Reworking your Mission and Vision

In last week's article, we looked at checklists against which to measure the effectiveness of your Mission and Vision statements. This week I promised to provide a process template you can use if you have decided those statements need revision. The following represents the process I have adapted and developed, but it is always a work in progress. You should feel free to make it your own.

Step 1: Values clarification: 2-hour discovery session with staff. Both your mission and your vision should flow from your organizational values. These values represent the guiding principles for how your nonprofit interacts internally, as well as with its clients, board, funders, partners and wider community. Your staff are living your culture and values, so this is their meeting and should be a guided but open conversation, ideally facilitated by a disinterested third party, during which you should seek to uncover both the values the organization explicitly communicates, as well as any that may have evolved as implicit parts of your culture. Begin with open brainstorming to capture a comprehensive list with no judgements made. Then, go back through and unpack each one, looking for connections between them and seeking consensus. Ultimately, you want a list of up to 8 values that you feel represent the organization. Would you be happy to post that list in your reception area, at board meetings, in your marketing materials, and in each person's office? Do they effectively communicate your organization's DNA?

Step 2: Mission statement evolution: two 1-hour discussion sessions- one staff and one board. Starting with your current Mission statement, analyze it as a group, using the checklist provided. Where does it fall short? Once you know the areas in which it needs improvement, put the current statement to the side and focus on generating new ideas. What words do your meeting participants use when describing the work of your organization? Which ones seem to resonate? with who? Look for consensus but do not try to get to a final statement, yet.

Step 3: Synthesis. Take the input you have received from the staff and board and develop three versions of a Mission statement that reflect the discussion and meet the checklist criteria.

Step 4: Present options for feedback: two 1-hour sessions- one staff and one board. Starting with the staff, solicit feedback on the three options you have developed. Be open to tweaking them. Seek consensus, if possible, but be willing to simply capture their feedback.

Step 5: Take the revised drafts and feedback to the board. Solicit their feedback. Select the preferred option and tweak, as needed. Evaluate the final version against the checklist.

Step 6: Vision statement development. This process is largely the same as one for the Mission statement, but having the foundational pieces of values and mission in place means the components can be tightened up by shortening the sessions, combining meetings, or combining the staff and board into one group.

Step 7: Put your values, mission, and vision together into one document and run through the checklists one more time.

Step 8: To accommodate the growth and change of your organization, determine when you will schedule a future review of the work you have completed.