Workshop instructions: Formulate your mission statement

Workshop instructions: Formulating your mission statement

These are the instructions for conducting a workshop with your team to come up with a formulated mission statement together. The workshop takes 2-3 hours to complete. Before the workshop, participants should prepare themselves well.

 

1. Purpose and Objectives

 

The aim of the workshop is to empower the team: 

• Formulate a powerful mission statement
• New insights into the company's target audience and their needs.
• A clearer understanding of the company's unique value.
• A basis for developing a strategy to achieve the company's goals.

The purpose of the workshop is to:

• Get participants to think creatively and come up with new ideas.
• Collect input from a team with different perspectives.
• Identify the suggestions that are most popular and relevant.

 

What is a mission statement?

A mission statement is a description of what a company does, for whom and why. It should be short and concise, and it should be based on a deep understanding of the company's target audience and their needs.

 

Why should you have a mission statement?

A mission statement is important for the following reasons:

It provides direction and focus. A mission statement helps the company to stay on track and work towards its goals.
It helps to define the company's identity. A mission statement can help the company to differentiate itself from its competitors.
It can inspire and motivate. A mission statement can give the company's employees and customers a sense of purpose and meaning.
It can be used as a communication tool. A mission statement can be used to communicate the company's goals and values to external stakeholders.

 

 

2. Preparations

 

Potential pitfalls of workshops and how to avoid them

Workshops are an effective way to gather input from a group of people. However, if they are not properly planned and implemented, they can also lead to misunderstandings and unproductivity.

Here are some potential pitfalls of workshops and how to avoid them:

Bias from the workshop leader

How to avoid it: Choose a neutral workshop leader who has no vested interest in the topic.

Confusion about the purpose of the workshop

How to avoid it: Clearly define the purpose of the workshop and make sure that all participants understand it.

Uneven participation

How to avoid it: Ensure that all participants have a voice and that no one dominates the conversation. Use different methods to involve all participants, such as open discussion, voting or group work.

Who should participate in a business idea formulation workshop?

• Workshop leader: A neutral person who can moderate the conversation and keep track of time.
• Implementer: A person or group who will be responsible for implementing the results of the workshop.
• Target group representatives: People who represent the company's target group.
• Experts in the field: People who have knowledge and experience in the area that the workshop focuses on.

 

Before the workshop starts, it is important that participants prepare themselves by considering the following four questions:

 

1. Who do we help?

Example:

Single parents
Pensioners
Students
Businesses
Environmentally conscious consumers

2. In which situation is the person?

Example:

Have little time
Can't afford it
Want to live more sustainably
Want to learn something new

3. What effects does the person experience with our help?

Example:

Saving time
Saving money
Living more sustainably
Gains knowledge

4. What unique quality do we offer the person?

Example:

Personalised service
Innovative technology
Low price
Increased efficiency

 

3. The workshop

1. Prepare the workshop

Prepare the workshop with pens for everyone, post-it notes and walls where all the notes can fit.

Divide the wall into 4 equal parts as in the picture below (e.g. with labelling tape separating each part).

 

2. Start the workshop

Each participant writes down their answers on post-it notes and puts them in each section of the wall.

The parts are:

1. Who are we helping?

2. in what situation is the person in when they would need our help?

3. What effects does the person experience with our help?

4. What unique quality do we offer the person?

 

3. Collecting duplicates

The workshop leader goes to the wall and identifies exact duplicates within each part. Put the exact duplicates on top of each other.

 

4. Distribute the participants' scores

Participants are each allocated half the number of points as there are suggestions for each part. They can put 1-3 points per proposal to mark which proposal(s) they consider the best. Repeat this for each part. 

 

5. Score and summarise

Once all participants have scored their points, it is time to summarise the results. The workshop leader goes through all the proposals and parts and summarises the number of points each proposal has received.

Add up the number of points for each proposal in each part.
Sort the proposals in each part in descending order by the number of points.
When the workshop leader has summarised the results, it may look like this:

Formulating mission statement

Based on the winning proposals, we will now formulate mission statements. Use the winning proposals and formulate a powerful mission statement. 

 

Example formulations:

We help [Person] in [Situation] to [Effect] with [Unique].

We help parents of young children save time by delivering groceries and recipes directly to their door.

Spend more time with the kids with simple recipes and the right ingredients.

 

Vote on mission statement proposals

When the number of mission statement proposals is sufficient, we will vote on which ones we think are the best. We vote in the same way as when we scored the proposals on answers to the four questions in the previous exercise.

 

4. The decision - The winning proposal

The basis for the final choice of mission statement is now on the wall. There is probably more than one proposal that received votes, so it is now up to the manager to decide which proposal can become the new mission.

 

Advice to the responsible person

Choosing a proposal with the most votes ensures the team's commitment, motivation and energy to move forward. If a less popular proposal is chosen, it may be more difficult to build community support and commitment to it.

Choosing the highest voted proposal maximises the chances of success and commitment.

Where should you enter the mission statement in GoalEnvision?

At the top of the organisation page in GoalEnvision, you will find a place for the mission statement, which serves as a guiding force for all our growth targets and strategic goals. Our mission statement, which sits clearly above these goals, ensures that every decision we make is aligned with our core values and purpose.

It is a constant reminder of why we do what we do, and helps us stay focused on making a positive impact in the world.

Once you've carefully crafted your mission statement and placed it in a prominent place on your GoalEnvision organisation page, it's time to turn your attention to setting growth targets. These targets serve as concrete benchmarks for your team to strive towards, and help keep everyone focused and motivated.

But setting a growth target is about more than just setting a numerical target. It's an opportunity to align your team's efforts with your organisation's mission and values, to ensure that every decision and action taken is in service of something bigger. By setting clear and ambitious growth targets, you can help your team stay focused on the long-term vision and remain motivated to achieve it.

Good luck!