The Tragically Uninspiring Nature of Mission, Vision and Values is Plaguing America. By Dean Del Sesto

Who needs Ambien? Just read your company’s Mission, Vision and Values a couple of timezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Sitting dusty on shelves throughout the country are millions of Mission, Vision and Values (M.V.V.) statements that started out with good intentions, but never quite made it into the DNA of the company culture or into the markets they serve. It’s what we call M.V.V. – D.O.A and we see it in companies with $5 million a year in sales to $5 billion. It seems that no one is immune to the demise of these costly initiatives which start off with executive audits, questionnaires, and surveys only to end up in a document that reads like Leo Tolstoy’s – War and Peace.

For starters it helps to realize that M.V.V. are more than just a cultural roadmap, they’re an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of people. It also helps to understand what they are… really!

To demystify a bit, the Mission has to do with what the company stands for. It touches briefly, if at all on what the company does, but focuses largely on the philosophical stance of the company while doing what it does. It addresses the impact the company will make in the lives of the people who are connected to the brand along the way, and again, is more philosophical than tangible, more emotional than cerebral, more life-line than bottom-line.

The Vision focuses on what the company will accomplish and by when – if timing is a consideration. It is designed to create accountability to specific progress in the short and long term. In contrast to mission statements and core values, which should remain constant, the vision statement will evolve over time as the company lives out its vision. Achieving the current vision is a call to adapt a new one, as are changing market conditions, economic factors, product extensions, new market initiatives and many other variables.

Core values are the character traits that people in the organization will demonstrate to accomplish the mission and the vision. They are the “ways of being” of the culture and are the most difficult to drive into the Corporate DNA. This is due to the diverse business backgrounds, ethnicities, and experiences of people who desire to create and maintain their own values, while perhaps considering new ones. A person’s values are highly personal and are rarely changed unless the leaders in the culture exemplify stronger, more relevant values to both corporate and individual progress.

Creating Mission, Vision and Values that inspire is as much art as it is science

Developing M.V.V. that resonate with a company is no easy task. It usually starts with a series of interviews with executives, middle management, and in some cases, trickles down to the shop floor where a series of questions draws out the mindset and heartset of the company. Everyone gets excited, voices are heard, opinions are considered. Then a very strange thing happens: the data get crafted into the longest conceivable sentences in the history of mankind. There is an odd pressure to make sure every principle discussed winds up in the M.V.V. somewhere and the fear sets in. Fear that if they leave something out, it just won’t work. The net result are overly homogenized M.V.V. that leave the reader uninspired, confused and searching for aspirin. “This is it?” they say. “All this work, and we get M.V.V. that sound the same as every other company I’ve ever worked for.” Not quite the result we are looking for…is it?

Bottom line? Have two versions of the M.V.V., one where the main statements are creative, short and retainable, and a longer well-explained discourse on the meaning and execution of the brief statements. All text should be written to tap into the emotions of all concerned as people are moved by emotion more than logic. For example our mission at Breviti is to “whatever it takes, everyone wins.” It’s short, memorable, and it has become many of our team’s life mission statement as well. The expanded version of our mission articulates what that means and doesn’t mean in the context of working with each other, our clients, our vendors and affiliates. It’s a statement that empowers each individual to bring their own interpretation and contribution to the mission, something organizations shouldn’t be afraid of. People will do what is right more often if they are given clear direction and the freedom to express themselves. Our vision is “Keep clients happy, keep them for life.” This focuses our team on perpetual client satisfaction, regardless of cost or comfort and puts the client first, always. The core value is just one; Serve others the way you’d like to be served. You’ll see there’s nothing in the statements about what we do as a company and that is intentional. We believe everyone who is hired by the company doesn’t need another useless redundancy about what they already know, nor do the clients, vendors, partners, investors, etc. We desired to make our  M.V.V.  easy to discuss, easy to promote, and easy to memorize. After all, what good are they if no one can remember them. You can’t hold people accountable for M.V.V.  let alone inspire them, unless they can recall what they are.

Once you have succinct, memorable and emotionally compelling M.V.V. then what?

The reason why shelves are filled will M.V.V. – D.O.A. is because there is rarely a plan developed for how to roll them out into the culture. There are two components to drive the M.V.V. through the culture: perpetual communication into the organization and on-going training of the people, departmentally and collectively.

The communication component requires developing and distributing content into the culture to keep M.V.V. front-of-mind. Environmental graphics, cubicle posters, the website/Intranet, e-mail, snail mail, newsletters, promotional items and desktop tools are some of the vehicles that can be used to deliver messages and information that support the M.V.V.. How often and how much data people should receive depends on the learning posture of the organization, the current work loads, status of the economy, world conditions and a variety of psychological factors that will affect an individual’s threshold to receive, retain, process and make good use of data. There’s a balance, and companies that are sensitive to people’s learning stamina will always make an effort to employ brevity, and more importantly, creativity in communication and the methods by which they are distributed.

The training component ensures that C-level, middle and senior management are trained to lead by example, an absolute essential to any cultural development program. The most brilliantly crafted M.V.V. in the world can’t  influence a company whose leadership team isn’t walking the walk. Although communicating the M.V.V. into the company will have an impact, it’s when leadership lives them out that, a transformation can occur… a revolution. The greatest successes we’ve had in organizational development came by delivering innovative communications backed by leadership seminars, workshops, and topic-specific training modules through which the organization learned to train itself over time.

So what’s the ROI of M.V.V?

It’s quantifiable through research that companies with great cultures have stronger employee retention, secure better employee performance, attract better talent and influence more consistent innovation. The money that companies invest into their culture is dwarfed by what returns. But more relevant is that they are making a true, life-impacting difference with individuals where they spend most of their time in life – at work. Today, employees are looking less at the money that companies can offer and more of the lifestyle they can deliver and how they will care for their them, now and in the future. The new generation coming up is screaming, “Do you really care about me… really, do ya punk?,” and the older generation is asking “Mammy, where have you been all my life?”  Companies who desire to be innovators in business today are learning that the corporate vision is something worth striving for, but only if it fulfills personal visions as well. And although you can’t please all the people, all the time, a little effort goes a long way here. Smart leaders in business are closing the chasm between the employee and corporate structure by being relevant, sincere, and connected to what matters. Everyone else is in the either in, or moving into the employee replacement business.

So what next? It’s simple, but committed, energetic execution is everything. Create or re-engineer strong, retainable M.V.V. develop a plan to roll them out, never stop communicating the principles in the organization, and never stop training.  Wise leaders who maintain this discipline in their cultures understand that culture development programs have a beginning, and a middle, but no end. Unwise “leaders” who don’t are somewhere between the beginning and middle of the end.

If you’d like a complimentary review of your M.V.V., your brand promise, and the methods by which you deliver them, call Dean Del Sesto with Breviti @ 714-656-0099.