绩效管理－战略规划－案例1-1：我们在做什么？

Manager's Annual Plan, Part One - What Are We Doing?

We start the year with a multi-part, chronological series of weekly features on how to analyze and improve your organization. (The full list of topics can be found here.)

It’s Easier If You Know Where You Are Going.
Your job as a manager is to lead your organization. In order to lead effectively, the first thing you have to know is the objective (or goal or mission or target).

Imagine yourself in command of a platoon of soldiers when you receive a message from the general. The message says “go capture the hill”. Your first reaction would be to ask “Which hill?” Your chances of succeeding in your mission to “capture the hill” are much greater if you know your goal. That is true in business as well.

The Mission Statement
Many companies have created mission statements for their companies. These are, by design, high level, strategic visions of what the company is or should be. You need to find out if your company has one and, if so, what it is. You need to find out what it means. You need to find out how your part of the organization is supposed to help accomplish that mission.

Any organization can have a mission statement. The examples below are indicative of the variety. These links to their Mission Statements may help you in crafting yours.

• Badiyan Productions, Inc. and srhd are commercial firms in the communications industry.
• The Inner City Handball Association is a not-for-profit, volunteer organization and Virtuous Reality Interactive, Inc. is a not-for-profit multi-media producer
• City Hills Middle School is an educational institution
• The National Association of Space Simulating Educators is a professional association of educators
• The Federal Transit Administration is an agency of the US federal government

What About Us?
Now that you know and understand your company’s Mission Statement you may want to craft one for your organization. I recommend this be an iterative, inclusive process.

This article from the Business Owner’s Toolkit is an excellent discussion of the key issues in creating your mission statement. It includes a case study to illustrate the value of having a mission statement.

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Does your company have a mission statement? What did you have to do to find it? Is it appropriate? Is it do-able? Most importantly, do you believe in it? Share your thoughts with your peers. Post your thoughts on what makes a mission statement valuable on our bulletin board or respond to what others post.

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Tying It All Together.
Mission Statements are a valuable part of your company’s planning. However, they are strategic level thinking and, to be fully effective, need to be broken down to specific actions for components of the organization. An excellent example of the progress from strategic to tactical is the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) of the US Department of Transportation.

The FTA has created a Strategic Plan that includes its Mission Statement and its goals . They have gone further and specified the desired outcomes from these goals and how these outcomes will be measured. Here, for example is how they plan to achieve and measure their success toward attaining Goal Five - Quality Organization.