Workshop instructions: Formulate your mission statement
This is the instructions for carrying out a workshop with the team where you together come up with a formulated mission statement. The workshop takes 2-3 hours to complete. Before the workshop, participants should prepare well.
What is a mission statement and why should you have one?
A mission statement is a statement of the purpose of a company, organization, or individual. It explains the goals and values that guide the actions of the organization or individual.
It provides direction and focus: A mission statement helps an organization or individual to clarify what they are trying to achieve and how they intend to achieve it. This can help to keep everyone on track and working towards the same goals.
It helps to define the organization's identity: A mission statement can help to define the organization's unique character and values, which can help to differentiate it from other organizations in its field.
It can inspire and motivate: A mission statement can be inspiring and motivating to employees, customers, and other stakeholders. It can help to create a sense of purpose and meaning, and it can be a rallying cry for people to get behind.
It can be used as a communication tool: A mission statement can be used as a tool to communicate the organization's goals and values to external stakeholders, such as customers, investors, and the media.
Overall, a mission statement is an important tool for any organization or individual that wants to define its purpose, guide its actions, and inspire and motivate others.
Potential pitfalls and how to avoid them
Holding a workshop can be a challenging task, but there are ways to overcome common pitfalls and ensure a successful and productive session.
One issue that often arises is bias from the workshop leader. To avoid this, it's best to choose a neutral facilitator who doesn't have a vested interest in the topic being discussed.
Another pitfall is confusion about the purpose of the workshop. To avoid this, it's important to clearly define the desired outcome and make sure it is communicated to all participants.
Moderating the conversation, keeping track of time, and ensuring equal participation from all members is also crucial for a successful workshop. There are various approaches to facilitate the conversation, such as open discussion or voting on ideas, to ensure that all voices are heard and ideas are given equal consideration.
By addressing these potential pitfalls, you can ensure that your workshop is a productive and inclusive experience for all participants.
Who will participate?
Appoint a workshop leader to moderate and coordinate the workshop. Choose someone who is not directly involved in the process.
Also decide on who will be responsible for implementing the results of the workshop.
The founders, CEO, management team, and board should be involved in formulating the mission statement.
What comes first? Vision or mission statement?
It depends on the situation. In a perfect world, a vision would come first as a guide for creating a product or service that benefits others. In reality, a vision may be developed later as a way to attract customers.
If a mission statement has not yet been created, it is best to start with a vision to guide the development of a mission statement. The vision should describe the "why" of the company from the perspective of the market and customers.
1. Preparations
The workshop leader calls the workshop and asks everyone to prepare by formulating answers to the four questions below.
The workshop leader: Invite the participants and give them the questions below to think about WELL before the workshop. Tell the participants that together you will formulate a powerful mission statement and vision. That it should become like a slogan that you can use in marketing communication..
An example of text to send to the participants:
Hello, we want to invite you to a workshop where will create a mission statement for our business to define our strengths and offer to customers. This will guide our interactions with the market and improve our communications. In the workshop, we will focus on defining our target customer and formulating our offer from their perspective. This will help us provide clear and valuable assistance to our customers.
Think about these four questions below before the workshop.
- Who do we help?
Regardless of who pays for our product or service, it is always ultimately an individual, a person, a human being in a group that we help. Who, do you think, is that individual? Use nouns to describe the group the customer belongs to.
Example: Purchasing manager, pensioner, single person, cyclist.
- What is the situation of the person we help?
The person we help may not always be in need of our products or services. In which situation do you think it is most clear to the person that they need our products and services? Use adjectives.
Example:, Financial, stressed, newly married, environmentally conscious, interested in culture,
- What effects does the person experience with our help?
If the person we choose to help chooses our products and services in the right situation, what effects does that have for the person?
Example: Saves money, frees up time, becomes happier, becomes fulfilled, achieves personal goals.
- What unique quality do we offer the person?
What is there, in our offer, that is unique to us? It can be something that is better, smaller, smarter or otherwise different from other options that the person we are helping is choosing between.
Examples: Fast, innovative, knowledgeable, simple, fun, agile.
Optional bonus question:
- What problem are we solving for the person?
Does our offer clearly address a pressing problem? By highlighting the problem and how we solve it, we can demonstrate the value and relevance of our offer to potential customers.
Examples: in pain, time-consuming, difficult, risky.
Write down your answers or thoughts about these questions. Bring your written answers and thoughts to the workshop
Explanation of the questions:
The answers to questions 1 and 2 result in a so-called "target group", i.e. which person we help and in which situation the person is in. We call the answer to question 3 "the offer ”, meaning what it means for the person to take our help. The answer to question 4 becomes our unique "twist", i.e. what distinguishes us from the person's other options.
2. 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 ( or 5 ) equal-sized parts as in the picture below (e.g. with marking tape that separates each part).
