Do many people think that mission statements are still very useful?

Or, do they build cynicism and distrust?

For example, every corporation on the planet includes some kind of sugary pledge to honor the hard work and importance of the enterprise's rank and file employees, but in reality most regular frontline employees are seeing pay stagnate, health costs explode, and pensions disappear.

All this while top managers award themselves constant pay increases, luxury health benefits, and lavish pensions.

Many of us feel a need to move these statements from our Inboxes into the trash can as fast as we can. They are often so wildly disconnected from reality that it's hard to take them seriously.

Carter:
I tend to agree. Reading through some of the mission statements on that site, I kept asking myself "what does that really mean?"

Although, as an attorney, I could see an interesting use of the Merck Mission Statement about "Integrity" in a cross-examination if it turns out they really were cooking the science.

Mr. Allen,
I´m glad to find and read your blog. I´m a Brazilian, living in São Paulo, and I´m a big fan of your work. I discovered your book Get Things Done when I lived in NY.
Now, in Brazil, I implemented it in my everyday life as a lawyer.
In a next comment, I´d like to make some considerations to the boundaries of your work (this is not a criticism). I hope it can be usefull.
Regards,
Danilo

I think that is mixing two issues: corporate responsibility and objectives.

I think that a good mission statement is very important because it is essentially a statement of intent (how are you going to do what you do): Take Fed Ex's (swiped from Fedex):

FedEx will produce superior financial returns for shareowners by providing high value-added supply chain, transportation, business and related information services through focused operating companies competing collectively, and managed collaboratively, under the respected FedEx brand. Customer requirements will be met in the highest quality manner appropriate to each market segment served. FedEx companies will strive to develop mutually rewarding relationships with its employees, partners and suppliers. Safety will be the first consideration in all operations. All corporate activities will be conducted to the highest ethical and professional standards.

(Trying to keep this short) their objective: Produce returns for shareholders; Meet customer requirements in a high quality manner. How?: "focused operating companies competing collectively, and managed collaboratively" etc.

Now if you're company has a crappy (unfocused/generic) mission statement or they have a good one but don't follow through that is a different problem. -D

To be honest, I think mission statements are a waste of space and time and whose only purpose is to provide reassurance to management types that the business they manage is they kind of idealistic do-gooder high achiever business that they read about in their management books.

Do I sound cynical? :-) Well I base my opinion on the following:

David,

Thanks for the mention!

JLP

PS - Ben, you make a good point. But, instead of getting rid of mission statements, why not educate employees as to what they are and why they exist? The employees do not have to be able to quote it word for word but they should have a good idea of what the operating principles are of the company.

JLP, I agree intellectually with what you are saying - after all, there isn't anything bad in stating what a business aims to stand for, and it is also a good thing for employees to understand what the principles of the business are.

However, emotionally, I find mission statements stick in the back of my throat (it might just be me :-). As the cliche goes, 'actions speak louder than words', and I think most employees have an intuitive understanding what the principles of a business are based on the actions of management and their standard of behaviour.

Put it this way, let's say my business had a mission statement that said "We will be as corrupt as possible and treat the customer as badly as we can" and yet, from my employees, I expect, insist and reward them when they act ethically and give good service. What I am going to get is good service and performance. The mission statement will have no effect and will be viewed as something that is out of touch with reality by the employees.

Similarly, it's of no value if a company has a mission statement listing guiding principle and yet has management that doesn't 'action' these principles.

So as the original post gave as an example, employees simply ignore statments because saying you will treat employees/customers with respect really doesn't hold much water when people are getting retrenched and management is getting rewarded.

To summarise my long ramble, I see no purpose for the mission statement because in reality, the actions of management *is* the mission statement. How they act, what they say ... it all forms the statement. And in many ways, the mission statement is only as relevant as the actions of the manager above you. If you are a worker at the lower rungs of a company, the mission statement as defined by the CEO has less impact than how your immediate manager acts.

Two points.

Firstly the Mission Statement has to form part of the planning process of the organisation if it is to be sucessful. Every tier of planning down to individual appraisals needs to be able to be linked back to the mission statement. It is the lack of this link that makes the mission statement appear to be irrelevant to most people.

Secondly it needs to be in plain English/Spanish/French or whatever if all the employees are to understand what and how they are contributing. Which is why I don't like the Fedex example quoted above. In general it uses the sort of jargon that is only good for buzzword bingo. It is also contraire because apparently safety is the number one priority but not important enough to mention until right at the end.

