I worked in organisations of different sizes in a consultancy fixing/reviewing/installing/ streamlining capacity for many years
Normally at an operational level on behalf of some senior management with concerns. Therefore the questions of “mission vision value” & “policy process procedure” & “goal metric indicator response” We’re always relevant parts of those commissions.
Often part of the challenge was to give these words meaning for the people to whom they were supposed to be guidance.
Typically they’re just smoke and mirrors. Sometimes wilfully to hide the senior levels’ accountability from everybody else in order to game the bonus system - This is a topic still in BIG’s future (there’s good consideration of the topic in the works of Michael C Jensen)
With orientation of what the words mean then introduction or streamlining had a frame of reference that smart motivated people could use to move in a cooperative manner towards agreeing a destination and standard of operation and then delivering it.
I developed definitions that I would reuse in each organisation.
They gave clarity of concept that could be mapped onto local vocabulary with the identification of gaps and overlaps and contradictions made plain to also be fixed.
Mission
A statment that frames “Why we exist as a collection of capital”. It must be viscerally understood by the people involved in the conversation of forming the statement in such a way that they can cascade to their management or staff teams what that team’s rights duties and obligations are in satisfying the mission.
I’ve previously defined capital here as “all the things needed to deliver outcomes” such as Shared Mental Models and procedures, Friendly relationships etc. Money is the least significant form of capital - But the most fungible.
The longevity of relevance of the mission statement should be approaching permanent. Changes to it should mark an epoch.
Each recipient team needs to understand their mission statement. (They do not need to understand mission statements 2 steps or more higher in the organisation although sometimes that is useful - but not often)
Vision
What ephemeral, achievable targets we have when mission and context of market, regulators, government, competitors, fashion and trends coalesce to create opportunity (or threat). Components of the vision change at a rate comparable to Industry Clock Speed: Slower and the organisation is on a path to its capital being reallocated (by marketplace forces) to a different organisation. Faster and we are the organisation that will acquire other’s capital.
Threat is almost always to margin through external factors which are always somebody else’s opportunity (marketplace forces again).
Values
Our guide words to be used in the formulation of strategic and tactical decisions when assessing the desirability of candidate intentions.
For example a retail bank might choose Prudence. Safety for depositors whereas an investment bank might call choose Swift. Opportunity for high return.
An organisation may be attuned to early adoption - In which case one of its values might be Innovative implying the slack with which to pivot frequently or it may be attuned to mass production (low margin in a mature sector) In which case one of its values might be efficient implying that all forms of slack are tracked and systematically eliminated.
Other common words might be compassionate or bold or respectful or decisive.
A major determinant is whether the value stream created relates to something that is a necessity or discretionary.
Necessity normally demands minimum cost of production (EG supermarket sliced bread) and discretionary have limitless price (Artworks)
When a group of people with Shared Mental Models and capacity and capability (multiple illustration of elements of capital) encounter opportunity (or theat or lack of both). Together the example of A Context then the people concerned can test and may tune but then deliver Vision in the pursuit of Mission while honouring their Values.
Both opportunity and threat require non-traditional actions (Change). Absence of threat or opportunity can continue using traditional actions to generate traditional value from a stable Context.
The context contains factors that influence both the demand (volume against price = elasticity) for the value stream created and for the procedures used to create the value stream.
We know from topics such as Global Warming that one country has not historically considered its impacts on the rest of the globe. Incidents such as 3-Mile Island and Chernobyl have placed in our conscience that that disregard is misplaced.
Knowing that there is a global consequence to actions at scale gives illustration that there are repeated fractal considerations that focus down to the level of teams within an organisation. The organisation is a single pool of capital in exactly the same way that the globe is.
Different teams actions make demands on that capital. In the final aggregate analysis competing demands have to be compatible rather than in opposition.
We could equally synthesise the same conclusion upwards from the phrase Work Life Balance as it applies to an individual.
The simple word CHANGE has behind it as much interactive dynamic complexity as mission vision values and context do - but that’s a different chapter.
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