Some time ago, I was in my local bank and I saw the bank’s “vision” posted in big lettering on the wall:
OUR VISION | We help our members define and achieve their financial dreams
As a certified conservation planning GEEK, I couldn’t help but notice that the bank had confused their VISION with their MISSION. Do you know the difference?
A VISION is a description of where or how you see your project or partnership in the future. I tell my clients to pretend they were transported in a time machine 10 or 20 years into the future. As they step out of their vehicle, what do they see (related to the project)? Perhaps they see healthy streams and forests, with local residents earning livable income from ecotourism and defending the forest from illegal logging. THAT is a vision statement.
A MISSION is the vehicle that transports and helps the partnership to achieve its vision. It is a statement of WHY your partnership exists. Your conservation project probably doesn’t need a mission statement, but a partnership or organization should be clear on their purpose.
Why does a vision statement matter? Every project, partnership and family (yes, your family) needs to have a clear, unified place or condition at which they are striving to arrive.
You might be thinking “I know where we are going,” but would all members agree? If you feel like your project or partnership is losing momentum, or your family life isn’t what you would hope, the root of the problem may very well be that members are not focused on the same distant point. It’s time to bring them together and clarify the vision and chart a course to get you all where you want to go.
The mission statement will help your partnership clarify why it got together in the first place. Sure, you may all have the same vision—e.g., thriving habitats and wildlife—but there must be a synergistic power in working together toward that vision or else there would be no purpose in doing the extra work to convene and coordinate. What advantages are there for working together? For being in the same family? Build clarity around this and it will reinvigorate and remotive your work together.
Back to my local bank—it really didn’t matter what they called it. Is it a mission? A vision? Just agree on why you are working together and where you are going, and tell the local conservation planning geek to mind his own business. 😊
What is one project, partnership, or relationship that could be improved if you were to take a little time together to clarify these vital strategic planning elements? Write it down, then schedule a time to take action!
