I recently had a conversation with an executive about a community outreach program that has been hotly criticized by various internal factions. Each faction thinks the other is crazy because each has different goals and yet assumes that the others share its goals. If you want to go north and the other person wants to go south, that person's plan for heading north is going to be rather unimpressive.
What's interesting is that these groups thought they had resolved their differences. They were confident they were heading in the same direction, but the passage of time does strange things. Memories fade and old habits reemerge. Before long, they were scattered and grumbling about people who can't understand the basics.
In other words, despite all of the warnings about mission creep, we also need to worry about mission disintegration. Nothing is ever completely settled. We must frequently reaffirm.
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