Show Notes

 

We're on a mission!   

In Episode 4 of The Service Game Podcast, host Julie Krieger explores the significance of mission statements in organisational strategy. She distinguishes mission, vision, values, and purpose, and offers a detailed, step-by-step guide on formulating effective mission statements. The episode emphasizes starting with an active verb, keeping statements simple and memorable, and learning from examples like Clean Up Australia and TED. Practical tips and common pitfalls are discussed, ending with an invitation to access additional resources on the onsomble website. This episode is the first part of a mini-series on mission, vision and values statements.

 

00:00 Introduction to the Service Game Podcast

00:58 Episode 4: Mission Statements Overview

02:05 Understanding Mission, Vision, and Values

05:08 Crafting an Effective Mission Statement

08:00 Common Pitfalls and Best Practices

11:15 Examples of Mission Statements

11:41 Effective Mission Statements: Clean Up Australia

12:26 Concise and Clear: TED's Mission Statement

13:01 Cancer Council and McGrath Foundation

13:54 Football Australia: Bringing Communities Together

14:37 Examples of Ineffective Mission Statements

17:13 Comparing Scouts Australia and Scouts Canada

18:44 Conclusion and Resources

Links:

www.onsomble.com.au/resources

Show transcript

 

Welcome to the Service Game Podcast brought to you by onsomble. I'm your host, Julie Krieger. For the past 14 years, I've been helping associations to grow and thrive. Establishing systems, writing policies and procedures, implementing membership and sponsorship strategies, Setting up operations, undertaking complete governance restructures, developing strategies and advising CEOs, presidents, and boards.

 

I am driven to support the hardworking people who give their time, heart, and soul in the service of their members and in the pursuit of the greater good.  Join me as we delve deep into this innovative, creative, values based, and mission driven thing. I call the service game.  Let's get going with today's episode.

 

Hello. Hello, and welcome to episode four of the service game podcast by onsomble. I'm Julie. Hi, it's great to be here with you again today. And today we are on a mission. That's right. Today is all about the fun, exciting world of mission statements. This will be a two part mini series, If you like, today on mission statements and the next part will be on your vision statement, as well as your values for your company.

 

So we're going to really drill down into mission statements today in episode one. If you haven't listened to it now's a good time to jump back and have a listen to that one. We discussed the five fundamentals of association management and One of those things was the collective mission, vision and values document or series of statements about your organisation that help to shape who you are and what you do.

 

So as I said at the start, we're going to drill down deeper today into the mission. element of that specifically.  Firstly, a little bit, just a tiny little bit about the difference between the mission division, the values, the purpose, all of those sorts of things are out there and the information around them can be a little bit confusing.

 

And in fact, it's fair to say that a lot of not for profit boards find the development of any one of these Somewhat tricky because for a start, they're just not overly clear necessarily in terms of what they each are meant to do for your organisation and also fundamentally why they're important.  So your purpose, just as a one sentence summary, it talks about why the organisation exists very closely aligned with your mission, but it is at a higher level.

 

So it's really about.  The why, why you're here. The vision is what you want to see happen in the future as a result of your efforts. So the impact of your effort in the long run. If we succeed, the result will be, for example, a world in which blah blah blah. That's the vision. And the values, of course, are your guiding principles for how you want to operate.

 

It will shape or they will shape others perception of you as an organisation or an entity. And they are the rules of engagement for your organisation. These are the non negotiable ways in which we want to operate and the things that we Feel are important to us in terms of how we want to exist in the world.

 

So then what is a mission statement? Well, a mission statement describes what the organisation does and for whom. And that's it.  It talks broadly about what you're there for.  It is short. It's concise to the point. It's clear. It should be memorable.  And it should be. Verb focused, so verbs being doing words, taking us back to primary school grammar.

 

It should be active. It should talk about what it is you are going to do. It's a doing sentence. Our mission is to do something.  What a mission statement isn't, in that case,  is an explanation of how you're going to do what you're going to do. That's covered in other elements.  It's not an aspirational statement about the change you want to bring about in the world.

 

As I've just mentioned, that's more about your vision.  It should not be complex and wordy. It should not be a detailed description.  It should not be about how you want to be perceived. And  it should not be a statement about what you believe as an organisation. Remember, this is a video. about what you do, and for whom you do it.

 

Let's talk for a minute then about why it's important to have a mission statement and more than that, why it's important for that mission statement to be good.  Well, the first thing is  that it is a critical element of the work you will do when you come to set your strategy. Your mission is your North Star.

 

It is the guiding light shining off into the distance that all of your efforts and your team's efforts should be focused on.  To have that in one sentence, one clear, concise sentence, empowers your board, it empowers your team to really know where to focus effort.  And in which direction everyone is heading.

