Color me skeptical, but I am just not a fan of vision statements, mission statements, company statements and whatever else is the latest iteration. I prefer P&L statements. I could be wrong on this so I’ll provide an article from BusinessWeek.com titled Vision Decisions.
The opening graph:
Feeling the pressure to prove they have what former President George H. W. Bush famously termed “the vision thing,” they drag their staffs through formal visioning sessions. The resulting empty exercises yield “vision statements” to which employees periodically genuflect, but they have no operative meaning. The net result is anti-inspirational.
The purpose of vision, after all, is to inspire: vision provides motivation through inspiration. As discussed in a previous post, inspiration is one key element of the “why should people get excited about this” dimension of establishing strategic direction (the other is incentives). An effective statement of vision provides an inspiring portrait of what it will look like and feel like to achieve the organization’s mission and goals. It crystallizes an emotional connection between employees and the business. Critically, a formal statement of vision is not an end in itself. It is both the product of and a symbol of a process of generating shared understanding and shared commitment among employees.
The process part makes sense, but the entire vision statement idea just strikes me as an organizational development symbol that has little impact on the company’s machinations. Strong leadership provides inspiration.
I went through the ISO 9000 whatever registration over a decade ago and came away with a fairly jaded perspective of the entire thing. That experience, where we had to memorize the company vision statement and mission statement in case we were asked by an auditor. The statements sounded good, but operationally they had no impact on the business. In my estimation, they were little more than political spin.