Mission Satement
The following is a reply I wrote to sabazius_x regarding his post of The Nature and Purpose of O.T.O. (DRAFT). I thought it might be interesting and worth discussing so I have also moved it to my LJ as a post. This is meant in no way to be disrespectful to sabazius_x. To see the post it refers to, please see the link above.
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This all looks like wonderful source material to start codifying a set of Order Principles, a Mission Statement, USGL Goals and a USGL Vision.
Your immediate goal should be a mission statement for US Grand Lodge. However, by-products of that process should result in a statement of principles, goals and a vision for USGL. It is important to note that a mission statement is a short, easy to understand statement or statements. It does not talk about history, founders, philosophy, etc. It is a statement of purpose. Why does the OTO exist? Why does USGL exist? What is the purpose?
The Grantsmanship Center, a groups that creates publications for nonprofit and government organizations, states the following:
At the very least, your organization's mission statement should answer three key questions:
1. What are the opportunities or needs that we exist to address? (the purpose of the organization) [Vision]
2. What are we doing to address these needs? (the business of the organization) [Goals]
3. What principles or beliefs guide our work? (the values of the organization) [Principles]
The source material you posted talks about various goals, or principles in some way but they need to be brought together, codified. The Vision is a statement of where USGL is going. Where will we be in 1, 2, 5, 10 years? The principles say why we are going there. The goals are how we get there. Some goals are less concrete, like we need to be the most successful _blank_ in the nation. Others are more concrete: We need to increase _blank_ by 5% over the next year and 25% over the next 5 years. Without having both, we get nowhere. Goals come from vision. Vision comes from purpose, purpose comes from principles. They are all interrelated.
Each sections needs to be developed and listed separately. Just saying “look at liber _blank_” does not cut it. If the principles are meaningful, then developing a succinct list of them is important. Also the same goes for goals. If we say our goals are listed in liber X then what you are really saying is that our goals have not changed in over 50 years, since AC died? How dynamic of an organization is that?
Goals need to be short term, mid term and long term. They need to represent the changes taking place in the organization but also the adherence to the principles and vision of the organization. As so correctly staked by CLK in May at the Kaaba in Atlanta, the order could do anything including running a doughnut shop, but is that really in our vision? Is that really a valid goal for us? How does that uphold our principles? She was right when she said a restaurant is not a valid task for us right now. But these things can only be determined if we all are in agreement about the principles, goals, vision and mission. Plus this agreement needs to be order wide and clearly stated. If everyone thinks they know but are not sure, then they don’t know.
All these things need to be thought about for the mission statement. Peter Drucker, a writer, teacher, and consultant specializing in strategy and policy for businesses and social sector organizations, says “the mission should ‘fit on a T-shirt,’ yet a mission statement is not a slogan. It is a precise statement of purpose. Words should be chosen for their meaning rather than beauty, for clarity over cleverness. The best mission statements are plain speech with no technical jargon and no adornments.”
I cannot stress enough the need to put these all down on paper, communicate them effectively and consistently. A wonderful example is your essay on sponsorship. You clearly stated a set of principles on why sponsorship is important, gave a vision of how sponsorship, if used correctly, could greatly enhance the Order and it has been repeatedly published, included in study guides, etc. This is what needs to be done with an USGL wide vision, set of principles, goals and mission statement.
Lastly, this will be a time consuming process. The Leader to Leader Institute notes “Some groups are able to develop a revised mission very quickly, while others conduct the work over a period of weeks or even months.” It is not a fast process and will require a lot of time, thought and discussion with a number of people, especially because we don’t really have one. Yet it is one of the most important things a real leader could do for an organization. I encourage you to take the source material collected above, start the process and start leading USGL forward. I am available to assist you with this process in any way I can.
