From: bizjournals.com

There’s an old story in which a king wants to have access to all the knowledge and truth in the world.

So he calls together his wisest sages and he tells them that he wants them to render down all of the knowledge of the world into a series of books that he can easily read and thus be one of the wisest people in the world.

So the sages set off to acquire all the wisdom they can find and chronicle it in a series of books. It takes many years, and after they are finished, the king takes a look at the number of books and decides that it would take too long for him to read them all. So he asks them if they can instead render down all the knowledge of the world into a single book to make it easier for him.

Again, after many years, the sages are able to take all the wisdom of the world and combine it into a single volume.

At this point, the king and his sages have grown much older and when he looks at the single book through his aging eyes he again feels that it would be very difficult for him to read the book and gain its full understanding, so he calls the sages together again and asks them to render all of the wisdom down into a single, easy-to-understand sentence.

After several more years, the sages, now as old and gray as the king, return and hand their lord a small slip of paper.

With old and shaking hands the king unfolds the slip of paper and reads the full wisdom of the world: “This, too, shall pass.”

Creating a mission statement

There had been several occasions during my career when I have served on some sort of executive committee to come up with a mission statement for the company. At times it seemed like the primary goal of the project was simply to create something suitable to be framed and stuck up on a wall in the company’s front lobby.

The challenge that any company faces is that it’s very difficult to take the essence of what that company is and what it stands for and boil it down into a single phrase that has meaningful significance. Most of the time you end up with a jumble of words that sound more like a positive affirmation about how your brand stands for excellence, you work in a culture where people matter and your customers are the most important thing the world.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this at all, but is has been my experience that once a mission statement gets created, it often ends up being largely forgotten by the people it was created for, even if it gets stuck up on a wall somewhere or slapped on the side of a coffee cup, mostly because it’s unfocused and boring.

What company doesn’t want to strive for excellence? What company doesn’t want to provide the best service for their customers? What company doesn’t want to acknowledge that respecting the people who work there is a pretty good thing? But just because it appears on a mission statement doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the roadmap that the company ends up using. More often than not, a mission statement becomes nothing more than a smarmy platitude.

Key question

So how do you create a mission that has significance and impact? I would suggest starting by being able to answer the question, “Why are we in business?” I think it’s a great question, and apart from an answer that is based upon profit making, I think tapping into the ambitions and desires of the team is a great place to start. What are the goals and ambitions of the company and of the people who make up the company? Is it simply to generate a paycheck or does it go much deeper than that? What is the company’s unique selling proposition (USP)? Is there something significant that makes you stand out from the crowd (exceptional customer service, innovative problem solving, superior technology, the best team in the world)?

For my company, the mission statement is incredibly simple but incredibly powerful. It is simply “empower others.” That’s it. My thinking has always been that if I can focus all of my efforts and intentions on helping other people become better and smarter and stronger and happier, then the profit will take care of itself. Also, there is not a day that goes by where I can’t remind myself that my whole objective for my job and my career is driven by that simple statement.

So, what is your company all about? Why do the people who work with you get up every day and come together? If paychecks stop showing up, how many would still want to keep going on, and why? If you can ask enough honest questions about your business and your motivations, you will eventually find what the true mission is and it may just turn out to be all the wisdom of the world in one place.

Want to be part of my mission? At spidergraham.com (http://www.spidergraham.com) I create stuff to help educate people on how to do a better job in the marketing world and also share my thoughts and experience on a variety of business and life related topics. Join my mailing list for free to become part of my VIP group!