 

Decision making can be hard, particularly when you're doing it by committee or by board.  So it really helps to have a framework that you can use when it comes to triaging opportunities as they present themselves. So it helps you to avoid that shiny object syndrome, you know, moving along towards a particular goal and then suddenly something pops up and you think, Ooh.

 

That's sort of up our alley. Maybe we'd be better off focusing on that for a bit. That's your shiny object syndrome at play and it is important to avoid succumbing to that. So it helps you to avoid that shiny object syndrome and keeps you focused on what is really important for you as an organisation, for your board, for your members, for all of your stakeholders.

 

Importantly, it keeps everyone on the team facing in the same direction.  There's a quote by Kenichi Omei that says, “Rowing harder doesn't help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction”.  And that's where your mission statement comes in. It's more than just lip service, trust me. If it's written well, it will be a really easy guide and a framework through which you can make the decisions that come before the board.

 

It's also important because it tells your audience how and why you are relevant as an organisation to them.  And finally, I would say the important thing here is that it tells your team what they are there for. So  a well written mission statement should provide the information to each team member that they need or give them that really strong sense of purpose in what they are doing within your organisation.

 

That helps to achieve the overall mission. So it should really guide your team as to their place in the overall picture.  So that's a little bit about what it is, why it's important. How do you craft one? And I have seen this process play out many times with not for profit associations and their boards.

 

And it can be really, really tricky to get everyone on the same page. Firstly, even about what a mission statement should look like and feel like. Lots of organisations I've seen end up with a mishmash of a vision, a mission, some actions, some goals, some values. It just isn't clear and it therefore isn't terribly useful and I think for those organisations, it's often seen as something that ought to be done, but not necessarily something that's going to ever be used or be a practical support for the organisation and its activity.

 

Some key points can help to simplify the process and result in you developing a much clearer, much more impactful mission statement for you to actually use within your organisation.  So the first thing is that it needs to be created in conjunction with your vision statement. The two should speak to each other.

 

The first being your vision statement, of course, it needs to talk about, as I said at the start, the impact that you want to make in the world. or your community, or your sector, or your universe, your particular universe, however big or small that might be. What is it you're going to achieve ultimately, in the long run, through the pursuit of your mission?

 

So you need to start there. Then you need to ask yourself, who do we want to have hear this message? Who is our audience? And what is important to them? You've got to focus your mission statement at the right audience. If you're trying to serve a group of people in a certain community, you need to think about what it is that drives them, motivates them, and what is their need that you are working to fulfill.

 

There's no point writing it as though you're talking just to your board or to your staff, the internally focused mission statement.  You're better off to keep that focus on who it is you're serving and what it is that you're trying to do for them. Members should be able to read your mission statement and see really clearly how your mission  will help them in their life and their work.

 

The final handy hint is whether or not you actually include it in your mission statement. Start your mission statement with, We exist too.  The resulting word from there will, by necessity, be a verb, so you'll tick that active box, meaning it's something that we're actually going to do. It's not something we believe, it's not something we want to see happen in the future, it's something we're going to do.

 

That's the most critical element in creating an effective mission statement. We exist too. Now you don't have to start it with those actual words. A lot of organisations do,  but when you're creating it, you definitely need to have that or a version of it.  I'd like to take a moment to have a little look through some examples because this will really help to paint a much clearer picture than any description that I might be able to give you.

 

So let's start by looking at a few examples of really good mission statements and why they're good.  Now I am going to name names. In this section, but when we come to the ones that maybe could do with a bit more work, I'm not.  Um, so here we go. First one that I think is a fabulous example of a really effective mission statement is from Clean Up Australia.

 

Their mission statement says, Clean up Australia. inspires and mobilizes communities to improve and conserve our environment, eliminate litter and end waste.  Simple. Starts with some active verbs. Inspire and mobilize. Who are they inspiring and mobilizing? Well, they're doing that to their community. And what are they inspiring them to do?

 

To conserve environment, eliminate litter and end Really clear. One sentence. Really. Pardon the pun. Clean. I like it.  Speaking of clean and concise, TED, as in TEDx, the organisation that puts on the keynote addresses and so on,  their mission statement is simply this. Spread ideas. And I just love that one. It is so simple, so clear.

 

And it, it says what it does on the box. They spread ideas. They don't necessarily say how they're doing it. They don't say why they're doing it. They're just there to spread ideas.  So simple. It's perfect.  Cancer Council of Australia.  Their mission is to lead a cohesive approach to reduce the impact of cancer.