Below are a few links that further discuss the process.
http://www.pfdf.org/leaderbooks/sat/mission.html
http://www.businessplans.org/Mission.html
http://www.tgci.com/magazine/98fall/mission.asp
http://www.nonprofits.org/npofaq/03/21.html
PS: If you decide you are not willing or the OTO is not worth the effort you can always use the Dilbert Mission Statement Generator:
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/career/bin/ms2.cgi
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This all looks like wonderful source material to start codifying a set of Order Principles, a Mission Statement, USGL Goals and a USGL Vision.
Your immediate goal should be a mission statement for US Grand Lodge. However, by-products of that process should result in a statement of principles, goals and a vision for USGL. It is important to note that a mission statement is a short, easy to understand statement or statements. It does not talk about history, founders, philosophy, etc. It is a statement of purpose. Why does the OTO exist? Why does USGL exist? What is the purpose?
The Grantsmanship Center, a groups that creates publications for nonprofit and government organizations, states the following:
At the very least, your organization's mission statement should answer three key questions:
1. What are the opportunities or needs that we exist to address? (the purpose of the organization) [Vision]
2. What are we doing to address these needs? (the business of the organization) [Goals]
3. What principles or beliefs guide our work? (the values of the organization) [Principles]
The source material you posted talks about various goals, or principles in some way but they need to be brought together, codified. The Vision is a statement of where USGL is going. Where will we be in 1, 2, 5, 10 years? The principles say why we are going there. The goals are how we get there. Some goals are less concrete, like we need to be the most successful _blank_ in the nation. Others are more concrete: We need to increase _blank_ by 5% over the next year and 25% over the next 5 years. Without having both, we get nowhere. Goals come from vision. Vision comes from purpose, purpose comes from principles. They are all interrelated.
Each sections needs to be developed and listed separately. Just saying “look at liber _blank_” does not cut it. If the principles are meaningful, then developing a succinct list of them is important. Also the same goes for goals. If we say our goals are listed in liber X then what you are really saying is that our goals have not changed in over 50 years, since AC died? How dynamic of an organization is that?
Goals need to be short term, mid term and long term. They need to represent the changes taking place in the organization but also the adherence to the principles and vision of the organization. As so correctly staked by CLK in May at the Kaaba in Atlanta, the order could do anything including running a doughnut shop, but is that really in our vision? Is that really a valid goal for us? How does that uphold our principles? She was right when she said a restaurant is not a valid task for us right now. But these things can only be determined if we all are in agreement about the principles, goals, vision and mission. Plus this agreement needs to be order wide and clearly stated. If everyone thinks they know but are not sure, then they don’t know.
All these things need to be thought about for the mission statement. Peter Drucker, a writer, teacher, and consultant specializing in strategy and policy for businesses and social sector organizations, says “the mission should ‘fit on a T-shirt,’ yet a mission statement is not a slogan. It is a precise statement of purpose. Words should be chosen for their meaning rather than beauty, for clarity over cleverness. The best mission statements are plain speech with no technical jargon and no adornments.”
I cannot stress enough the need to put these all down on paper, communicate them effectively and consistently. A wonderful example is your essay on sponsorship. You clearly stated a set of principles on why sponsorship is important, gave a vision of how sponsorship, if used correctly, could greatly enhance the Order and it has been repeatedly published, included in study guides, etc. This is what needs to be done with an USGL wide vision, set of principles, goals and mission statement.
Lastly, this will be a time consuming process. The Leader to Leader Institute notes “Some groups are able to develop a revised mission very quickly, while others conduct the work over a period of weeks or even months.” It is not a fast process and will require a lot of time, thought and discussion with a number of people, especially because we don’t really have one. Yet it is one of the most important things a real leader could do for an organization. I encourage you to take the source material collected above, start the process and start leading USGL forward. I am available to assist you with this process in any way I can.
Below are a few links that further discuss the process.
http://www.pfdf.org/leaderbooks/sat/mission.html
http://www.businessplans.org/Mission.html
http://www.tgci.com/magazine/98fall/mission.asp
http://www.nonprofits.org/npofaq/03/21.html
PS: If you decide you are not willing or the OTO is not worth the effort you can always use the Dilbert Mission Statement Generator:
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/career/bin/ms2.cgi