“Planting” an Excellence Tree: A Critical Step in Living a Mission Statement
by Dr. Brian Higley | 1 comment
To return to descriptions of all 6 steps toward Mission Activation, click here.
Living a mission statement requires an Activated Mission. The metaphor of an “Excellence Tree” was designed to help promote Mission Activation. Here are the four phases of “Mission Activation Step 2: “Planting an Excellence Tree” the second step to consider when attempting to actually live a mission statement:
A) Identification of “mission-aligned” primary objectives is the first phase of Planting the Tree. In order to see more Mission Activation, everyone needs to know (and agree, at least to a certain extent) that objectives such as “Increase financial profits by 10% this quarter” or “Promote a culture of excellence and satisfaction throughout the team,” or “Recruit and train the best people,” etc. are the most important ways in which to spend time, money, and energy. Primary objective clarification often plays a key role in helping teams stay motivated to live their mission on a daily basis. If people know why they are being asked to do something (e.g., “because it helps us accomplish Primary Objective #1 – and because Primary Objective #1 helps fulfill mission in this way . . ., “), they tend to have a stronger commitment to doing what they are asked to do at a high level of quality. At our firm we call this process “Mission Connection;” getting ourselves and others strongly connected with our Mission by being able to answer all “why should I do this?” questions with “because it helps our mission stay activated — and here’s how. . . ”
