Solution builders
 
Results catalysts

Solutions for Success - January 2002

Work that matters

Another year has started. Whew! Many of us are relieved to be starting with a clean slate. This year is a bit different, of course. The events of September 11, 2001 remain with us yet, and the need to do work that matters is palpable.

Is each one of your employees fully persuaded that his or her work matters? Are you?

Try a short exercise – walk around and visit your people (if you need an acronym, call it MBWA – managing by walking around). After some pleasantries, ask for their thoughts about how the task they’re doing right now benefits your customers and your business. Do you get a quick, confident answer?

Try the same exercise on yourself. Ask a trusted friend or colleague to come by or phone you at an unspecified time. Measure how long it takes to respond. Count the words.

You and your employees actually perform this exercise many, many times – each time the question, "What do you do?" is asked. If the response is delayed, or takes more than 10 seconds to grab a listener’s attention, a valuable marketing opportunity is lost forever.

The solution - a Mission Statement

What????

Reactions to mission statements have become jaded, for good reason. Most read like a utopian manifesto and their connection to day-to-day tasks and projects is non-existent, or, at best, tenuous.

So… why invest in this solution?

Because those "mission" statements are not really Mission Statements at all. Typically, they are values statements. And values are not actions.

Values alone cannot fully persuade us that what we’re doing right now matters. A well-defined mission does.

The difference between “mission” and “values”

Bottom-line reasons to build a Mission Statement

Mission Statement for Biographic Design

I’m convinced, where do I start?