Show Notes

We have a dream! The power of a clear vision.

In Episode 5 of the Service Game Podcast by Onsomble, host Julie Krieger explores the intricacies of vision statements and values for not-for-profit organizations. Julie provides a clear distinction between mission and vision statements, emphasizing their complementary nature and the importance of having both to drive organizational goals. She shares key characteristics of effective vision statements and illustrates with examples from renowned organizations like the Alzheimer's Association and Habitat for Humanity. The episode also delves into the core principles that guide behavior within organizations through well-crafted values statements, highlighting their role in establishing culture and guiding decision-making. Listeners are encouraged to involve stakeholders in creating these statements and to ensure they are clear, resonant, and regularly reviewed. The episode wraps up with resources and personalized support options available on the Onsomble website.

00:00 Introduction to the Service Game Podcast

01:13 Recap of Mission Statements

01:41 Diving into Vision Statements

03:31 Key Characteristics of Vision Statements

05:45 Examples of Effective Vision Statements

10:14 Understanding Values Statements

12:04 Examples of Values Statements

14:26 Wrapping Up: Mission, Vision, and Values

18:35 Resources and Next Episode Teaser

19:47 Closing Remarks and Call to Action

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 five of the Service Game Podcast by onsomble. Hi, it's Julie Krieger here. I am delighted once again to be with you, and I'm so, so grateful that you're here with me.  So if you listen to last episode, episode four, we delved into the wonderful world of mission statements and we looked at some really cracking examples of how they should be written and how they can be effective, as well as some maybe not so inspiring examples just to demonstrate the difference and what makes that difference when you come to write or refine your own mission and vision statements.

Today, then, We are going to talk about the vision statement side of that in particular, and we're going to take a little look at values statements as well.  So first things first just a super quick recap on the mission statements. They are, as we discussed in the recent episode, the why, the why you are here.

They describe what your organisation does and for whom.  Whereas a vision statement describes a desired future state or the impact that your organisation aims to achieve. So it's not about what you're doing, it's about what you want to see happen as a result of your efforts.

Specifically, mission statements are different from vision statements in that  your mission statement describes what you do versus a vision statement describing the impact you'll have, as we've just said. Mission statements are action based, so they might, for example, start with an active verb like educate, connect, develop, for example.  Whereas your vision statement is going to be much more descriptive. You might be describing a world in which something is flourishing. something is free from something or other. it's with.  It's describing a state of being within the world or the community or the environment that you seek to serve and impact. So they're quite different things, but they are incredibly complementary. They need to align with each other And you ought to have both because they serve different purposes as, we've just outlined.

And as we will go into more detail on.

So what are some key characteristics for an effective vision statement? Firstly, they should, somewhat like your mission statement, be clear  and concise and memorable.  They should also be aspirational.  So they should be ambitious. It should be about something big that you want to achieve. It's not just about, you know,  We'll grow our membership or we'll, you know, have the majority of people in our field as members by a certain point.

It's not that kind of thing. This is the impact you want to make. This is the big picture why it's important. This is your passion point.  So they should be ambitious, but they should also  have a foot in reality as well. They also need to resonate with your audience. So that's your members. That's your staff.

 Thank you. And your internal stakeholders, as well as other external stakeholders. It might be, for example, the government or specific government agencies. It might be other. Industry bodies that are related to yours. It might be your sponsors and your partners. So it needs to resonate with them.

It needs to speak to them and connect in some way with their own mission and their own vision and their own purposes. That's where the alignment comes and that's where the value gets added. And finally,  as I mentioned at the outset, a vision statement should be descriptive. It will describe what the organisation hopes to accomplish.

It's not just an abstract idea. It's actually What we want to see happen  as a result of the effort that we're putting in to achieve our mission.  And it might be that that vision is achieved not just when we achieve our mission, but when a whole heap of other stakeholders as well get involved and achieve their own missions.

So it might not be something that you can achieve on your own. But it is the vision that you're aiming for. And it's super important because it's a motivating factor for all of your stakeholders.

