What's Your Mission's Mission?

What's the Difference Between a Mission & Vision?

Creating a three-year strategic plan for a non-profit is a long and important process. 

Creating the mission and vision statement is one of the most surprising aspects of building this strategic plan. Surprising in the sense that it’s hard to come up with a mission and vision statement. 

When creating our organization’s mission and vision statement, there were quite a few starts and stops, buzzwords flying around, and ‘wait…is that part of the mission or vision?’

At one point, everyone on the steering committee had their phones out Googling ‘difference between mission and vision statement.’

Despite the momentary doubts, we believed in the organization and wanted to create a mission and vision statement that made everyone else believe in the organization. 

This project has taken well over a year…

… and we have a mission statement but lack a vision statement. 

We found out that if you have strong core values, it’s fairly easy to put together a workable mission statement, but a vision statement…you can’t develop it. It has to develop itself. 

A mission statement is what you are currently doing to differentiate yourself and hit your goals. 

After exhausting the Googler by searching ‘vision statements,’ I determined the best way to describe what a vision statement is:

It’s your mission on a mission.

How can your mission be on a mission? Isn’t it already the mission?

Yes…you are correct…and wrong.

Your mission will help you achieve what you want in the short term and provide a guide for your day-to-day operations.

However, a vision statement is about looking at what could be in the future…it’s about envisioning a place of success that can inspire both you and your team to work towards it.

It’s about dreaming big…thinking outside the box, and setting a long-term goal that will keep you motivated in the trenches.

A vision statement also effectively aligns your team around a common goal.  When everyone understands where they are headed and why, making decisions supporting that goal becomes easier.

So take some time to create both a mission and a vision statement for your team or project so that everyone can work together with clarity and purpose.

Good luck!

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