Mission Summary

[Notes to Self – V]

Mission statements are everywhere. On the window at Taco Bell, on the landing page of the website for the law firm, and even in the bathroom at the YMCA. Take, for example, this one I saw at the rental car place in town:

Our mission is to be customer focused, cost efficient, and provide an unforgettable car rental experience for whatever journey you may be on.

What’s unforgettable about a car rental? Was it the long wait (even though I was the only one in the lobby)? Was it the sorta-clean-car smell in the Corolla I rented? Was it the mauve building color, the old beige chair in the corner, or the dirty floors? Was it the surprise surcharge? Of course not.

What’s wrong with this mission statement is the same thing wrong with most mission statements: they don’t reflect reality. And if they do, then the customer, the client, the partner, the employee, the janitor, the observing citizen, or the neighbor don’t need a statement. It’s imbedded in the experience, the product, the culture, and the aura of the place. It’s fused into every decision, baked into every encounter. The words are superfluous.

What might be valuable is to have an open source mission summary. It would be like a Wikipedia for mission statements. Anyone can write and/or edit what they think the mission is. It would be accurate. It would capture collective experience and perception. And it would be helpful to both the company and future customers.

The point: your mission is what you actually do. It should sound more like a summary than a highfalutin dream. (By the way, if it doesn’t influence every detail, it’s not the mission.)