Monday, June 20, 2016

Mission and Vision: Why the Hillside Garden Society Descended into Darkness?


 

The Hillside Garden Society existed for the purpose of enhance the beauty of the town park and nurture an appreciation of flower gardening. The society was highly respected for the role they played in presenting the Hillside Township as a most desirable place to live.  With great pride, the society announced that over a three year period, it would be introducing four unique and cutting edge flower gardens.  Mollie O’Connell, a newcomer, along with small group of misguided gardeners thought it would be great fun to surprise everyone by planting stalks of corn and watermelon plants whose vines entangled the garden and burst forth among the blooming flowers at the most inopportune moment. This led to a scathing article in the Hillside Gazette decrying this abomination and calling into question whether the city should retract its arrangement with the Garden Society. Letters to the editor called it confusing, disappointing, and embarrassing. The society was placed on probation while Mollie O’Connell and company had their memberships revoked. 

The devastating downfall of the Hillside Garden Society illustrates what can occur when an organization loses its way. Vegetables and fruit have no place in a garden whose purpose is to celebrate flora.
 
Impactful mission and vision statements can be the determining factor between excellence and mediocrity.  This applies to both the business and non-profit worlds.  Each statement is essential and serves an important purpose.
 

WHY DOES IT EVEN MATTER? My Uncle William once told me “To thine own self be true.” If you don’t know who you are (aka Mission), you are less likely to figure out where you are going and the best way to get there (aka Vision.)  Members of Hillside Garden Society knew who they were; unfortunately, some of them lost sight of the fact that the vision always has to support the mission.

So…WHAT ACTUALLY DEFINES A MISSION AND A VISION? 

MISSION                                                                                              VISION

Sums up the organization’s reason for being by answering:
·         What do we do?
·         Why are we doing this?
·         Who are we doing this for?
·         How do we go about doing it?
Addresses the direction and aspirations by focusing on:
·         What do we want to become?
·         What will we be doing over the next few years to serve our mission to the fullest?
·         What key outcomes are we seeking to achieve.
Embedded with passion and purpose
Inspirational and strives to rally the troops
Length can vary between several sentences and a paragraph.  If it is a longer statement, use devices such as acronyms to help people remember the core message.
Usually limited to a few key statements
Serves as the “elevator speech” when explaining who you are and what makes you unique
Vision outcomes should be measurable.
The mission is like the 100,000 car maintenance.  Missions should reviewed, reaffirmed, and revised (if needed) every 8-10 years
The vision statement is the regularly schedule oil change.   Visions are designed to cover a shorter timeframe (3-4 years)

 

Old school thinking (in Millennial Speak- fifteen years ago) presumed that the mission statement was a staid and formal definition of the organization’s purpose while the vision was the inspiring call to action.  The mission was created with the head and the vision was created with the heart.

President Kennedy's plan to land
 a man on the moon within the decade
is an example of what vision is all about.
But that’s not a Buick anymore! In reality, both mission and vision statements should be crafted to inspire and motivate the organization.  The mission is why people join your enterprise; the vision is why people stay. 

While vision statements change more frequently, in order to stay relevant and vibrant, MISSION STATEMENTS ALSO HAVE TO EVOLVE.  When Girl Scouts of America formed over a century ago, its mission spoke of training girls “to take their rightful places in life first as good women, then as good citizens, mothers, and wives.”   Now the mission addresses building courage and confidence while building a better world.   

My Uncle Socrates was fond of saying, “Know Thyself.” To know thyself, an organization has to be in alignment with its purpose.   It will constantly monitor its decisions, strategies, and choice of personnel in order to reflect the mission….which is why corn had no business mixing with lilies in Hillside Park.

This all leads to one more question…WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH EXCELLENCE? I’ve spoken to a number of young entrepreneurs who share that the number one challenge they have is finding employees that are as passionate about the business as they are.  They need people who aren’t just there to collect a paycheck.  The solution lies in creating a vibrant staff culture in which the mission and vision are firmly engrained into the team’s DNA.  

A watermelon in a flower garden is just one example of what happens when the players are not all on board.  If you go into a restaurant where the food is excellent but the service is bad and the employees are bickering, it is likely that you won’t go back. In contrast, Southwest Airlines is an example of what happens when employees completely buy into the airline and what it is trying to achieve.  Despite the hassles associated with boarding a Southwest plane, customers know they are getting a good price and love how much fun the service attendants have doing their jobs. Missions and visions serve as the engine; people are the fuel that makes them run. THAT IS WHY IT MATTERS.
 
It behooves every organization to devote time to a structured process designed to ensure that its mission and vision statements resonate in people’s hearts AND minds.  Organizations of excellence will live by those words and make certain that whatever happens is in keeping with its mission. 

Epilogue: The Hillside Garden Society recommitted themselves to the mission and clearly defined how their vision would be achieved.  They took special care to orient members as to what they were setting out to accomplish and why. Two years later, their gardens had become the envy of the northwest corner of their state. I should know. I visited recently. It was lovely and there was not a cornstalk in sight.

Stan Beiner (www.stanbeiner.com)  is a School/Non-Profit Consultant, educator, and author. 

 

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