Organizations of Meaning

While visions are important and are definitely the “rallying cry” for organizations (teams, countries, groups, and individuals), visions are also embedded in a system to produce an organization of meaning. Often organizations start their change efforts by first determining their vision. Once the organization identifies their vision, then they begin to conduct their strategies. This approach is limiting in that it does not recognize that a vision statement is just one piece of creating an organization of meaning. In our work, we suggest that there are four pieces to creating an organization of meaning: identifying the mission of the organization, creating a vision for the organization, surrounding the organization’s mission and vision with a set of values, and communicating the mission, vision, and values to other members of the organization. As we lead organizations to identify their mission, vision, and values, we begin with a series of questions. The first question deals with the purpose or mission for the organization. A mission statement is a specific statement of purpose for the organization. It answers the question “why are we here?” Mission and purpose statements discuss the current business activity of the organization and the organization’s boundaries and convey “who we are, what we do, and where we are now.” A mistake that most organizations make is they think their mission is to make money. This is wrong. The mission of the organization is how they specifically plan to make money. For example, Nike’s mission statement is “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete” in the world.⁵ Let’s check to see if this mission statement meets our criteria for mission statements. First, does this mission statement define the current business activity and boundaries? The answer is yes, the business activity and boundaries are defined as they relate to athletes. Nike has further clarified their mission statement as they have provided a definition of an athlete: If you have a body, you are an athlete. The second criterion is whether it answers the who, the what, and the where elements of a mission statement. Who? Athletes. What? Inspiration and innovation. Where? The world. Our favorite part is that the mission is short. We understand that some organizations might have long mission statements, but the goal should be to condense the mission statement to its fundamental elements.

Another example of a mission statement is that of the American Red Cross:

Again, if we check to see if this mission statement meets our criteria, we would say yes. Although it contains more words than Nike’s mission statement, the words really help to establish the boundaries of the organization: The American Red Cross works within the International Red Cross. The mission statement also provides a sense of the who, what, and where in its last statement: “provide relief to victims of disasters and help people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies.”

If the mission statement answers the question, “why are you here?” then the vision answers the question, “where are you going?” We think the answer to a question about where you are going needs to be specific, clear, and an actual location. One thinks of John F. Kennedy’s speech on space exploration: his vision was to put a man on the moon and bring him back safely. This is a clear vision statement. Similarly, in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, he talked about “the promised land.” While some think that is vague, he has specified where the promised land is: a place where “one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.”⁷

An example of how a mission and vision work together is found in the mission and vision statements of the University of Alberta. The mission statement reads as follows:

In addition, the vision of the University of Alberta is to “inspire the human spirit through outstanding achievements in learning, discovery, and citizenship in a creative community, building one of the world’s great universities for the public good.”⁹

While the mission statement meets the criteria to be effective, there might be some work to be done on the vision based on our claims that visions need to be clear destinations. However, the vision does meet Nutt and Backoff’s four properties: It is possible (currently the university is one of the top universities in the world), desirable (the university is taking a lead role in placing Canada at the global forefront), actionable (the university wants to emphasize learning, research, and creative activity), and clear (the university states clearly how they will accomplish this with a vibrant and supportive learning environment).

There is another element that is often incorporated in vision documents: values. Values help to specify boundaries in terms of traits that are important (e.g., truth, hard work). In our consulting work, we suggest that organizations identify four to six key values for their organization. By way of analogy, think about the traits you value in a spouse or partner. Most of us would use adjectives like handsome, smart, attractive, friendly, and so forth. While desirable, these traits do not distinguish your desires from another person’s. Similarly for an organization, efforts should be made to identify your unique values.

For example, returning to some of the organizations already mentioned, Nike’s core values are transparency, collaboration, making every challenge and risk into an opportunity, and being a catalyst for change. The American Red Cross’s values are embodied in the seven principles of the international Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.

So now that we know what a vision is (a big idea with a specific creative description), and we also know how a vision fits with an organization’s mission and values, now let’s discuss how you create and communicate a vision.

However, creating the vision is actually the second step; the first step is deciding who should create the vision. We’ll talk about this a bit more when we discuss leadership, but visions are leader initiated. We believe that when scholars of organizations and businesses started talking about empowerment, they neglected the fact that leaders still matter. Although there might not be a place for an autocratic, dictatorial style of leader anymore, even in an environment where everyone is valued, heard, and empowered, there is still a role for a leader. One of those roles is to initiate the vision conversation.

We were on an out-of-industry benchmarking trip with some government leaders from Africa. One of the organizations that they benchmarked was a church that was very successful in terms of getting other members in the church to buy into the vision. One of the government leaders asked the pastor of this church how he came up with the vision. After a fairly clear answer about the role of prayer, reading the Bible, and drawing on the elders in the church to determine vision, the government leader asked about empowerment. The pastor replied that if the church really had a problem with his vision, then maybe the church had a problem with him.

This example shows that the leader of the organization should view her role not in terms of creating and forcing a vision on her followers but in terms of initiating, discussing, and deciding on a course of direction in which to take her organization. Thus, to answer the question about who should create the vision, the vision should be created by individuals who are passionate about the organization. However, getting the right people in the room is only half the issue.

One major criticism that we have about vision-creation sessions is that they seem to take the energy out of the organization. Vision-creation exercises should be designed to put energy into the system. Think for a moment of a family vision-creation exercise. You, your spouse, and your two children, ages 9 and 12, talk about the family vacation. Just mentioning words like “Disneyland,” “the beach,” or “amusement park” will cause the 9- and 12-year-old to light up. They don’t want to get bogged down on needing to have a specific word or using a specific adjective (e.g., whether we will get there in 18 months or 19 months or should the word be world class or elite organization?). Going back to our family example, parents will know if they have effectively communicated the vision of going to Disneyland by the look of excitement on their children’s faces. It isn’t the word “Disneyland” that creates excitement but the image that comes to mind when you say the word “Disneyland.” This is how vision-creation sessions should go.

Over time we have adopted an innovative process using the five senses. After the group has identified a short vision statement (e.g., world class, largest market share, high quality), we quickly ask them to break into groups and describe what living in the vision will smell, feel, sound, taste, and look like. When employees can do that, then they have a strong vision. The vision is strong because they can imagine life inside the vision.

Once you have the right people in the room, and the vision is created, the really hard work begins. Now you must communicate the vision to the rest of the organization. We are amazed at how many organizations spend 1 week with the senior management off on a vision-creation retreat but then communicate the vision to the rest of the organization via a one-page e-mail. Effective communication of the vision could follow the same five-sense process. Also, it is OK to use some “I” statements when communicating the vision. The leader can say what the vision means to him and then ask the employees to describe what the vision would mean to them. Again, this isn’t an arm-wrestling session where the leader’s job is to get everyone to follow, or else. Instead, this is a communication opportunity to get the organization engaged and excited about moving toward the vision.

In summary, one of the key ingredients in successful transformation is having a clear vision statement. A vision is a specific, clear description of where you want to go. That vision is embedded in a mission statement (which answers, “why are you here?”), which is surrounded by a set of values. After you have the vision, you need the second ingredient: leadership.