What’s the difference between Mission and Vision?
This is a question that comes up a lot in the work I do with business teams as I coach them to be mission driven on a day to day basis. Why be mission driven? So they never lose sight of their greater purpose for existing in the first place.
Without the unwavering focus on mission and vision it’s much too easy to get mired in the day to day routine — which businesses are chock full of.
Without mission and vision, businesses are boring.
At times I run across companies which don’t bother to distinguish them at all: They have a separate Values Statement (thank goodness), but if you ask them to tell you of their Vision, and then of their Mission, they’ll give you the same answer for both questions. So what is the difference? Does it matter?
The short answer is that it only matters if you use them. Vision Statements and Mission Statements can be power-packed drivers in a company culture when they are done right, and when they are used to release the potent energy within the people who make up that company. (Don’t for a moment think that companies are made up of anything else.) The best missions and visions become mantras for action; they’re catalysts. The worst ones are those pretty, carefully crafted ones up on the walls in frames that are long and detailed: too much to memorize and remember, too much to bother with at all. No one pays attention to them, and no one lives them. Rotate them with famous quotations or snippets from eloquent speeches and no one will even notice, because none of the real people in the company say those things.
That old guideline that a mission describes “what business you’re in and who your customer is” barely gets anyone up in the morning. Ho hum. Keep the trees in the ground, for it’s not worth wasting the paper you draft it on.
You don’t need your mission or your vision to state the obvious; you want them to state the exceptional and extraordinary, to boast of your edge-teetering leaps of faith, and the wild dreamings of every possibility you want explored every single day. You need them to create chatter, thrilled whispers, passionate debate and evangelism. You want people inside and outside your organization to talk about them constantly because they’re fascinating, enticing, and enthralling. You couldn’t possibly contain their passion on the company bulletin board if you tried.
Let them be controversial. Let them beg discussion and explanation. They should answer these better questions: How will we make a difference every single day, improving the quality of life itself? How can we work on only what really matters to us, and to everyone? Why is it that this world can’t possibly be a great place without the magic we work? Why is it that we are so special, so damned good, and so fanatically courageous? Put unbusiness-like words in them, like Beauty. Uprising. Character. Notoriety. Caring. Wear your values on your sleeve and speak them.
So what’s the difference? As simply as I can say it, your mission is what you do best every day, and your vision is what the future looks like because you do that mission so exceedingly well. In fact, I like to compare them to another old debate: management versus leadership.
For MISSION —– think: managing with greatness and untamed strength, improving everything daily.
For VISION —– think: leading with inspiration and courage, obsessed with future possibility, in a love affair with change.
MISSION will feed into the confidence of your organization by feeding this ever-present self-talk: “We can do this, and we are the ones ordained to do this, for we are the best at it.” Mission will churn out revolutionary ideas about the mundane, banishing mediocrity.
VISION creates that momentum of growing anticipation about the future, where change is embraced as a step closer to that very compelling picture of what’s coming next. The excitement about the future trumps any apprehension about the uncertain — change is recognized as the catalytic converter it is.
Turn them both into mantras that people actually say, beaming with pride as they say them. “This is my company, and I’m glad it is” is the emotion they evoke, shining in everyone’s eyes. Both mission and vision are alive; both evolve, both reinvent, both grow as you grow.
So tear down that plaque on the wall; you really don’t need it. Trumpet the voices of mission and vision instead.
Thank you for reading, I’ll be back next Thursday. On every other day, you can visit me on Talking Story, or on www.ManagingWithAloha.com. Aloha!
Rosa Say
Previous Thursday Column: On Ho‘ohiki: Keeping your promises.
Managing with Aloha, Bringing Hawaii’s Universal Values to the Art of Business
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Comments
Cody says on October 7th, 2005 at 6:59 am
Hmmm… I agree about 70 percent.
Mission may not be about what you are currently doing well. It is more about what you *should* be doing well in order to delight your customers and bring you glory and profit. Good management ensures that your are meeting your mission well.
Mission should focus on your purpose in the present. Vision is all about your direction for the future.
EM Sky says on October 7th, 2005 at 6:41 pm
Thanks for this post, Rosa. I love the questions you list for helping clients to discover their passionate vision. I referenced them on Win-Win Web today. Just wonderful.
- EM
Joe Ortega says on August 3rd, 2006 at 9:23 pm
Great discussion. May I ask, what should come first: the mission or the mission when you are developing your strategic plan?
Thanks.
Joe Ortega says on August 3rd, 2006 at 9:24 pm
By the way, I should say “the mission or the vision”.
Joe
Rosa says on August 4th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Aloha Joe,
Thank you for your question. In the coaching approach I take, vision comes first. Vision frames a compelling picture of your best possible future, the one you intend to create proactively and passionately.
Mission is next, as the joyful, energy-creating journey you’ll commit to take in striving for your Vision.
