Give Them the Full Story

Companies write mission statements to provide an overriding vision of where they want to go and what they want to achieve. A good mission statement is supposed to guide the thousands of decisions that get made by the people in your company as they execute your strategy.

A simple mission statement is enough to get some people (especially senior management) fired up and ready to charge into the breach. But for the rest of your people, this one big statement may not be enough. They are probably asking themselves, “Why is being number one important?” “Do we deserve to be number one?” “How do we do that?” or “What’s in it for us?” They need to hear more of the story, one that they can repeat and re-tell over time.

That’s why we think it is important to take your mission statement to the next level and make it a statement of direction, or what we call a “strategy story.” Why do we use the word story? Stories don’t just tell you what to do; they help you understand on a deeper level why you should do something. A good strategy story can help create the passion for achievement that your team will need to get the job done. A great source on corporate story telling, The Story Factor, was reviewed in a recent issue of Trekking (click here for the review).

Telling a strategy story is actually helpful in most any situation where you want to unite a group around a goal, a project, or a product launch. Next time, take a few minutes to do more than just tell your team what to do; inform their minds and feed their hearts. Tell them a good strategy story.

-Mary Adams     2005