Great people with great talent choose to work in great organisations. While the definition of ‘great’ can be tricky, it most certainly always includes a culture where values are lived and the purpose of the organisation is clear.
But what is a vision statement in business? How is it different from a mission statement? And where do values come in? These questions help you answer why your organisation exists. That might sound like a simple question, but sometimes we see mission statements and vision statements being confused or even combined into one, even when they mean very different things.
At Change2020, we love working with businesses to help them to define their vision, mission, and values through leadership coaching. We know that, when developed with broad and genuine involvement across the business and supported by a strong implementation plan, real cultural change can occur.
What is a mission statement in business?
Your mission statement is all about the present. It’s a way to define what you’re doing now and explain your organisation’s core purpose.
For example, Google’s mission statement is, “To organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
That’s a pretty broad way of describing Google, but you can easily see how it reflects their core business.
What is a company vision statement?
A business vision statement is more aspirational. It should be looking ahead to what you’re hoping to achieve in the future. Vision statements are a way to guide where you’re going.
To use Google again, their vision statement is, “To provide access to the world’s information in one click.”
It might sound like a tall order, but it’s a clear vision they can work towards.
What are values in business?
Values are the concepts that guide your business and support both the mission and vision statements. Having a set of values clearly laid out can help you make better decisions and build a work culture you and your team can be proud of.
Values can be anything you want them to be, but they’re generally grouped into three main categories:
- Principles are the things you believe are most important to the success of your business, like integrity, responsibility, or innovation.
- Beliefs or attitudes relate to how your team should act and treat each other at work. Having a zero tolerance for workplace bullying is one example.
Standards of behaviour are more about the way your business behaves in practice. That could be anything from minimising your effect on the environment to fostering a safe environment for staff and customers.
How to define your business vision, mission, and values
It’s all well and good to know what a business vision is in theory, but how do you go about making one?
One important thing to remember is that none of those statements should sound like a slogan. A slogan is a catchy marketing line to get customers immediately thinking about a brand. Your mission and vision statements should go beyond simple statements like, “doing the best for our customers,” to capture the heart and soul of your organisation.
The simplest way to think about it is to reflect on where you are now (mission statement), where you want to go (vision statement), and what you want your organisation to look like along the way (values).
Change2020 can guide you along the way to help you build a stronger organisation from the inside out.
Case Study
When organisations experience a change in senior leadership, it’s often a great time to revisit the company’s mission, vision, and values and refresh its culture to align with new strategies. The case study below maps out one such project we’ve delivered.
The client
Change2020 was engaged by a utility that had recently appointed a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who in turn restructured the leadership team. While they had an existing vision, mission and set of values, the relevance and alignment of those statements weren’t clear. The CEO decided all three areas needed to be redefined and embedded into the organisation.
How we helped
We interviewed the Board and Executive Leadership Team to identify key themes before designing an online survey that was sent out to the whole of the business. The survey was built around the themes and interpretation of the existing vision, and the results provided us with a clear understanding of the current perceptions and feelings regarding the culture.
The survey data was analysed, and four recommendations were presented in a workshop to the Board and ELT. These were then shown to the broader group to test the recommendations and get a feel for how they would be accepted.
With the vision, mission and values aligned, Change2020 then ran workshops to map the behaviours that correlated to the values. Understanding how people interpret the same words differently is critical to developing values and behaviours that are consistent across the organisation.
Once the values had been confirmed, Change2020 further developed correlating icons for visual representation and a one-line statement to describe the behavioural outcome and engage people in its meaning.
The results
The mission, vision, and values were approved as truly representative of the organisation, its people, and its future direction. The next step was to make sure they were embedded in every area of the organisation, from the recruitment process all the way through performance management and company communications.
The clarity provided to the leadership team and all employees allowed the organisation to move on to the next phase of its growth and success.
Ready to make a change?
Our people are here to help your people
As organisational change consultants, we’re experts in helping people through change. We understand change can be a difficult, frustrating and messy process, which is why we deliver practical and flexible support to help you and your team navigate new territory.
If you need support developing your mission, vision, and values, or even just aligning ones you already have, get in touch with our team today.
