Why Mission Statements Fail - David Burkus

I don’t know what got you out of bed ... probably wasn’t your company’s mission statement... purpose ... was noble... provide employees with that clear purpose... become a purpose-driven organization... [which] have more motivated employees... easier recruiting top talent... great performance... less turnover... greater profitability... customers respond to purpose-driven organizations... lower cost of customer acquisition, longer tenure of customer loyalty, and higher net promoter scores...

but somehow the mission statement turned into this meaningless word salad... employees still need a clear idea of what they do and why they do it...

it’s the process used to write one... people turn into parliamentarians lobbying for their respective interests... debating the connotations of certain words ... get tired... compromise for the sake of consensus... arrive at a statement everyone agrees ... is good enough. Then ... everybody promptly forgets...a mission statement that failed...

it’s worth examining what we need a mission statement to do...

to unify... an aspiration so big... it requires interdependence... a superordinate goal... we squelch the silos, the politics, the turf wars...

to direct... clearly and concisely... what “mission accomplished” looks like...

to motivate... make clear the stakes ... the costs failure ... who and how many people benefit if we win. And more than just the shareholders ...

the best way to know ... consider if our mission statement answers a simple question: What are we fighting for?