Steven,
>in the eyes of many here...
>customers don't care about how we do business, they just want the best
>product and services.
Ask those "many here": Why should we bother to give our customers the best
product and services - if our mission is something else?
May be they will recognise, that, what they may call a "just" ("...they
JUST want the best product and services.") is in fact the fundament of
what should be your mission. If your mission is something else, who cares?
Don't put it on the web. And don't waste your time with "customers"!
This should make even cynical persons think.
The shortest and most general form of a mission statement I know of is:
"We" DESIRE to do "verb" with "object" for the BENEFIT of "customer".
A good and quite general choice for the four variables are:
"We": the problemsolver
"verb": solve
"object": problems
"customer": those defining what the problem is (suffering from it).
B U T 1: Make sure that "customer" is not identical with "We"!!!! You may
find your mission statement burn down to something like: "I want to
collect money for the benefit of myself". Although such a statement is
very convincing for that "myself", it is not for anybody else. And as long
as the "myself" does not already has the money s/he is going to collect,
s/he will run into difficulties. It does not help that the vision is
clear: "I will be rich". And the values may be a collection of what our
"myself" believes that is good for him, but doesn't help either.
B U T 2 : Make sure, that the "We" is restricted to that group, which
really can feel the DESIRE. So don't talk of the mission statement of the
company, as long as it is not the whole company which can feel the DESIRE.
I wish to add, as a methodical side remark, that there is no way to make
anybody to desire what you desire. But a process, called "dialogue" can be
of great help in finding out what the common desire of a group is. And
just to repeat BUT1: It is all NOT about, what you desire for yourself!
May be, you will need to rethink your mission statement. When you got
consensus on such a mission statement, so that you can be sure, that what
you talk has a chance to become what the company walk, then telling your
customers what your mission is, what vision you have with respect to the
benefit of your customers and which values will guide you, is a powerful
way of selfcommittment. It is especially powerful because you know, that
your competitors will know that something is going on with you. No way
out.
Putting the mission on the web CAN be an exiting moment for all of your
employees. If not: How long will it take that your customers will notice,
that that statement is only for marketing purposes? Exactly on that date,
when a customer askes one of your e mployees about that mission and gets a
joke as a reply.
>I am very frustrated.
Steve, there is no need to be frustrated before that day!
Liebe Gruesse,
Winfried Dressler
--"Winfried Dressler" <winfried.dressler@voith.de>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>