Business Strategy 6: Step 3 Clarify Organizational Mission & Values

This continues our series on John M. Bryson’s strategic change cycle for your business

John M. Bryson wrote Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations. While the book focuses on public and nonprofit organizations, the skills outlined apply equally well to small-businesses. Step 3 clarifies your organizational mission and values. Bryson writes “An organization’s mission, in tandem with its mandates, provides the organization’s most important justification for its existence.” (p 32)

Clarifying Your Mission

“A mission statement is a declaration of organizational purpose. Mission statements vary in length based on their purpose, but they are typically short—nor more than a page, and often not more than a punchy slogan. An organization’s mission and mandates also point the way toward the ultimate organizational end of creating value. Clarity

• “Can eliminate a great deal of unnecessary conflict in an organization”
• “Channels discussion and activity productively”
• “Defines the arenas within which the organization will collaborate or compete”
• “Charts the future course of the organization”
• “Serves as a kind of primary framework that bounds bounds the plausibility and acceptability of arguments”
• “Provide a premise control that constrains thinking, learning and acting and even legitimacy”

“Indeed, it is doubtful whether any organization ever achieved greatness or excellence without a basic consensus among its key stakeholders on an inspiring mission.” (p 38)

Process for Clarifying the Mission

Bryson continues “A mission statement should grow out of discussions aimed at answering the six questions that follow. The mission statement should at least touch on most answers to these questions…Answers to the six questions will also provide the basis for developing a vision of success later in the process:

• Who are we?
• What are the basic social and economic needs we exist to meet or address?
• What do we do to recognize, anticipate, and respond to these needs or problems?
• How should we respond to our clients, owners, or shareholders?
• What are our philosophy, values, or culture?
• What makes us distinctive or unique?” (p114-117)

“Mission may be considered what the organization wants to do.”

Tuesday we explore Step 4 Assess the External and Internal Environments in your business