So as we did in the last episode, I'm going to now look at some examples of really good vision statements.  And I'm going to start with the Alzheimer's association. This is one of my favorites because it is just so succinct and it says exactly what it is they want to see happen as a result of their effort.

And that is a world without Alzheimer's and all other dementia.  So you can see that They're not saying, we are here to do anything in particular because that would be their mission statement. This is what they want to see as a result of all of their effort and the efforts of no doubt a number of other stakeholders and participants in the space.

So Alzheimer's Association is a great one in my view.  Habitat for Humanity. They have a vision  a world where everyone has a decent place to live.  Again, it's not up to them completely and solely to achieve that vision, but in achieving their own mission, whatever that may be, they will contribute meaningfully to that vision, to a world where everyone has a decent place to live.

Last week, we looked at a couple of really effective. Mission statements or what I feel are really effective mission statements and one of those was of the Cancer Council of Australia. Their mission is to lead a cohesive approach to reduce the impact of cancer.  I won't go into the details of that but suffice to say it's simple.

It's concise. It's memorable.  So in contrast their vision statement Is  a cancer free future. So you can see the real difference between those two statements, same organisation, same purposes, and same passion and same experience and same everything else  their mission is to lead. That's that active verb, a cohesive approach to reduce the impact of cancer in order to achieve a vision of a world that is,  cancer free.

One leads to the other, one feeds the other.  Similarly, last week I mentioned Football Australia and their mission, which is to bring communities together through football, connecting Australia to the world. And I loved that. Again, won't go into it, but their vision is that Australia will be a leading football nation where everyone is inspired to live and love the game.

So they're quite different sentiments,  but they're both pointing the organisation in the same direction.  Contentiously, I also gave a comparison. Between our Australian Scouts organisation and Scouts Canada.  Today, I just want to highlight the Scouts Canada example in relation to their mission versus their vision statement.

So their mission statement, as a reminder, says  they want to help develop well rounded youth, better prepared for success in the world.  So that's their mission. That's what they,  their vision  is Canadian youth making a meaningful contribution to creating a better world.  So in other words, if they achieve their mission, which is to help develop these great young people for success, those young people in turn will help to contribute to the achievement of their vision. Which is creating a better world, effectively, that Canadian youth will make a meaningful contribution to creating a better world. So they tie so intrinsically  into each other.

I hope that paints a really clear picture of the difference between a mission statement and a vision statement, and also gives you some really great examples there of some well crafted, concise, memorable, succinct,  really clear vision statements. Thanks. that you could use to help create or refine the vision statement for your not for profit association.

On to values.  Values, in contrast to the other two, are really the core principles that guide behavior,  And decision making within your organisation. They are, if you like, your rules of engagement. They are a set of guidelines for how you want the people within your organisation to behave. And they become a foundation for the reputation of your organisation.

Not the only thing that shapes your reputation, of course,  but these ways of being in the world and in your space Shape your reputation most definitely. These are the things that you want to be known as being.

Values should reflect principles that are non negotiable for your organisation. The things that you just must be and do, and  what you also must not be and do.

They should be written again in really clear language so that everyone from your board directors through your whole team, through your stakeholders, your volunteers, everybody  understands really simply and clearly what is expected of them in terms of the way they show up within your organisation in their doing of their own work for your organisation.

Effective value statements are often just a. A series of short statements, a few words, not even fully fledged sentences necessarily. They might even just be a series of key words  that help to shape  how you want to be, who you want to be, what you want to be known for and as.  So to paint a picture of that in terms of examples,  Amnesty International has these as its values. Accountability, mutual respect. integrity and courage.  Greenpeace has dignity, courage, commitment, inclusivity.

World Vision Australia has a slightly different one in that it's not single words but small statements. We are Christian. We are committed to the poor. We value people. We are stewards. We are partners. We are responsive.  The Royal Flying Doctor Service,  innovation, excellence, compassion, dedication, and integrity.

