Mission Statement Shred-Up: Questions

A few questions came up from the Mission Statement Shred-up (Pt1 here & Pt2 here) which I’ll answer over the next few days.

“Our mission statement is well embedded, we’ve used it for years but it doesn’t follow this framework. What are your thoughts, should we update it?”

I’m always reluctant to advise changing anything dramatically, especially when it’s working. There are lots of ways to write a mission statement – what I highlighted yesterday is intended to help orgs specifically wrestling with effective decision-making, and is just one way to tackle that.

If your org is on top of that, and there’s no other reason to change the mission statement, I wouldn’t change it just for the sake of change – unless of course, change is the thing that’s needed right now.

However, if you feel that your mission is pretty clear but you’ve identified a weakness elsewhere in the org that you’re hoping to strengthen (eg, you can’t seem to find the right talent to hire, investors wont cough-up, donations are dwindling), it’s worth identifying what that is, then considering if the mission statement or something else needs a change.

Rewriting a mission statement might seem harmless enough, but it can trigger a domino effect of stuff-that-needs-to-change as a result… it’s a mini rebrand, which always benefits from planning.

Some time ago I wrote that rebrands perform best when they reflect a change, rather than be expected to create the change (2 short posts on this here and here). Keep that in mind when considering a mission statement rewrite… or any other change. Time spent is not always time invested.

Thanks, keep the questions coming!