There are 1,000’s of articles and thought leadership pieces that talk about Vision and Mission. Done well they help a company create the right environment for future success. Despite the abundance of content we still see many examples where the right level of effort hasn’t gone in to the strategic planning process. Or worse still where Vision and Mission simply haven’t been established at all. How can you expect to guide an entire organisation towards a common goal if that goal hasn’t been articulated?
Evidence shows that employees want to feel connected to the companies they work for. The notion of purpose has come more into focus. A company’s purpose, vision and mission should connect. Doing so helps set downstream shorter term objectives that excite and motivate employees.
Financial rewards alone will not build engagement. If you haven’t spent time developing this part of your story or if you haven’t evaluated in a while, now is the time.
In simple terms we can think of these three pillars in the following way:
- Vision – The end state, north star, where we’ll end up – this is your where, your aspiration
- Mission – This is what you go and who for, what drives you to an end result
- Purpose – This is your ‘cultural Operating System’ of sorts. The answer to why you exist and why people work for you….the feelings your company evokes
Today many companies will combine their Vision and Mission to create a more purposeful statement of intent – a great example is Amazon:
‘To be the world’s most customer centric company’ by ‘building a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online’
How will you define your vision, mission and purpose? Is your team aligned around a common north star? If not now is the time.