Purpose/Vision/Mission/Values

We started the Purpose/Vision/Mission/Values work in 2012. Before that I was involved with P/VMV as a CXO. There were not many articles or guidelines in 2012 on how to go about your vision/mission and values, all of us referred to the seminal article written by Jim Collins on the subject. It is a long article by today’s reading standards (14 pages). I have seen almost all leadership team members give up on it too early. Leadership teams that are building organisation(s) for possibly next twenty five years?were unwilling to give it twenty five minutes of reading time. This was, without a doubt, a huge mistake. That is the first BIG struggle of leadership teams. Without starting on the same page, we are trying to be on the same page. A basic agreement on the outcome and the approach is the least we can align on. We will discuss on how to correct for it.

Salto Dee Fe (SDF) has been facilitating PVMV workshops for past ten years. Most of the workshops begin with leadership team members struggling with the definitions of PVMV.?I have seen teams work on deciphering the meanings of the terms in English language, give definitions from their individual lens based on their past experience, find meaning for each word from their vantage point and the teams usually don’t agree. They debate like the sailor who wants to has his boat cross the ocean while he continues to poke holes in other’s boats. The progress to a common viewpoint is at a snail’s pace and very reluctant. As they start to converge on a a point of view, someone raises a relevant tangential question and everyone goes into a spin once again. Therefore, most leadership teams choose t not to engage in this exercise and see it as waste of time. Many of them hate it.

At SDF, we have spent 8 years researching how to arrive at PVMV efficiently and effectively. We have facilitated these workshops for 20 leadership teams of organisations of various sizes across sectors. I am listing out our top learnings from these exercises.

Leadership teams should start on the same page

Leadership teams should read a common article/paper on the subject to gain clarity before starting out with their point of views (read Jim Collins article, https://hbr.org/1996/09/building-your-companys-vision). The article gives clarity on the definitions of (Purpose/Vision/Mission/Values) and the direction an organization needs to take to discover these.

Culturally, Japanese, Chinese, European and American companies define each word viz Purpose, Vision and Mission in a very different way. I have experienced organisations calling mission their vision and vice-versa. And that is why it is important to read a common paper and get to a common understanding

In absence of a common definition, leaders who have worked in American/European organisations and are now working for an Indian/Middle East company find it confusing and?they struggle with the mission and vision articulation. During the workshop, these teams start to glean out the meanings of the words better than dictionaries can. If your team has reached this point, definitely stop and refer to a common definition first. Words we use commonly e.g integrity, honesty, care, excellence, customer centricity, customer obsession all mean different things to different set of people unless we arrive at a common view. Spend time on getting a common definition.

Another example: I have experienced leadership teams getting thoroughly confused between integrity and honesty (and it is not their fault). These are different words that are similar in meaning but are not the same, When the difference is called out in the meeting, the usual response from leaders is “You know what I mean”.?No, I do not know what you mean and that is the one of the objectives of this workshop. It can take an inordinately long time to come to the same page if the facilitator is not experienced in deftly deploying alignment tools to bridge such gaps. These gaps in words and their meanings are the most common roadblocks in such workshops.

Leaders should co-create, gently

Leaders in a PVMV workshops need to work on co-creation rather than dominance. Great leaders listen more than they talk. It is an extremely difficult task for leaders. Facilitators need to walk the fine line between brainstorming and assimilation, letting ideas flow and ebb them and then synthesize accurately and effectively.

When defining or writing out the purpose/vision or values, leaders tend to cling on to the words they have written while the whole team desperately tries to make them see beyond the typeface. They are so invested in what they want the organisation to be or look like that they forget that this is the team which has to not only write it but walk this path. The leaders therefore need to co-create this as much as they need to share. Great facilitators know when to walk in and when to be at the periphery. Let leaders jostle a bit, enjoy the fight but never let it turn ugly.

Nudging the leaders in the right direction and removing bottlenecks remain the biggest job of the facilitator. Let all the leaders air their views, even the ones keeping quiet for the longest time, making sure that everyone has had a chance to participate. Each leader adds a rich perspective to the debate, let it be heard and debated.

Paraphrasing and assimilating needs careful handling without adding your own flavour and colour.

Leaders should revisit

Often post these exhausting exercises, leaders want to move on to the other important matters in organisation. That is a folly. Leaders need to sleep over what they have created and then be their own biggest critics.?They need to revisit the whole work ten days later and see if this is still what touches their heart and can be talked about to the thousands of employees who have perhaps spent equal number of years or more in the organisation. See if it will touch an emotional chord with them - they are perhaps more invested than you into the current PVMV or culture. When you rewrite or bring in a new statement, it may feel like a betrayal of??something which they owned and were proud of. This should be handled mindfully otherwise it may lead to quiet quitting, quiet mutiny and quiet defiance.

Leaders need to spend enough time and mull over a bit more than usual to build and finalise the words and then playing them out loud with a pilot group, a critical group and a group of naysayers.?Stay away from being faddish and going with the latest jargon. Stay true to the nature of the organisation and what makes you comfortable when faced with the harshest questions about the purpose, vision and mission of the company. Be clear that the values you are espousing will stand the test every time there is a dilemma which needs resolution, each time when two seemingly right perspectives clash in the organization and when stakeholders put fire to your feet.

Armed with a clear purpose, you will be able to satisfy your most important stakeholders - customers, community, employees and shareholders. Purpose will become the deep foundation on which you can build a tall organization.