A mission statement has to be part of the company's culture for it to have any relevance. That sounds very pat, but it's the truth. As an example, I used to work for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, a major national non-profit. Our mission statement was printed on the back of our business cards. Without having been there for 3+ years, the mission statement is "To find the cures for leukemia, lymphoma, and blood-related cancers, and to improve the lives of patients and their families." And that's it. Every employee knew it by heart. When we planned with staff, volunteers, or committees, we always couched our goals in terms of this statement, and any funding request had to be worded in terms of how it related to our mission statement.

Without that, it's a nice collection of words from a boardroom, and little else. It must be simple, straightforward, and 100% relevant to every facet of what a company does, or it's time for a rewrite.

How can publicly-held companies have mission statements besides "maximize stock price" without being dishonest? After all, what else is the CEO judged on?

For-profit companies that claim to be mission-based will always have a disconnect because when the most important decisions must be made, profit will always take precedence over service.

I've enjoyed following this discussion on the purpose and value of a mission statement. From my perspective, if the mission statement reflects the organization - or, in the case of my illustration, the family - it can have a profound effect on the decision-making and the accomplishments of the organization.

I've just posted my $.02 on my blog, along with a recommendation for a book that I gave to David on this subject.

http://www.ericmackonline.com/ica/blogs/emonline.nsf/dx/a-sense-of-mission

Eric

Ben said:

"Second, do you know many (any?) employees who regularly refer to their companies mission statement and say 'Hmmm, now are my actions aligned with the mission statement? What do I need to do to meet the statement?'"

Actually, I do. My company has a "values" statement. I try to reflect on my personal values each week, and I follow that with a review of my companies values. I really do ask myself if I am aligned with those values or not.

I think most of the people that have posted here are missing a major purpose of a mission/values statement: it's not about *them*, it's about *you*. A mission statement is not primarily an integrity test for your upper management. It's a guiding statement for daily behavior of everyone in the company. Just because some managers seem to lack integrity doesn't invalidate the principles of the statement (even if it invalidates trust in some individuals).

Besides, we all lack integrity to some degree. That's one of the reasons we need mission statements to remind us.

CB

Just to follow up a bit. I do understand a lot of people being disenfranchised with the mission statements business but I still believe that many of the misgivings are with the implementation.

Also I don't believe that mission statements are designed for the customers. They are in my opinion a compass mostly for management itself and for the employees to hopefully measure their work against. I got my interest in managment/leadership from my career as a firefighter, maybe the Phoenix Fire department's mission statement is an apropos closer eh? "Prevent harm, Survive, and BE NICE" -D

ooo judge not and all that jazz!

to clarify a tiny point... business IS filling a need via goods/services in exchange for payment. or -- if you do it for money, it's business.

so. if you get paid to do whatever it is you do for a company... and you don't understand, believe or emulate their mission statement, seems to me you have two choices... either take responsibility and get on board with it or leave.

My organization firmly believes that the Mission Statement is one of the major building blocks for business. It plays a pivotal role in connecting every employee with not only the focus of the business but also how that business is to be conducted. This is accomplished through seminars and workshops that are available to every employee (newbies must sign up for the next scheduled date after they are hired). The goal is not only to succeed, but to succeed while maintaining high standards and values that at the core are essentially a code of ethics.
Employee performance plans and evaluations integrate short to long term goals with the Mission and measure the success of every individual at meeting their goal.
I can honestly say that ethics are stressed at every level within the organization and that all decisions are made with an emphasis on ensuring that they adhere to the highest standards as set forth in the Mission Statement.
I believe that the Mission Statement is only as good as the emphasis that is placed on it. If the awareness is not backed by every action that reflects the essence, the statement becomes merely a bunch of words that can be discarded at the click of a mouse; but if the actions at every level are in step with the statement, it becomes a powerful tool that builds integrity for the dedicated efforts of those who wield it to leverage success in business as well as their personal lives.

Many good points raised. However, mission statements can be an assessment of management action as well as top-down statement. Management can make the piece of paper, but had better add an alignment mechanism with teeth and feedback mechanism. Collins gives examples of how information can be used to align action with values.

Cynicism is a product of the lack of mechanism for feedback and alignment between what is said and what is done.