Building a values-driven business: the power of an authentic mission
A mission consists of two things.
You don’t need to call a mission big or hairy or audacious if it really is. That sounds like selling and I avoid it. When a mission works, it resonates with people in a company. It feels a little scary. It connects to what a majority of them want to achieve with their lives and careers. And they believe the company can achieve it.
That does not mean, a mission has to be idealistic. It can be commercial. If that's why the business exists and what people want to achieve. Then just say it, for &@#$@! sake. That way the people who opt into that mission will believe in it. And they will understand the decisions leaders make.
Building a purpose statement
We developed our core values through a collaborative exercise with employees. Conversely, our leadership team developed our purpose. It is a paraphrase of our core differentiator. Our customers tell us Stride is different because our people leverage both technical craft and emotional intelligence to deliver outcomes for them.
People + Engineering => We unlock human potential by engineering better systems
Building a vision statement
The vision is an expression of our long term strategy. As I’ve stepped out of the CEO role, this is the area of our mission that is most open to change by the new leadership team. But as it exists now, it represents the high priority impacts employees most want Stride to have in their lives and that they want to create in the world.
To develop it, we used outside expertise to help us build an impact assessment. In that, all employees had an opportunity to identify which potential impacts they most wanted the company to make.
More immediate and highest priorities:
Longer term,
Our leadership team expressed that in the following vision statement:
Make a positive impact in our communities and on our planet through the software we build and the people we help.
Mission is purpose and vision
Our mission is the combination of our purpose and vision:
We unlock human potential by engineering better systems in order to make a positive impact in our communities and on our planet through the software we build and the people we help.
Yes, that is idealistic. But it's not empty rhetoric. It's not a top down distortion field. It’s built upon what the people of Stride aspire to create together. It's based upon empathy for people writ large and a belief that, as technologists, we have to act with intention because our work is capable of both good and harm.
Make it real and it will create value
Executives spend way too much time drafting wordsmithing and redrafting vision statements, mission statements, value statements, purpose statements, aspiration statements, and so on. They spend nowhere near enough time trying to align their organizations with the values and visions already in place. — Jim Collins
Yup, I get it. It’s not about the words, it's about whether day to day execution honors the purpose and drives towards the vision.
How do you align an organization to values and mission? Short answer is that leaders use them as the ethical guideposts for their actions. They make them an essential part of the business case for decisions and investments. In that, the litmus test is not whether leaders are articulate enough to justify a decision using the language of values and mission but whether they can describe how they've altered their decisions based on them.
Why is a compelling and real mission a competitive advantage? Short answer is engagement and hiring. New hires, particularly the most senior: CPO, Rebecca Braitling and CEO, Francisco Martin , joined Stride in large part to apply their life's experience to trying to achieve this mission. That extends to newer additions to our consulting team: Eugène De Villiers , Vincent F. , Caroline Miller , and more. The longer term and evolving answer is it influences what work we seek out and who we work with.
Let me know if this makes sense to you, doesn't make sense, if you have questions, if you want to hear more about something. Thanks.