Clearly defining your Purpose, Vision, Strategy, and Values will help your team understand what you’re trying to achieve. Aside from motivation, this will enable them to make decisions independently, rather than referring to the chain of command. It will also help your organization track whether or not it’s achieving its goals. -Purpose
An organization’s purpose defines why the organization exists in the world. A well-crafted purpose statement stays true over time: it should be specific and unique enough to be meaningful, but far-reaching enough to make room for expanding possibilities. It declares an ambition, while being authentic and ownable. It should resonate on every level—individual, team, company, and society. And overall, it is the organization’s highest ideal—the North Star that guides smart business decisions and inspires employees.
-Vision
A vision is just as it sounds: Something you can see in your mind’s eye, but is currently just out of reach. While a purpose is enduring, a vision usually has a timestamp on it. It’s rooted in making the purpose real. A purpose is a state; a vision is a destination. It’s lofty yet specific, actionable, and clear—when a company has reached their vision, they’ll know it. Thus, a strong vision statement articulates a near-term aspiration for an imagined yet attainable goal—one that employees can rally behind, and check their everyday work against.
-Strategy
Strategy is the plan for making the vision real, breaking it down into actionable steps that can be measured and adjusted.It explains how the organization will move forward. It describes the broad thrusts or themes from which specific actions arise. There might be three or four key strategies that drive the vision. We’ve found that great companies, and the leaders who steward them, declare a handful of bold moves as anchors for strategy. Then they work with their teams to build the initiatives to deliver.
How to Define These For Your Organization
1. Select your team. Field a diverse group from within the company, select team members across skill sets and seniority who seem most emblematic of the company and its mission.
2. Generate values first. Ask the team to brainstorm the values (ethical principles or standard behaviors) that seem most critical to the success of the company.
3. Rank those values. Ask the team to vote on which value is most rewarded internally and best represents the company’s most sacred belief about the world, its employees, and customers.
4. Assign your most important belief as your Purpose. Purpose is nothing more than your most tightly held value as a company.
5. Tell your Vision. If your Purpose is achieved, what will the world look like for your customers and communities?
6. Declare your Mission. Your Mission is the work that must happen every single day to ensure that your Purpose accomplishes your Vision for the world, beginning with your unique role in the market.
7. Define progress with your Measures.
8. Collect feedback on your draft.
9. Revise based on feedback and publish the results.