Going back to Cancer Council of Australia, their values are prevention, support, integrity, Collaboration and innovation. And finally, beyond blue has collaboration, respect, enthusiasm, excellence, and innovation. You can see a lot of repetition between all of those examples with the exception, perhaps of World Vision Australia.

And I think that actually demonstrates a really nice point that the more specific your values can be to your organisation and to the work that you do,  the better they're going to be, the more effective they're going to be. So a lot of these other ones have double ups across various organisations and that's fine. their statements of values and by nature, therefore,  they're going to overlap from organisation to organisation in some regards, but an organisation, for example, that is involved in,  I don't know, Formula One racing is going to have a different set of values to that of a more service based, compassionate, organisation like, for example, any of the ones I've just mentioned, Beyond Blue.

So they're going to set a tone for who you are and how you are.

And being somewhat specific to your mission and your vision and your purposes as an organisation helps for those values to become really clear and really translatable.      If I were to look to wrap up what we've covered in this episode and the previous one around mission, vision and values statements, I would summarize it this way.  They are all important in Establishing authenticity in your organisational culture.

They're important in establishing your culture.

They need to be more than just words. They need to actually shape the culture, shape behaviour, and guide people in how they go about their business within your organisation. And on the flip side of that, When values  or mission statements or vision statements are ignored or worse, if they're contradicted, particularly at the senior levels,  this can do enormous damage to your credibility across your whole range of stakeholders, be it your staff, your board, your volunteers, your funders, your sponsors, everybody.

So that's my second point that This group of statements, when put together as as a unified statement about your organisation,  they go a long way towards building trust.

People often talk about the know, like, and trust factor and that really just means firstly people need to know that you exist, then they need to like you, and then they need to trust you.  And so these statements serve a huge purpose in establishing the know, like, and trust factor.

And finally, I would say that collectively,  this group of statements is critical for key decision making within your organisation.  They should be tools that your board in particular references regularly.  So they're not things to get written and then put away in a drawer.  They're more than lip service.

They actually help define your organisation  and they provide that consistent reference point for making strategic decisions.  Does doing X help us to achieve our mission or help us to bring about our vision in the world?  And if the answer is no to those things, then it's not for you. So it really helps you in a  triaging process, decide what it is you should be doing, what opportunities that you should be grasping, and what ones you should be letting go through to the keeper.

When you're creating all of these statements.  Involve your stakeholders in the creation process. Get input from your team, from your staff, from your board, certainly, but also from your stakeholders. Look to your members, look to your sponsors, look to the people who are likely to be supporting you in some way in the future, in the achievement of your mission and vision because the opinion of those people matters. You should also test, once you've written it, test it for clarity, test it for resonance. Again, with your stakeholders, does it inspire them? Is it easy to understand? Is it unique to your organisation? Does it really paint a picture of what your organisation is and what you're there for and what your passion is? Does it tell your story?

And finally, it should be evaluated and assessed and reviewed regularly. And I would suggest that needs to be done at the same intervals as your strategic planning process, every two to three years, in order to make sure that you're still on the right track, that nothing significant in your landscape has shifted in the intervening period of time that might necessitate a realignment of any one of those statements.

So that's our little mini series on mission, vision and value statements. It's been really fun to bring it to you. Don't forget that we have a mission vision and values cheat sheet on our website that you can download for free at onsomble. com. au slash resources. And that will give you some insights into how you can start to develop or to refine Your own mission, vision and value statements. Of course, if you want more personalized help, please reach out and we have some services that can help you, including the strategic planning services that we can assist with.

You can check it all out at www. onsomble. com. au. It's been a  delight as ever to be here. Next episode, I have some exciting stuff coming up. I have my very first guest on the podcast.  You'll want to tune in if you are grappling with the questions around social media.

To do it, not to do it, how to do it, what platforms to use, who are we talking to? All of those sorts of questions and more are covered in the next episode. So don't miss that one. Thanks for joining in today.  Until next time.

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. 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.