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• Involve all stakeholders in its development; otherwise, they won’t

consider it theirs.
• Assign responsibility so that it’s clear how each person, including each
stakeholder, can contribute.
• Seek expert facilitation to reach a vision supported by all.
• Revise and reiterate; you’ll likely go through multiple iterations before
you’re satisfied.
Content
• Start from where you are to get to where you want to go.
• Build in the values of the organization: Every organization has a soul.
Tap into yours, and adjust as needed. Mission and vision built on your values will
not just hold promise but also deliver on it.
• Build on the core competencies of the organization: A mission and
vision are useless if they can’t be put into operation. This requires recognition of
your organization’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Factor in your style: A mission and vision must reflect the leader’s
style. You can’t sustain action that goes against it.
• Make it visual: A picture is worth a thousand words.
• Make it simple to understand: Complex language and disconnected
statements have little impact—people can’t implement what they don’t
understand.
• Make it achievable: A mission and vision are an organization’s dreams
for the future. Unachievable goals discourage people.
• Phase it in: Reach for the sky—in stages.
• Make it actionable: If it’s too abstract, no one knows what to do next.
Communications
• Communicate often: Internal communications are the key to success.
People need to see the mission and vision, identify with them, and know that
leadership is serious about it.
• Create messages that relate to the audience: To adopt a mission and
vision, people must see how they can achieve it, and what’s in it for them.
• Create messages that inspire action: It’s not what you say, but how
you say it.
Application
• Use it: Beyond printing it, posting it, and preaching it, you also need to
practice what is laid out in the mission and vision…“walk the talk”
• Live it: Management must lead by example.
• Be real: It’s better to adjust the mission statement as needed than to not
live up to the standards it sets.
Monitoring
• Identify key milestones: While traveling to your destination,
acknowledge the milestones along the way.
• Monitor your progress: A strategic audit, combined with key metrics,
can be used to measure progress against goals and objectives.

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