 

Again, super simple. One sentence. Starts with a verb. They're going to lead, and they're going to lead a cohesive approach. And they're doing that to reduce the impact of cancer. Really simple. Really clear. It doesn't go into the detail, doesn't list every single way in which they do that. It doesn't need to.

 

In a similar vein, the McGrath Foundation, their mission statement is to ensure every family experiencing breast cancer has the support of a breast care nurse, no matter where they live, for free.  Again, beautiful and concise. They're ensuring that people have a certain experience regardless of where they live and that it should be for free.

 

Really clear. Another good example, Football Australia. They exist to, their mission is to bring communities together through football, connecting Australia to the world.  So what are they doing? They're bringing communities together.  And connecting. Two verbs in there split apart, but that's okay. Really simple and concise and really clear.

 

Again, doesn't go into the nitty gritty details about grassroots and, you know, professional levels and all the other activities that they undertake and fundraising and blah, blah, blah. It doesn't talk about any of that because it doesn't need to. It's a mission statement. This is what they exist to do.

 

Bring communities together through football, connecting Australia to the world.  If there's some good examples, what about some maybe not so good examples? So again, as I said, I'm not going to name names and I hope that nobody takes anything personally here if they recognize their own mission statement in what I'm about to go through.

 

But this one's actually from overseas, so not, not Australian based. And here we go.  To collect, preserve, study, exhibit, and stimulate appreciation for and advanced knowledge of works of art that collectively represent the broader spectrum of human achievement at the highest level of quality. All in the service of the public and in accordance with the highest professional standards.

 

Memorable? I don't think so. I mean, they've started with some verbs, but they've got one, two, three, four, five of them, uh, six of them, sorry, in the first part of that sentence. It's arguably way too long.  It's very complex. It's definitely not memorable. It's not concise.  If you digest it and dissect it and sort of pull it apart and study it a little bit, you can get to the heart of what it is they're trying to do.

 

It's by no means an effective mission statement.  Next one that I'm going to highlight without naming names.  Forge the future of agriculture. By engaging, educating and entertaining our community on the value of sustainable agriculture and quality produce through events which support agricultural excellence and innovation.

 

So again, you know, they've started with the verb, they're going to forge a future. They're going to do that by engaging and educating and entertaining and so on. There's just so much detail in this that it's not memorable. And if it's not memorable and if you can't easily. Get to the heart of the issue.

 

What it is you're actually there to do. Nobody's going to remember it. Therefore it becomes something that you spend time writing and crafting, put in a drawer and don't look at again until you come back to sit down and Maybe devise your next strategic plan  and at that point you review it and maybe you get disparate views at that point and you tweak a word here or there and then it goes back in the drawer for the next three years.

 

So, you know, it's not inherently bad. It's just That it's not effective.  Finally, I just wanted to highlight a comparison. These are two organisations that are in the same line of work and the net wording actually is going to give it away. So I'm just going to call it out. The first example here is a mission statement of Scouts Australia.

 

And the second one is Scouts Canada.  Okay, so the Scouts Australia one is to contribute to the education of young people through a value system based on the Scout promise and law, to help build a better world where people are self fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society. I get it, I can digest that, and I can understand what it is they're doing, but it's complex, it's long, and it's difficult.

 

And it's not memorable.  In contrast, the Scouts Canada mission statement says this, to help develop well-rounded youth better prepared for success in the world.  That's such a striking example. of a really effective mission statement and one that, while it says broadly the same things, says it in nowhere near as effective a way.

 

In my view, and again, I'm sorry if you're from Scouts Australia and you're listening, I mean no offense, but it's just such a great graphic illustration of the value of being concise, the value of a powerful statement,  people can easily understand, and I hope,  remember. So that's a bit about mission statements.

 

I hope that's been helpful. Short and sweet today. As I said, we'll come back and talk more about vision statements and value statements in another episode.  In the meantime, If you need some help to review or update or create from scratch your mission statement or your vision and values statements, please reach out because we can help.

 

We've also got a mission, vision and values cheat sheet that you can download free from our website. If you go to  onsomble. com. au slash resources, you'll find that their mission, vision, values cheat sheet.  That's it for today. I hope that's been helpful and as ever. But let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to hear about, and if you find the content of this podcast helpful to you in your work on a not for profit board or as a not for profit association leader.

 

It's a delight to be here and until next time, take care.  Thanks for listening to the Service Game Podcast by onsomble. If you enjoyed this episode, please like and subscribe and write us a quick review. See It helps us to reach more people and we really appreciate your support.  To access our downloadable resources and tailored support options designed for NFPs, head to onsomble.

 

com. au  or look us up on social media. You'll find all our links in the show notes for this episode. Chat next time!