Start a revolution—then stop at 180 degrees.
A little while back, I had the pleasure of hearing a well-respected community leader I know share a captivating anecdote about his organization’s leadership meeting with the masterminds behind Chick-fil-A®. The meeting was to learn about the chicken sandwich chain’s secret recipe for success and sprinkle those ingredients into his organization to replicate a similar result.
One might naturally assume that the overwhelming success of America’s top fast-food chicken franchise stems from a straightforward mission: “to fill every Chick-fil-A restaurant with as many people as possible.” And if you did, like my friend and me, you assumed wrong. In reality, Chick-fil-A’s mission is to find innovative ways to “get chicken to the people.”
Have a standard mission. Get a standard result.
Again, like me, perhaps you, too, have crafted a Mission Statement. I used well-established templates, guides, and scripts, and it turned out pretty well. The resulting statement was thoughtful, brimming with virtue, elaborating on our uniqueness, and how we apply these fantastic and lofty attributes to provide superior service to our clients. And it worked. I guess. Honestly, a lot stayed the same regarding the quantity and quality of clients before and after implementing the Mission Statement. It was business as usual, fairly standard.
Change the question. Change the mission. Change the world.
Over time, I made an important observation about our Mission Statement. It primarily focused on 𝙐𝙎! So, we changed it. Our Mission Statement is now crafted with a proactive and passionate commitment to serving our clients from a values-first perspective. It Communicreates℠! Reminiscent of the anecdote above, we shifted our approach, asking a different question. Instead of, “How do we make people recognize our value?” we asked, “How do we understand peoples’ values and serve them with care?”
Considering your own mission revolution? Ask yourself:
🔄 What does my audience desire most, vs. what do I want to achieve?
🔄 What common values do I share with my audience, vs. what value sets me apart from the competition?
🔄 What does my brand and marketing say about who my audience is vs. what I do?
What a turnaround.
Ever since we redefined our mission, we’ve experienced a consistent increase in the quality of clients who are a better fit for our business model, a higher volume of projects that align with our capabilities, and the birth of a new brand closely linked to our mission.
Our Mission Statement is five words long. Would you like to hear it? Let’s chat.
