Redbean July 2007 - I deal a lot with setting strategic direction for organisations and projects alike. Setting vision and mission is an important part of that. Yet it is never easy if it is to be meaningful.
Had John F Kennedy been a CEO he might have said “Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centred innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives.”
Luckily he knew that a message like that would inspire nobody. So instead, in 1961, he aspired to “put a man on the moon and return him safely by the end of the decade.” Everyone understood that message.
A new book “Made to Stick - Why some ideas survive while others die” uses this example to outline the six principles of sticky ideas.
1. Simplicity
2. Unexpectedness
3. Concreteness
4. Credibility
5. Emotions
6. Stories
Unfortunately many of the vision and mission statements we read fail on most of these points which leaves the listeners with a lack of clarity and little passion for achieving the goals.
So the next time you gloss over the need for a compelling vision, which will possibly be required to drive your organisation or project forward for years into the future, take a little time to make it simple, compelling and sticky.
“Made to Stick”, Chip and Dan Heath, 2007, Random House, ISBN 978-1-4000-6428-1.
