What’s more important than a mission, vision, and core values?

Have you ever met someone who is a big fan of a sports team, but when the sports team is losing, you don’t hear a word from them about the team? Or someone who tells you how hard a worker they are, yet you see them surfing the web and socializing more often than not? Or what about someone who tells you they are a person of faith and then treats others with disrespect? 

These examples could be called many things – hypocritical is what comes to mind for me. In each case, someone is saying one thing and doing something else. It reminds me of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous quote, “Your actions speak so loudly, I can not hear what you are saying.” 

No one likes people who do this. It can be called a lack of integrity, dishonesty, lack of congruency, inauthentic, mixed messages, etc. It is probably one of the main reasons our nation is so frustrated by our politicians – they promise what they will do and yet ultimately do so little of it. Can you imagine working for an organization that was doing this? It could be quite frustrating. 

And yet, this is what commonly happens with organizations that have mission, vision, and core values statements. They spend significant time creating them and very little time living them out. Why is this? 

If you identify a goal, are you likely to achieve it if you don’t take steps to develop a plan for how to achieve that goal? If you set a New Year’s resolution but don’t block off time on your calendar to make it a reality, how likely is it you will achieve it? The fact is, when we say we are going to do something, it is really just a dream until we take the time to figure out how we are going to do it. In other words, if you tell someone you are a hard worker, how are you going to show them? If you say you are a Christian, how would someone confirm this? Do your actions align with your beliefs? 

Now back to the title of this message - What is more important than having a mission, vision, and core values? The answer is simple - Live them out!  

How do we live out our mission, vision, and core values?

Now that we know we need to live out our mission, vision, and core values, let’s explore how we might go about doing that. A good starting place is to examine where you have these documents in writing. This allows you to see these messages more and hopefully read and start remembering them. Here are a few questions to consider for sharing your mission, vision, and values in writing:

1)     Are your mission, vision, and values framed and on the wall in the entrance to your organization? How about in different locations or offices on campus? 

2)     Are your mission, vision, and values displayed on your organization’s website? Are they periodically referenced in your organization’s social media?

3)     Does your print media include your mission, vision and core values?  

4)     Does everyone in your organization have a small card with the mission, vision, and/or core values on it? 

5)     Does your organization use the mission, vision, or values on their email signatures? 

6)     Do job announcements include the mission, vision and/or values? 

7)     Do prospective candidates receive a copy of your mission, vision and values? 

8)     When meeting agendas for your organization are prepared, are the mission, vision, or values ever included? 

9)     Are the mission, vision or values used in end-of-year employee self-evaluations? 

In addition to having your mission, vision and values in writing, there are also many ways of discussing them in your organization. Discussion is a more active way of engaging with these statements. Here are a few questions to consider how your mission, vision, and values might be discussed in your organization:

1)     Are the mission, vision, and values ever mentioned in organization meetings?

2)     Are the mission, vision and values covered in organizational orientations and trainings? 

3)     Are there interview questions that make mention of the mission, vision and core values? 

4)     Are there awards focused on best examples of the mission, vision or values given out? 

5)     Is anyone ever asked to explain the organization in 1-2 minutes using the mission, vision, and values? 

6)     When setting specific goals, are the mission, vision and values discussed and used as guiding documents?

7)     Does your organization make sure there is an annual opportunity (e.g. retreat) to revisit the mission, vision and values for accuracy and alignment with current practices? 

8)     When tough decisions are needed, do you remind each other to keep in mind the mission, vision, and values? 

9)     When it is time to plan the budget for the next year, are the mission, vision, and values used in discussions about priorities? 

There are many other ways of aligning an organization with its mission, vision, and values. I would suggest that you find several examples of written and discussion-based methods for bringing your mission, vision and values to life and go after them. There is no perfect answer in how to do this – most organizations become paralyzed by fear and therefore do nothing. What is important is to make an effort to remind yourself and your colleagues of what unites you, guides you, and propels you forward.  

One great example of alignment can be found at 3M, the company that owns Post-it, Scotch tape, and many medical devices. One of their core values is innovation. At 3M, employees are allowed to spend 15% of their time working on an innovative project of their own choosing.  Divisions at 3M must generate 30% of their revenue from products created in the past four years. Employees who want to grow and be promoted do not have to become managers – they can remain as scientists and innovators and still move up the career ladder. In addition, they highlight famous “failure stories” and don’t penalize most failures. All of these actions help to align the 3M culture with their core value of innovation. 

Another example for strong alignment is Publix supermarkets. Customer service is one of their core values.  Therefore, they employ more associates than most supermarkets in order to offer superior service. In addition, to increase buy-in from employees to provide great service, all employees receive a stake in Publix stock each year. Publix also does employee evaluations twice a year, and allow for raises each time, rewarding employees who are consistently providing the best customer service. 

When I worked in housing at Appalachian State University, we developed a mission, vision, and core values that we called Our Charter. Then the hard work of alignment began. We printed Our Charter and framed it in every residence hall’s main office. We printed Our Charter on business-sized cards and gave them out to everyone at the start of each year in an opening session focused on Our Charter. We organized our end of year awards around our core values. We interviewed candidates with questions linked to each of the core values. We shared Our Charter with all candidates and new hires. We put our vision statement on the bottom of all meeting agendas. We asked all budget requests to include some connection to Our Charter. We revisited Our Charter once a year in a several hour retreat. I’m excited to say that even today, nine years after I left Appalachian State, they have kept the same six core values and made only minor tweaks to both the mission and vision statements!

In short, if you have a mission, vision, and/or core values, congratulations. Creating these documents such that employees have a voice in them and know they exist is extremely important. But there is something even better, that can only be done once you have a mission, vision, and core values. Find ways of living out your organization’s mission, vision, and values. Demonstrate to your organization that you do what you say you do.