If you do any work on developing vision, mission…or purpose, it would be a good idea to pick up a copy of It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For by Roy M. Spence, Jr.  I first ran across Spence when I read Mavericks at Work and GSD&M, the Austin based marketing and advertising company he serves as chairman and CEO, was highlighted more than once as an example.

I asked for a review copy when I noticed the subtitle: Why Every Extraordinary Business is Driven By Purpose.  Believe me, I was not disappointed.  This is a great read and packed with lots of ideas, principles and practices you can use right away.

There are several very important features with this book.  First, it opens with three very important chapters on distinguishing purpose from mission or vision, how to discover your purpose and how to articulate your purpose.  I loved the fact that all three of these chapters were very practical and included tips and exercises designed to make it happen.

Second, going far beyond discovering and articulating purpose, in Part II and III Spence wrestles with building an organization that makes a difference and becoming a leader of great purpose.  One of the coolest things about these sections of the book is that they’re heavily seasoned with stories from some of the most dynamic purpose-driven corporations (including Walmart, AARP, Whole Foods, Southwest Airlines, and Charles Schwab).  You’ll come away with many, many stories that will inspire you to think differently about the task at hand.

Finally, Part IV provides a detailed examination on the subject of bringing purpose to life in the marketplace.  Covering corporations (Walmart, BMW, etc.), membership organizations (AARP), nonprofit organizations (American Red Cross), higher education (Texas A&M), and sports (PGA), the case studies in this section provides extensive detail of the strategies (marketing, human resources, business objectives, etc.) that brought purpose to life.

While Roy Spence is clearly a brilliant and very successful marketer, It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For is not a book about marketing or advertising.  In fact, in one of my favorite quotes from Part IV he writes that ”the more an organization understands its purpose, the more it can create products, services, and experiences that will create a strong brand in the marketplace.  Truth be told, advertising is very far downstream in the process of building truly great brands (p. 156).”

This book is about discovering and learning to articulate purpose.  It’s about building an purpose-based organization.  It’s about becoming a purpose-based leader.  Sounds like the kind of thing all of us could use more of.  This is a great book and I’ll be recommending it to many of my consulting clients.

If you’ve been along for the journey here at StrategyCentral, you’ve heard the phrase “life-change” many times.  It’s the thing we exist to deliver…and that’s true whether your organization is a church or a non-profit.  Our organizations are in business to do more than make products or create experiences or operate programs.  We exist to do something that will ultimately change lives!

Yesterday I saw a Tweet from my friend Will Mancini (@willmancini) and it got my attention.  His Tweet read: “Ikea out-articulates the church. Isn’t “Life Changes Available” a better golden tomorrow than the nebulous “life change” we talk?”

I have to say, the addition of the word “available” presented such an intriguing twist on the well-worn phrase “life-change” that I had to check into what IKEA is doing.  Life Changes Available is a great tag line, but it’s more than a tag line.  It is a great story.

At the same time, it is a great illustration of the kind of thinking that can create an appealing and memorable invitation designed to catch the attention of our customers.

Back to Will’s Tweet.  He was making the point that our frequent reference to life-change is colorless.  It’s vague.  Who really knows what it means.  I guess we know what it means.  But when we use that phrase in a marketing piece or in a message, doesn’t it slip right by our intended audience?

Example: “Small groups are important here at ___________ Community Church because we believe that life change happens best around a coffee table.”

What?

The Takeaway:  The addition of the word “available” takes the phrase “life-change” from camouflaged fuzziness to an appealingly clear offer.  It shifts the phrase from the body of the marketing piece to the headline.

For me, it now fits in the same category as another tag line I’ve used for years: “Feel like a face in the crowd?”  That line perfectly fits the sensation that many people have when they’re walking into a large crowd week after week and no one knows them.  No one knows their struggle.  No one knows their loneliness.

Can you see how “Life Changes Available” will catch people’s attention?  It sure caught mine.

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Do you know what the mission of your organization is?  Maybe you don’t know the exact verbiage…but do you know the mission?  Could you explain it if asked?  What about your teammates or the newest members of your organization?  Could they explain what your mission is?

If not…are you ever troubled by that?  If you can’t clearly explain what you exist to do, are you losing any sleep?

My sense is that nothing is more important than clarity about the mission; clarity about the business you’re in (as Peter Drucker said it).  And yet, so many organizations miss this fundamental truth.  Oh, they have a mission statement.  It just doesn’t have anything to do with what they’re really about.  Or it’s a relic from a time when they were focused.  Or maybe they just borrowed their mission statement from another organization.  Worse still, maybe their mission statement isn’t really about their mission.  Maybe it’s more of a value or something that sounds good.

Is it really all that important to have a mission?

Yes…a mission gives a reason for being.  A mission gives purpose.  And you might be thinking, “Duh!  Already there!”

What about being clear on what the mission is?  Is it essential to be clear?

Absolutely.  In fact, without clarity, without focus, your organization will wander, your organization will never really flourish.  You may experience growth, but it won’t be lasting.  You may have seasons where things seem to work, but it will be unsustainable.  The first difficulty may not flatten you, but eventually a lack of clarity will stall you.

