Week 15, 2019
Organizational Artifacts: Purpose, Mission, and Vision
Each week I share three ideas for how to make work better. And this week, I’d like to focus on words. Three of them to be precise: purpose, mission, and vision. What are they, what do they do, and how do they support each other?
Ask three people to define these words and you’ll get four different answers. So please bear in mind that these are my definitions based on my understanding; provided here for your reading pleasure.
Now, let’s dig in.
1. Purpose
Purpose is the reason your organization exists; your raison d’être. It’s equivalent to Simon Sinek’s Why. And just like the American Declaration of Independence, it makes clear what you hold as true and self-evident. MAQE’s purpose is a case in point: we hold these truths to be self-evident: (1) that happy people do good work, (2) that happiness at work stems from fulfillment, and (3) that fulfillment through work is an inalienable right. Those beliefs permeate everything we say and do.
2. Mission
Your mission explains how you intend to fulfill your organizational purpose. In a way, it’s your strategy’s strategy — a conceptional frame inside which all your long-term initiatives must fit. It’s what drives and propels you forward. And as such, it should be ambitious if not outright audacious. MAQE’s mission to (literally) change how the world works is exactly that — audacious to a point. And yet given our purpose, also inevitable.
3. Vision
Your vision statement explains what success looks like. It’s the destination; your mission, achieved. Here at MAQE, we envision a future without bullshit jobs — a future in which organizations continuously optimize for fulfillment rather than growth; in which autonomy, mastery, and purpose is readily available to everyone. It’s a vision we’re unlikely to realize within our lifetime. But then again, no one ever achieved anything by aiming low.
That’s that.
Next week, I’ll give values a similar treatment. Words are important. And so if you’ve ever wondered what distinguishes company values from core values from brand values, I’ll have you covered.
Until then: Make it matter.
/Andreas