2. Start the workshop
Welcome the participants to the workshop and present the agenda:
- The four questions - your answers on the wall (30 min)
- Scoring - Which suggestions are the best? (30 min)
- Winning proposal - Compilation (15 min)
- Formulate mission statement - Create and vote (30 min)
- Decided mission statement - for internal and external communication (10 min)
Total workshop time: approx. 2-3 hours
3. Post the proposals on the wall
Workshop leader: Be everyone write down their prepared answers on post-it notes and post them in the respective section on the wall.
Some rules:
- Don't delete duplicates
- Don't discuss what's on the post-it notes yet.
- Leave all the pieces in place, even if someone thinks the suggestions are "wrong" for some reason.
4. Collect duplicates
The workshop leader walks up to the wall and identifies exact duplicates within each part. Place the exact duplicates on top of each other and communicate with the participants about what you do. Be careful not to "interpret" different postal notes as duplicates if they are not.
5. Distribute the participants' points
Now it is time for the participants to assign points to the various proposals. Each part is scored separately. Before scoring, decide which question will be answered with the scoring.
Below you see three suggestions for questions that can be answered with points:
- Which suggestion do you think best matches how we are successful today?
Example: One suggestion in part 1 is "purchasers", another suggestion is "financial managers". One of the participants believes that today we best help financial managers and therefore puts his points on "financial managers".
- Which proposal do you think best matches where you should focus in the future?
Example: One suggestion in part 1 is "purchasers", another suggestion is "financial managers". One of the participants believes that we should focus on buyers and therefore puts his points on "buyers".
- Which proposal do you think best matches what the customer himself would agree with.
Example: One suggestion in part 1 is "purchasers", another suggestion is "financial managers". One of the participants thinks that the customer probably experiences the greatest benefit if he/she is a financial manager and therefore puts his points on "financial managers".
6. Points and scoring
Start with Part 1: Who do we help?
The workshop leader asks everyone to score the various suggestions. They each get half as many points as there are suggestions in the current part.
Duplicates that sit on top of each other count as ONE (1) proposal. If the number of suggestions is odd, round the number of points down.
Example: There are 8 proposals for part 1. The participants therefore receive a total of 4 points each to distribute.
Example. The participant has a total of 4 points to distribute, as there are 8 proposals in part 1. The participant puts 2 points on proposal no.1, 1 point on proposal no.3 and 2 points on proposal no.6. The participant has now distributed his 4 points.
Distribute the participants' points
Workshop leader: Ask the participants to put 1-3 points to mark which proposal(s) they consider to be the best.
Continue in the same way with part 2: Situation?
Now we have defined our target group
Continue in the same way with part 3: Effects?
Here we have defined our offer
Continue in the same way with part 2: Unique?
Finally, we have formulated our unique "twist"
Add up points
The scoring is complete, and now we want to know which proposals received the most points in each part. For each part, we want to save the three proposals that received the most points: Gold, silver and bronze.
Now you can see which proposals in the four parts got the most points. From each part, we choose the three proposals that received the most points. We will continue to work with the three proposals in each part that received the most proposals. If some proposals have received the same number of points, they end up in a shared place.
7. Formulate mission statements
Based on the 12 proposals (3 winning proposals X 4 parts) we will now formulate mission statements.
We use the concepts that the winning proposals give us and create a formulation. The wording must tell how we help the person in a situation to achieve effects through our unique characteristic. The exact wording depends on the concepts included in the proposals, so that it results in a powerful and engaging mission statement.
Examples of wording
We help [Person] in [Situation] to [Effect] with [Unique]
We help parents of young children save time by delivering groceries and prescriptions directly to the door.
Spend more time with the children with simple recipes and the right ingredients
8. Vote on proposals for mission statements
When the number of proposals for mission statements is sufficient, we will vote on which ones we think are the best. We vote in the same way as when we scored the suggestions for answers to the four questions in the exercise earlier.
3. The decision - The winning proposal
The basis for the final choice of mission statement is now on the wall. Surely there is more than one proposal that has received votes, so now it is up to the person responsible for the business to decide which proposal can become the new mission statement.
Advice for the person in charge
Choosing a proposal with the most votes ensures the team's commitment, motivation, and energy in moving forward. If a less popular proposal is chosen, it may be harder to build community support and commitment to it.
Selecting the top-voted proposal maximizes the chances of success and engagement.
Where to put it in GoalEnvision?
At the top of the organization page in Goalenvision, you'll find a spot for mission statement that serves as a guiding force for all of our growth targets and strategic goals. Located prominently above these objectives, our mission statement ensures that every decision we make aligns with our core values and purpose.
It's a constant reminder of why we do what we do, and helps us stay focused on making a positive impact in the world.
When you have carefully crafted your mission statement and placed it prominently on your GoalEnvision organization page, it's time to turn your attention to setting growth targets. These targets serve as concrete benchmarks for your team to strive towards, helping to keep everyone focused and motivated.
But setting a growth target is about more than just setting a numerical goal. It's an opportunity to align your team's efforts with your organization's mission and values, ensuring that every decision and action taken is in service of something bigger. By establishing clear and ambitious growth targets, you can help your team stay focused on the long-term vision and stay motivated to achieve it.
Good Luck!
