you must have one (because your backers require one?) should be an expression of what you intend to do in terms that reflect your values. Your mission statement should also be something you believe in wholeheartedly. But reading that mission statement who could guess that you develop websites that help the British* monitor the activities of and contact their elected and unelected representatives. It’s a possibility, but there are others as my friend pointed out.
At the end of the day it is and will be your Mission Statement and I can’t write it for you, because if I did it wouldn’t be yours. Without seeking to excuse my behaviour in failing to provide something less unconstructive than a snide dig I must point out that I’d only recently been at the Home Office site which promised so much more than it delivered and I was carried away on a tide of frustration.
I must also point out that I spent years lining the pockets of partners by luring organisations into spending money so that I could put their people through all sorts of hoops that basically boiled down to a meeting room, post it notes in various colours and flip chart paper around the wall. We’d use responses to a proforma questionnaire circulated more widely as the basis for the prompts in our focus group work and write up our inordinately lengthy reports according to a pre-approved template, with the findings subject to client approval via a 'draft final' document.
I thought I was fully recovered but like an alcoholic with the whiff of cheap scotch in her nostrils I'm reaching for my box of magic tricks and ready to bedazzle my audience before you can say 'cliche'.
So there you have it Tom, a considered response, whether ill- or well- I’ll know tomorrow. And now I am cross because this is just about the bitterest post I’ve drafted. Maybe other people can’t detect it but I can and it hurts. The shame is that I’ve written this because of a web venture I’m essentially entirely enthused by and wholly supportive of.
So if you’re not Tom and you’ve got this far ignore all the bile fuelled preamble and have a look at:
www.mySociety.org
www.TheyWorkForYou.com
www.PublicWhip.org.uk
www.HearFromYourMP.com
www.WriteToThem.com
because they’re much more worthy of your attention than this is. Better yet, but only if you're British plug in your post code ... with a space between the first part and the second and use capitals to be on the safe side. Register your interest in your MP and drop him or her a line.
*Googling ‘How to write a good mission statement’ brings up approximately 99,300,000 pages. That’s the very best part of one hundred million web pages the world would not miss were they to vanish. Oh, and inadvertently Googling on How to write a good misssion statement brings up another (?) 604 pages.
** British Citizens doesn’t work for me, it offends my republican sensibilities. Subject sounds clumsy though more honest. Hence the choice of phraseology.
posted by Enyo @ 11:01 pm
1 Comments:
At 11:55 pm,
Anonymous said…
Hi Enyo,
We need a mission statement for the simplest of reasons - when people ask "what does mySociety do" we need an answer that covers the width of what we do. Talking just about politicians and parliament doesn't, for example, cover what PledgeBank.com does.
I'd quite like it if we had something more pithy, like the examples you gave. In the past I've said "mySociety exists to build more FaxYourMPs", but that doesn't mean much to most people either.
It's a toughie!
Tom
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