Mission, Vision, and Goals

Many organizations spend an inordinate amount of time crafting mission statements, vision statements, as well as goals and objectives.  They then put these up on a shelf and forget all about them.  This week we talk about how individual managers can make these important documents useful by pulling them back down off that shelf, and ensuring they are aligned.

Monday’s Tip: Review your mission, vision, strategies and goals for your department. These documents should be aligned with those of the larger organization, but don’t wait for anyone else – tackle them in your department now.

Tuesday’s Tip: Do not belabor these documents. The biggest mistake people and organizations make is to make mission, vision, goals, and strategies longer, and more difficult than they need to be.  Be concise and action oriented.

Wednesday’s Tip: Communicate these documents. It is useless to create these documents and then keep them a secret.  Ensure that employees and other key stakeholders are very familiar with the mission, vision, goals and strategies.

Thursday’s Tip: Have a sustainment plan. You need to ensure that any work done articulating mission, vision, goals and strategies is not wasted by moving to action on the contents of these documents.

Friday’s Tip: Visit your vision, strategies and goals weekly. Your mission should not change much over time, but you need to act on your vision, strategies and goals on a weekly basis.  If you are doing things that are not related to these documents, you should questions why.