Get your company on the same page

Koan company pages are the easiest way to share your mission and get everyone pulling in the same direction.

“No plan survives contact with the enemy”
— Helmuth von Moltke

It’s no secret that autonomy is a key factor in employee satisfaction, and since you’ve recruited great people and set clear objectives, the responsibility for making tactical decisions is likely already in their hands. Congratulations! You’re already much of the way towards more autonomous, purposeful work.

But what about longer-term, strategic decisions? When the time comes for your team to reassess its position and set new objectives, is there a North Star available to keep them on course?

Your mission and vision, your guide

At most organizations, mission and vision statements provide that guiding light. It’s easy to overlook these statements—the mission sharing what the company does, how it does it, and for whom; the vision describing its impact — as fuzzy, long-term aspirations. But as impossibly distant as they can feel today, they’re still powerful guides to tomorrow’s outcomes. Just ask:

• Does our strategy advance our mission?
• Will delivering this objective move the needle towards our vision?
• Does this campaign speak to our highest aspirations as an organization?

That’s the beauty of the North Star. There are immediate objectives that are closer and easier to reach, but when you need to shape or look beyond them, your mission and vision are always out there.

That’s the idea, at least. Though advancing the mission is one of leaders’ most important responsibilities, it often feels like a vague, too-distant abstraction — if it’s communicated at all. Even if you’ve embarked on a clearly inspiring mission, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner’s words still ring true:

…You need to repeat yourself so often that you grow sick of hearing yourself say it, and only then will people begin to internalize the message.

Leaders use different tools to communicate the message. The cover slide on the all-hands deck; pithy email signatures; posters in the break room; nudges during “coachable moments”? They’re all about keeping the mission and vision clear and out in the open.

But the dream is a North Star that’s so central to everything you do — so inescapably central — that it hardly needs repeating at all. Your strategic objectives make tangible, actionable steps towards executing your mission and delivering on your vision. The day-to-day tactics serve those objectives, and by extension, your company’s reason for being. And everyone knows it.

The easiest way to share your North Star

Koan’s leadership platform offers many tools for building alignment and realizing more purposeful work. At the heart of it all is the company page: a North Star where everyone in the company can connect their work to your mission, vision, and top strategic priorities.

If your team is already using Koan, setting your North Star couldn’t be easier. Just set up your company page, hit “publish”, and we’ll take care of the rest. Or, if you’re looking for a platform to help manage strategy across your company, Koan is free to start.

Koan drives transparency, boosts engagement, and helps leaders at every level achieve amazing results. Share your mission and vision, deliver strategic OKRs, and discover more purposeful work at www.koan.co.