In strategic planning, I believe that the strategic initiatives which are part of your mission need to be looked at as your “change agents” inculcated into the organizational culture to fire up your mission with dynamic momentum. When we look at it this way, we CHOOSE the change we want, versus reacting to it as best we can.
Vision then becomes somewhat of a moving target; when we have nearly arrived at it, we are in the throes of writing a new vision, and the process begins again.
However the previous Vision needs to be celebrated when achieved, for in effect it has become our new standard of excellence, and in all likelihood it has become one of our defining moments.
Rosa
Nitish says on December 11th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
Vision is upmost point of Skyscraper, like petronas Tower in Malaysia and erstwhile WTC tower of NewYork.
Mission is steps and floors to reach there.
It implies mission is a critical path and medium to reach the end point, Vision.
Without mission, it is impossible to achieve Vision.( Don’t confuse with objective and goals)
Vice-versa is not true.
deepak says on September 13th, 2007 at 3:43 am
your mission is what are you doing in present to achive your goal. but vision is your future. vision depends on your present better present better future(better mission better vision).
sanjida says on June 6th, 2008 at 10:29 am
excellent
imran latif jaffar says on September 2nd, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Mission and vision both are used to define the road map for the benifit of the company
Ranjith Raddalgoda says on September 22nd, 2008 at 2:01 am
Vision = WHAT
Mission = HOW
It is so simple.
Vision = What you need to achive
Mission = How you are going to achive it
bass says on December 3rd, 2008 at 7:26 am
i want ask you about if there are a relationship between mission and vision and how we can link it ?
thank you
Auwal Adamu says on December 31st, 2008 at 6:24 am
I really appreciate your efforts by supplying the necessary information required for updating my memory. THANKS.
sweety says on January 6th, 2009 at 5:17 am
i taken a restuarant ,what is my vision and mission?
please clear my question
dave says on January 6th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
rosa, can u give examples of exemplary mission & vision statements? u can post it here in ur blog or email to me @ davesals8@yahoo.com. tnx a lot! =)
Yonathan says on January 23rd, 2009 at 10:41 pm
If any you have idea about mission&vision statements, could u post it on m blog or send an email to soccerfreak83@gmail.com? I’m trying to make a good one for my company, but I end up confused to make appropriate one.
mr Quadri says on February 12th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Am student i need more inform on vission & mission
saqib says on March 6th, 2009 at 11:31 am
A mission statement concerns what an organization is all about.
A vision statement is what the organization wants to become.
saqib says on March 6th, 2009 at 11:31 am
A mission statement concerns what an organization is all about.
A vision statement is what the organization wants to become.
mkhongz says on March 13th, 2009 at 1:36 am
your comments are good but it is still not clear (to me) what the difference between a mission and a vision is……….still confused
paul chapa says on March 17th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
plz rose,i am student so can you send to me more information about mission and vission
my email is paulchapa0744@yahoo.com
Huma Malik says on May 3rd, 2009 at 10:46 am
i think tht visions is for far way to c ur company objective.mean how to achieve ur company goals . thr target.. future planning of company. and mission is how achieve ur visions, how u ll motivate ur employee to achieve thr company visions…
tht wht i think…
Amin-Ul-Hassan Khan says on May 10th, 2009 at 7:48 am
VISION: A desired future stat, mostly Imagenery and unattainable.
MISSION:The role someone choses for itself in the society to go after the vision…….
that what i abstrect.
Naturinda Godwin says on July 9th, 2009 at 6:55 am
Am a student in Uganda.I think vision is what the company anticipates to do in future in accordance to its objectives,Mission is what the company is trying to implement currently, although both mission and vision play the same role in the company.
Tosho says on July 28th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Am student in Nigeria i need more inform on vission & mission
Lizzy says on July 28th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Am student i need more inform on vission & mission
pankaj dixit says on August 16th, 2009 at 2:09 am
I think this good but not enough cos if i consider upon missino it will come soon but vision where it complet.
Saad says on September 18th, 2009 at 6:28 am
In order to run up your factory successfuly with execssive net income, you must have the mission and vision satements. The mission well let you understand your current benifets how much you are gaining or lseing, by stating your vission, you will do better in the future,gaining more benifts.When aproaching the vision, set a new vision that will lead your buisness successfuly.
Kind regards
m ilyas says on September 27th, 2009 at 5:21 am
when i read the difference b/t mission and vission, i understand completely but if u give some more informition with graphic it will be very nice 4 every 1.thanks
kush says on October 14th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Mission is a short term goal
vision is a long term goal
Mehul Shah says on October 14th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Vision is a long term objective of the company which can not be quantifible. Mission is a short term achiveble objective of the company in line with the vision and that can be quantified. Learning thorugh Example, The Vision of Birtania is to provide healthy and nutritious food to the world. The Mission is that Every Third Indian could be a britania customer by 2015.