May 2009
Mission mis-sion / [mish-uhn] noun: your organization’s direction and purpose, what drives your work
Values val-ue / [val-yoo] noun: principles that guide your organization's internal conduct and external relationships
People peo-ple / [pee-puhl] noun, plural: individuals forming a group, the backbone of your organization
In a challenging market, your mission and values keep you focused on achieving success on your terms. These fundamentals are lasting and unchanging, and although they may evolve and develop in exciting ways as your organization grows, they will carry you through difficult times like these. And it’s important to remember, your key employees are the evangelists for your mission and your values.
In a Fortune interview earlier this year, Jim Collins, who literally wrote the book on business development (as well a terrific monograph specific to the social sector), had this to say about the role of enduring values in the success of these depression-era companies:
Companies like P&G, GE, J&J, and IBM had an incredible fabric of values, of underlying ideals or principles that explained why it was important that they existed. One of the things that was very distinctive about P&G, for example, was that they said a customer will always be able to depend on the fact that a product is what we say it is - we will always build our reputation on quality. When they were under pressure to start cutting corners or use cheaper ingredients, they just didn't do that. What we have found is that what really matters is that you actually have core values - not what they are. The more challenged you are, the more you have to have your values. You need to preserve them consistently over time.
And how do we preserve our values as we pursue our missions?
Consider whether your team members are not only the best at what they do, but also the best fit for what you are trying to do together. Will they take personal responsibility for upholding those values despite challenging circumstances like tight finances or hard deadlines? Or, as Collins puts it in this April interview with Inc. Magazine:
Do you have a culture of people who
A. share a set of values,
B. have very clear responsibilities, and
C. perform?Those who build a culture around those ideas are building upon something that is largely unchangeable.
In our role as brand builders, we’ve seen a recent increase in organizations requesting communications trainings. Although possibly a sign of recession-inspired do-it-yourself resourcefulness, we hope it also indicates a return to the basics for these organizations, a focus on the fundamentals.
Of course, even if that isn’t their intention, that is where they will soon find themselves – all successful communications (indeed, all successful business practices) stem from and align with the organization’s fundamentals: its mission and values. And that is where our work always begins.
Check out Jim Collins’ Good to Great Diagnostic Tool here under Tools to Use.