People who know me realize that I have a strong dislike of mission and vision statements. I think they are greatly overrated as a management tool and that business consulting types have made a glorious racket out of making businesses feel they are the most important part of their entire strategic plan. They can be handy as a marketing tool but to think that every major decision an organization makes will be governed by the boundaries of a 25-word mantra is silly. Why would anyone think that it is possible to frame their entire strategic plan in a cute little marketing catch phrase? Also, in an era where flexibility is the most important business attribute, being locked into that catch phrase is evolutionary death.
I’ve been thinking about this more lately because of an interesting little study by Christopher Kayes from 2004 in the Human Relations journal. He looked at climbing deaths on Mt. Everest and how they can be attributed to breakdowns in organizational learning. Among two commonly recurring themes, leadership is a problem and goal oriented management is a problem, because they both get in the way of organizational learning. Following the leader and focusing on a narrow goal negatively affects a team’s environmental awareness and its ability to adjust. It’s easy to see how a strong, “we can do this” type of leader or a “climb this mountain” type of mission statement can end in disaster in mountain climbing. But the exact same lessons apply to organizations of all types.
A mission that works in one environment may be a horrible disaster in another. That’s why organizations need to be able to learn and adjust quickly and it is silly to assume that success is either due to a good mission statement or the lack of the same. Long term success takes a strategic plan that fits with current environment and the ability to adjust that plan when it is necessary. Anybody can get lucky in the short-term. Any leader can look like a genius for a few years. But organizations that blindly follow such a leader are just like mountain climbing teams heading to the peak. Just because a leader has scaled it a dozen times doesn’t mean he won’t get you killed this time. The inexperienced, low-ranking guy who notices that it is a lot colder at base camp than everyone expected is the guy who might save your life. If the team is willing to listen to him and willing to adjust its mission.