Why Spend Time Developing a Vision and Mission Statement?

As ABGR has taken steps forward to develop and revamp our vision and mission in the past several weeks, it has become increasingly clear just how important a vision and mission statement are to an organization. While their importance is oftentimes overlooked or simply copy-pasted onto a webpage buried within a sub-menu, these short and sweet statements are the backbone of an organization and the starting point from which its purpose is defined.

One of the most common questions all levels of employees have is the difference between a mission and a vision statement. The answer is, in short, that the two exist for different reasons and serve different purposes. First, as a recent Smartsheet article mentions, a mission statement “shows why a business exists,” and also is presentfocused. The mission is likely to change slightly, or perhaps pivot, as the business develops. Contrastingly, a vision statement “provides direction” and also can provide inspiration, seeing as though it is future-focused. A vision is what the organization hopes to someday become, but should not change drastically.

In developing a mission statement, an organization needs to take a macrocosmic approach, looking at itself from a bird’s eye view and fully understanding why it exists at all. A company’s purpose is easily lost in the day-to-day, but the mission reminds an employee of the organization’s purpose and how he or she contributes to it. As per the Smartsheet article, a mission should, “say what you do, who you do it for, and why it’s valuable.” If it fulfils these three requirements, a mission statement will help guide present decisions, and will help to add clarity to the purpose to the organization or the business. While this is already a seemingly lofty goal to define these three aforementioned objectives, it must also be brief, posing an additional challenge.

On the other hand, a vision statement being so futurefocused leads to understanding what the organization hopes to become or what it hopes to achieve. These statements should remain brief as well, but also have the added caveat that they should be ambitious without being unattainable. A vision requires that goals and objectives be pre-defined so that they can guide the statement itself. Important questions to ask include “what impact do we want to have on our community?” as well as “what is our organizational culture?” Further, it is prudent to consider the fact that these vision statements are meant to be aspirational with a five to ten year lifespan, and should also serve as inspiration throughout that time period.

While defining the vision and mission is quite a task in and of itself, the true test of a successful mission and vision is whether or not the employees or members of the organization are familiar with them. Even the best vision statement in the world will not inspire its stakeholders if the vision statement is not communicated to them often, and with emphasis placed on its impact. Similarly, a mission statement will not help to define an organization at present if it is simply hidden on a page within a drop-down menu of the website.

In redefining our vision and mission statements, our team hopes that the members of our organization will take time not just to read them, but instead to digest the meaning of both statements as well as the role they play. In doing so, our unified mission and vision will help to better define our purpose, not only in the short term, but over the next several years.