Mission Statement Drift/ The Corporate Cancer

Most if not all organisations these days have a published Mission Statement which should explain their reason for being. It is also true to say that most if not all organisations today suffer from ‘Mission Statement Drift’.

 

Why is this?

 

There could be any number of reasons. However organisations suffering from this malaise are almost certain to have internal problems with communication and or interpersonal relationships. Their processes and procedures are also likely to be somewhat ragged.

 

All companies large or small follow a corporate script, whether they are aware of it or not.

 

The modern day corporate script has usually just evolved unnoticed as a consequence of the daily processes running within the organisation. Sadly corporate scripts directly devolved from the corporate mission statement seldom if ever exist.

 

Why? Because most companies are blissfully unaware of the damaging effect of performing to an inappropriate corporate script.

 

If left unchecked and ignored an inappropriate corporate script may well develop into a commercial cancer which quietly eats away at the organisations’ effectiveness.

 

Recognizable title examples of corporate scripts which have just evolved surreptitiously are those such as;

 

A Victorian melodrama.

A Victorian Mill Owner.

A  farce.

A Greek Tragedy.

The Roman Empire.

Megalomania.

Charge of the Light Brigade.

I’m alright Jack.

A thriller.

A ‘who done it’?

A comedy of errors.

 

Some of the above may well be familiar to you. You may even have played a role in such a production yourself.

 

It is obvious that the performers in these productions are all corporate employees, from the longest serving employee to first day recruits; from the gate keeper to the CEO they all have their part to play and play it they do.

 

The problem is that they are unaware of the fact that they are performing at all, let alone to a script which is totally inappropriate and potentially damaging.

 

The corporate script should of course devolve from the Mission Statement and its’ subsequent corporate objectives.

 

So, how should a company approach the task of rewriting their corporate script? This is a task which will be beyond all but those CEO’s and main board members who are most committed to the long term health and viability of the company for whom they presently have final accountability.

 

The positive pay off for commencing such an arduous task will most likely not be felt for a few years. It is therefore a most unselfish task for a board to agree to embark upon.

 

However if anyone would like to seriously consider writing a definitive corporate script which is in trim with their corporate mission statement then the following may be of assistance.

 

26 stage approach to developing an effective Corporate Script

 

1. Confirm the business you are in.

 

2. Confirm your market place.

 

3. Reaffirm your mission statement.
4. Map the mission statement in fine detail.

 

5. Identify and map the critical corporate objectives.
6. Identify and map the critical tasks to support the       corporate objectives.

 

7. Group the tasks into job title roles.

 

8. Identify measure and map the competencies and performance attributes for each key job role title

 

9. Group job title roles into team roles.

 

10. Group team roles into divisional roles.

 

11. Match the mapped aggregated divisional competencies and performance attributes with the mapped detail of the corporate mission statement.  

 

12. Apply critical gap analysis to identify any areas of incongruity.

 

13. If you have an acceptable level of congruence with the corporate mission statement you have a corporate script.

 

14. Now it is time to cast the key job roles.

 

15. Identify measure and map the competencies and performance attributes of the total workforce.

 

16. Match the workforce with the job role titles.

 

17. Reaffirm the appropriateness of the team groupings by matching aggregated team competencies and performance attributes with team objectives. Apply critical gap analysis to identify any areas of incongruity. If there is an acceptable level of congruence with the team objectives the team structures are in trim.

 

18. Reaffirm the appropriateness of the divisional groupings by matching aggregated divisional competencies and performance attributes with divisional objectives. Apply critical gap analysis to identify any areas of incongruity. If there is an acceptable level of congruence with the divisional objectives the divisional structures are in trim.

 

19. Reaffirm the appropriateness of the total workforce by matching total aggregated competencies and performance attributes with corporate objectives. Apply critical gap analysis to identify any areas of incongruity. If there is an acceptable level of congruence with the corporate objectives the human element structure is in trim. If  not……………?

 

20. Monitor the corporate non-fiscal performance by continuously applying items 21-25.

 

21. Measure and match corporate objectives with your mission statement.

 

22. Measure and match divisional objectives with your corporate objectives.

 

23. Measure and match sub-team objectives with divisional objectives.

 

24. Measure and match actual aggregated sub-team member competencies and attributes with sub-team task driven competencies and attributes.

 

25. Measure and match team member competencies and attributes with their respective Job Title required Role Competencies and Attributes.  

 

26. Re-assess at least every 12 months.

 

There are a number of ways in which the above tasks could be approached.

 

Please feel free to contact me for further information or clarification.