I loved Peggy Noonan’s end of the year Wall Street Journal article.  She pointed out the fact that perhaps “the most worrying trend the past 10 years can be found in this phrase: ‘They forgot the mission.’ So many great American institutions—institutions that every day help hold us together—acted as if they had forgotten their mission, forgotten what they were about, what their role and purpose was, what they existed to do.”

Hmmm.  They forgot the mission.

Sound familiar?  Does your mission, the mission of your organization, come immediately to mind?  Or do you have to hem and haw to explain what your organization exists to do?  If you asked random members of the organization would they have the same idea?  Or would they be more than a little vague?

If there is not clarity, you’re heading for a stall or you’re in it now.  You’re heading for disarray or you’re in it now.

Want things to change?  You’ve got to get clarity on the mission.

One of the most important ongoing conversations a leader has is the one that keeps the mission on the front burner.  As this critically important conversation becomes less frequent or more muddled the likelihood that the mission is accomplished decreases.  How do you have the conversation?  I say “all the time and in as many ways as possible.”

My default way is to find stories or metaphors that graphically illustrate the mission.  I loved this paragraph from Will Mancini’s Church Unique:

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that the church is only the church when it exists for others.  What keeps your church focused externally?  Who do you think the most important person is to the Coca Cola company?  The consumer?  Which one?  The coke drinker?  Nope.  It’s actually the Pepsi drinker (p. 123).”

That is a great way of thinking about mission.  Unless you’re in the business of caring for the already convinced you’ve got to be focusing on the unconvinced.  If success has anything to do with reaching new customers…you better keep that mission in front of your team all the time.

By the way, one of the earliest posts here at StrategyCentral was about carbonation in churches.  Like the line here about the most important person being a Pepsi drinker, the story in this early post is one I’ve told a thousand times.  It’s all about mission.

Everyone has a core message.  Sometimes it's a very faint bleating sound.  Other times it's like U2 belting out Pride (In the name of love).  But…everyone has a core message.  Mine, at least in part, is the reality of the Inside-Outside Disconnect.  I first had a name for it when I read John Kotter's A Sense of Urgency.  It is essentially the idea that those on the inside become so preoccupied with their own comforts and "necessities" that they forget about the needs and interests of those on the outside.  In fact, they have a harder and harder time even acknowledging that the interests are different.  It just never comes up.

So…my last post, on Developing and Maintaining an Outside-In Perspective, is just a new manifestation of my core message.  There…I've diagnosed myself.

What's your core message?

Whether you're a beer enthusiast or not…you need to watch this video.  Not to spoil the experience, let me suggest that you listen for passion, sense of purpose, vision and mission.  Can you talk this way about what you do?  If you can't…you may have a job as opposed to a passion-driven pursuit.  I'll go further.  If you can watch the video and not feel your heart beating a little harder…your heart might be getting a little harder.

I Am A Craft Brewer from I Am A Craft Brewer on Vimeo.

Mission statements get some deserved criticism.  Only a few really drive organizations.  Most are simply wishful thinking and a collection of borrowed concepts.  And then you trip discover the power of one that is a direct hit.  An example of a direct hit?  "Helping people find their way back to God."  HPFTWBTG.  That one is absolutely spot on and it drives the activity of Community Christian Church

Need further clarification?  You can see it in Dave Ferguson's recap of yesterday's activity.  Community Christian Church is an organization that exudes a tight connection with the mission.  Awesome to see…even from a distance.

I have certain tapes, CDs, podcasts, etc. that I must listen to periodically in order to stay on the right path strategically.  I found a new one last week and it is rattling my cage.  If you’re in this business to make a difference you have got to hear it.  It’s not free.  It’s $8.00.  But I’m betting you’ll get way more than your money’s worth.  You’ll find it right here.

Do you know what it is that makes leadership possible?  According to John Maxwell it is a matter of "change".  Not change like in "Things need to change."  More like, "Investing in you is like putting a little ‘change’ in the bank."  The more I put in, the more I’ll be able to take out.

Want a better explanation?  Check out Maxwell’s article over at Business Week: Got Change?

Everybody is reasonable aware of the importance of getting their message out to your customers.  Some do it better than others.  Honestly, some do it WAY better than others.  Some know to do it but don’t really make the effort.  But…here’s the question…how many of us really work at getting the message IN to our team members?

Jason over at 37 Signals had an interesting post today about a recent visit to Apple.  What he noticed was how hard Apple was working at keeping the message in front of their employees.  Banners everywhere.  The key messaging on display all the way down the main hallways.  They’re obviously working hard to keep their ideas in front of their team; working at getting the message in.

Love this quote from Jason’s post:

"Getting the message in is about feeding the culture. It’s about making
people proud of the work working on. I think it’s an important lesson
for anyone building a team. Getting the message in is as important as
getting the message out."

Do you have that working in your organization?  This is the basis for a great discussion.  What do you think?

You can check out his whole post right here.