You know your mission, you are inspired by it and you have thoroughly communicated it to the whole team. Everyone is sold out; committed to fulfilling it! The vision is graphic in detail and compelling in nature. You never had it so easy. You seem to be picking the cream of the crop for employees and support staff. Everyone wants to be part of the winning team, for such a worthy cause, a noble impact. Everyone seems to be feeling it. This is truly amazing…then you wake up.
Just kidding 🙂
All jokes aside, the above scenario could actually be true, these would be a few of the anticipated benefits achieved through mission and vision clarity. However, we can arrive here and still fail…from within.
It is always possible to betray the mission while executing the mission, and to betray the vision in the pursuit of the vision, unless actions and decisions are governed by core, rank-ordered values.
The larger and more dynamic a team, the more the urgency for articulated values, but even a single entrepreneur would benefit from articulated values. If we do not take the time and effort to predetermine values, we allow for subjectivity in the magnitude of organizational malpractice.
We do it all the time. In fact, you don’t really get the choice as to whether or not to betray values…only what order in which you will betray them.
Personal example: Career, Fitness, Relationship
Manufacturing example: Production Efficiency, Customer Service (order placement), On-Time Delivery
We can value all three…but in which order, for they will always be in competition with each other.
Mission: What we do
Vision: What it (success) looks like when it is done
Values: HOW we do what we do
Of course, we can always use an alternate process for decision-making…
More to follow…
