Eric Gutierrez is a partner in Hey, a creative digital agency specializing in advertising and brand content.
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Over the years, the “drinking the Kool-Aid” expression has become a shorthand for cultish conformity. Skepticism—the enemy of blind adherence—is a handy defense mechanism. And it’s an appropriate filter for thinking about how people will absorb a company’s mission.
Today’s millennial workforce is known to be skeptical. And regarding feelings at work, a survey of 540 participants spanning demographics found that only 28% of all employees feel fully connected to their company’s purpose. More than half reported not being even somewhat excited, motivated or passionate about their jobs.
All that brings us to a fittingly skeptical jumping-off point to consider how to create an effective mission statement for a workforce that isn’t all that into commitment.
As a veteran of translating mission statements into communications, sometimes participating in task forces to create them and occasionally authoring them, I’ve seen their value in creating a baby step toward a North Star. When they reflect the true heart and soul of the company and its people, mission statements are useful.
One role of the mission statement is to get each of us thinking about the value of our actions and what we can accomplish collectively and individually—collectively as colleagues working together, and individually in what each of us brings to the table and how the mission relates to our own personal values (because individuals don’t leave their personal values at the door).
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Obviously, a good mission statement requires vision, but equally important, it requires empathy and emotional intelligence. It must know its audience and speak their language. That’s where skepticism becomes an empathetic impulse and why skepticism is our friend.
The kind of cluelessness that skepticism can defend against is currently on hilarious display in Apple TV’s WeCrashed. In one scene, Anne Hathaway and Jared Leto, portraying WeWork’s founding couple, attempt to brainstorm some mission-defining words. In the scene, the couple takes turns banging on the iconic WeWork gong to awaken their consciousness to meaningful words like “community,” “consciousness,” “spiritual growth,” “intention,” “positivity,” “meaning” and, of course, “we.” This is a great example of how smart, well-funded entrepreneurs can get way too drunk on their own Kool-Aid. In this case, skepticism might have protected employees and investors from a culture that led to scandalously poor financial restraint.
It should also be noted that mission statements are often written with the dual function of inspiring confidence in investors, adding yet another audience with another mindset to the challenges of writing one with a clear purpose.
All that said, the words of a mission statement alone are no substitute for the broader work required to nurture the seeds of productivity and satisfaction. The mission statement simply sets the table for further, more tangible actions needed to create shared ownership of a company’s purpose. Because let’s not kid ourselves that a piece of inspirational copy, sitting there passively, is going to do anything but collect dust on your company’s “About” page. It’s just copy, co-authored by a corporate team member with stock options, or maybe an outside brand consultant.
With all this healthy skepticism working against the mission statement, here are a few thought starters toward writing one that human beings of sound mind, living in our skeptical age, can swallow:
• Don’t say that you’re saving the entire world if you’re not really saving the world.
• Don’t say you’re going to be the world’s “best,” “biggest,” “most” anything. Strive for a statement and actions to make a realistic impact on the lives of your customers/audience.
• Try to avoid corporate lingo and phrases such as “actionable” or “customer-centric.” These were never in the language until some corporate suit made them up.
• Try some grassroots mission acceleration. Invite a task force that includes people from all levels of the organization to hammer out action plans toward fulfilling it.
• Remember that this is about your purpose—the “why” you do what you do—rather than what or how you do it.
Finally, it must be said, despite our collective cynicism, most of us want to be part of solutions—a part of something bigger than ourselves. We want to work for companies that generate positive impact along with profit.
So maybe this is actually the perfect moment to ignite a sense of mission in people—respectfully and empathetically, and even democratically—by just encouraging us to ignite it in ourselves.
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Author: Eric Gutierrez, Forbes Councils Member
