Writing out a vision statement is fine-tuning the imagination and transporting it into the realm of reality. It’s realistic dreaming and is an integral part of a strategic plan.
Equally as important as the vision are the supporting values and goals. Core values form the foundation, behavior, and personality of a business. Core values define and guide the business, allowing employees to identify with the larger purpose: what it stands for and who it serves. Values support the way people and teams communicate with one another and how they build organizational culture. When values are chosen wisely and practiced diligently, a climate of trustworthiness is built between management and staff. This inspires willing attitudes and teamwork. A good strategic plan recognizes that a high-performance team culture incorporates these core values, which is a distinct and powerful competitive advantage.
The business world thrives on high energy, enthusiasm, ideas, and innovation. Ideas and innovation are the lifeblood of business—but the execution and achievement of goals, its energy source. Without clearly defined, written-out, step-by-step goals, a business runs out of gas. New products, solutions, concepts, and the best and most well-intentioned plans will fail consistently without accountability and goals.
Leadership is in the energy business. Enlightened leadership teams are committed to the idea that a good strategic plan and the organizational culture are the primary operational driving forces in a business. This does not discount the importance of good systems and processes. A Synergy Strategic Plan takes into account the entire organization: all the internal and external influencing factors like the culture, people, systems, policies, resources, and leadership ability to succeed. Leadership commitment is an essential piece to the success of any change and improvement process (see Figure 1).
The Synergy Strategic Planning Blueprint
Figure 1. The Synergy Strategic Planning Blueprint.
The four steps are:
Step 1: Creating an internal mission statement.
Step 2: The completion of a SWOT analysis.
Step 3: Determining the execution essentials.
Step 4: What gets measured gets done.
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Figure 2. Step 1.
Creating an Internal Mission
Statement, Vision Statement,
Core Values, and Goal Plan
The Mission Statement
A mission statement is the constitution of a business. It forms the basis for decision-making and should be a living, breathing part of every workday. This is one of the most valuable steps a leadership team can take and should never be treated lightly. It is often the missing piece in the puzzle of business success.
A clearly communicated mission statement is an energizing phenomenon, a motivational connector. It is the end result of what a good business wants to become. A mission statement must work from the inside out, and it must include the entire team. Your team has to clearly identify with the mission statement. The only way to get a committed buy-in is through involvement and empowerment. That is why you must first begin by constructing an internal mission statement.
Don’t fall into the trap of having an advertising agency write your mission statement. Many mission statements created by third parties sound good, but don’t have a drop of believability and authenticity and therefore lack the emotional engine, which is precisely what is needed to drive motivation and ownership. It must be motivated by the leadership team and be Transformational, Exciting, Authentic, Measurable (TEAM).
The success of the Synergy Strategic Planning Model rests on leadership commitment and a critical mass of high-performance teamwork. Successful implementation requires a broad base of committed ownership.
The exercise below begins with the senior executive team followed by a bottom-up exercise completed in groups of 5-20 (depending on the size of your company). Groups should include divisional presidents, vice presidents, operational managers, department heads, and individuals who are centers of influence. Once the groups have successfully completed the exercise, each group will have a first draft of an internal vision, values, and goals statement. Each group’s first draft will be the input into a coordinated final mission statement.
The Exercise
In your respective chosen groups, begin by writing out a vision statement, followed by carefully choosing a clear set of core values and the goals needed to make them a reality. I recommend that each participant begin by writing out a personal vision statement, a personal set of work-related values and broad-based goals and then from the combination of these three, construct a personal mission statement. Personal mission statements should then be shared as input to form a first draft internal vision, values, and goals statement for their group. Further on in this chapter is a series of well-constructed questions provided to assist groups in defining their draft statements. Once each group has concluded this foundational work, construction of a draft mission statement can be completed. A high level of patience is required, and time should be taken to think through each step. A mission statement becomes real or fictitious, depending on whether or not the group can live up to it.
Draft mission statements from all groups are forwarded to and consolidated by a designated mission statement team who then proceeds to construct an overall synergized “shared destiny” internal statement.
After a final review by all participants it can be posted throughout the organization via internal emails, communications, and Intranet. Now the work of company-wide ownership begins. Successful buy–in requires building daily awareness, and a high level of communication is paramount. All education and training should be designed to help employees understand their role in the attainment of the mission. All organizational improvement needs to be supported with measurement, alignment of systems, reward, and reinforcement. As the team progresses and success is achieved internally—and ownership is apparent—an external mission statement can be considered, but don’t stray from your core beliefs. Your strength and power is in the authenticity and the integrity of company-wide ownership.
Below are the four strategic steps that form the basis for the construction of an internal mission statement:
