I know that this video is a little old now, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t provide some good lessons. Have a listen to this speech (it’s only 4 minutes long; time well spent) do you get the message? If you were going to cast your vote (spend your money, buy this product) would you consider doing a little more research? Might you at least spend some time finding out a little more detail?
Politics aside (I’m writing from Australia – so while interested in the result I can’t really participate (directly) in the process of determining the outcome) it strikes me that this particular candidates’ message (his vision) rings clear. I’m all about change.
Now I want you to think about your business, or the businesses that you deal with. What is their vision? Do you care? Does your company have a vision statement? Does it need one?
(I’m using the word Vision throughout this blog, but often Mission is also substituted. I could go into a long, boring post about how they are different, but it seems that most businesses don’t understand the subtleties so I’ll stick with convention and not differentiate – sigh.)
Generally, the purpose of a vision statement is to provide direction; to give people who are interested (stakeholders) an idea of what it is that your firm stands for. Typically, a vision statement is conceived by ‘people at the top’ – CEOs, Boards of Directors, Small Business Owners, Founders etc. More typically, a Vision statement is created, photocopied, stuck on a wall somewhere (or on a website) and forgotten.
What would happen if you put your vision statement out there for all to see? What would happen if you put it front and centre? Who would come and listen to you give a short 4 minute speech about what it is that your company does?
Now you might be thinking that it’s ok for a politician to use stirring and evocative language – they have speech writers for exactly that purpose. But what about me? How can I do it? Well, the good news is that it is easy. Just three simple steps:
- Tap into your passion.
- Tell people what you stand for.
- Live it.
Pare what it is that you do back to it’s essential meaning. Cut away all the crap – but most importantly: look forward.
People (customers) want to know that if they are going to enter into a relationship with you or your business, that you are going to do something meaningful in the future. They want to know that if they align themselves with you that you (and by extension, they) are heading in the right direction.
The world is littered with bad vision statements; statements that are poorly worded, or consist of weasel words, or don’t really say anything meaningful at all.
Here is an example of not how to do it:
Q: What is Apple’s mission statement?
A: Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.
Source: http://www.apple.com/investor/
When you read this, do you instantly think of Apple as innovative, design focussed, fun, funky and cool? I don’t. Yet their message that comes through in their products, presentations and advertising screams COOL!
If you look closely at the words of Apple’s Mission Statement, it really is only a statement of the things that they have already done – it’s a history lesson, not a statement that points to the future. Which do you think is more effective: their extremely badly written (and buried) Mission Statement or the words and actions that each at Apple live and breathe by?
If you are thinking of spending some time to write your Vision Statement, don’t. It would be a much better use of your time to figure out what it is that you actually stand for and then live it with passion.
Disclaimer: I don’t actually own any Apple products – but I’ll be buying one of the new MacBookPro this afternoon. I’m a convert – but believe me, it wasn’t their Mission Statement that convinced me…
March 26, 2008 at 11:47 am
Why do we only think/believe that we need to express our visiions in words. I stopped doing this 20 yrs ago. Avision is a picture of a desired future- so we use a picture/ image . Whats it mean they ask? -and this allow one to tell the story and passion behind the picture. It opens the door for both storyteller and listener to engage deeply- as neuroscience informs us. I met someone who drew their orgs. visiion and explained it to me with much passion- we did the vision 18years ago. Would he still remember the words and more important be excited by them?
Our mind sees in pictures not words. mike
March 26, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Hi Mike,
I like your insight on this one. You are right, there is a heap of info out there on the ways in which humans acquire and store information – and the written words is just one of those methods. Sometimes, though, it seems to me that companies think it is more about ‘looking’ like a business and so they feel like they need to write a vision/mission statement. There are plenty of ways to get your point across; but I suspect that the best ones have a common ingredient: passion.
March 31, 2008 at 6:35 am
[...] If you look around at vision, mission and value statements you will quickly see that most of these are created by people that focus on a few key rules; firstly, make sure that the rules of defining a vision, mission, goals, etc are all according to tightly defined structure. This is the sad thing about “computer-generated” statements; they all look the same and they all focus on the same characteristics as defined by companies that compete in an industry. Do we actually need to define these statements? [...]