As long-time readers of this blog will know, one of my favorite mission statements comes from the Phoenix Fire Department:
Prevent harm
Survive
Be nice
Everything essential falls under these simple categories and the statement is easy to remember.
I know of groups with more "sophisticated" and lengthy mission statements. Sometimes, I've asked their executives or managers to tell me, without looking at the sign on the wall or the document in a desk drawer, what their mission statement is and each time they've been unable to do so.
This doesn't mean any mission statement is magical. (One of the best ethics statements I've seen was from Enron.) Mission statements should be both a reflection and a guide of what the organization is about. If it is neither, all of its eloquence will fail.
Key factors are whether upper management leads by example and the values are enforced in a consistent manner. Other policies and practices must also mesh neatly with the statement.
That is the case with Phoenix Fire Department, which has achieved an admirable reputation in the fire service.
And, by the way, its mission statement isn't a bad personal one.
2 comments:
I never understood the entire purpose of the complex, indecipherable mission statement. It's supposed to be the written equivalent of a card you can carry around in your wallet. Simple. Simple. Simple. One of the very best other ones, and I'm only half joking, was a line from the movie Roadhouse, in which the bouncers were instructed as follows: "Be nice. Be nice. Always be nice. Until it's time to not be nice."
Peter,
Thanks for the comment. I have the same feeling regarding simple mission statements. They usually trump the lengthier ones. [One exception: Johnson & Johnson's lengthy statement helped them out during the Tylenol tampering crisis.]
The Roadhouse quote is funny. I may pass it on to a few supervisors who are too nice.
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