The development of a mission statement as a contribution to sense orientation

Addressing the meaning of an organisation is more important than ever. In his work "Re-Inventing Organizations", Frederic Laloux identified the sense orientation of companies as one of the three key drivers of motivation of people and groups. Companies whose success depends on the intrinsic motivation of their employees should therefore have a good answer to the question of meaning and make sure that a management process is established for this purpose that prevents meaning orientation from being lost in day-to-day business and money-making.

Giving employees orientation is a management task

How can meaning be grasped and managed? In my view, the questions of the current raison d’être (=MISSION), the future orientation (=VISION), the understanding of VALUES and the LEADERSHIP behaviour must be answered in a way that is comprehensible, attractive and lasting for all stakeholders. However, organisations have been thinking about MISSION, VISION, VALUES and LEADERSHIP for a very long time – long before Re-Inventing Organizations was written – and collectively they call it LEITBILD. Often the mission statement process begins promisingly, participatively and euphorically and ends up in an unsuccessful and agonising appropriation process in which the well-intentioned mission statement eventually turns into a suffering image. The term mission statement also sounds rather dusty.

Now it seems to me that especially in times of complexity, the need for orientation towards MISSION, VISION, VALUES and LEADERSHIP is mission-critical. Do we want to continue to call this a mission statement? There would also be the possibility to call this "North Star", "Compass" or "Lighthouse" as some organisations do. After many discussions with organisational experts and entrepreneurs, I have decided to continue using the word mission statement, to dust it off and give it a new shine. After all, this word is well understood by all stakeholders and customers.

Read in the complete article on noventums info-platform nc360°:

• WHY HOW WHAT – Questions for a new mission statement
• Systematic workshop on mission statement identification
• Making guiding principles tangible in ever new actions