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Roles Played by Mission and Vision

Mission and vision statements play three critical roles:

(1) communicate the purpose of the organization to stakeholders,

(2) inform strategy development, and

(3) develop the measurable goals and objectives by which to gauge the success of the organization’s strategy.

These interdependent, cascading roles, and the relationships among them, are summarized in the figure.

1️⃣

Mission & Vision provide a vehicle to communicate a campaign’s purpose and Values to all key stakeholders.

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Key stakeholders in a political campaign would include the candidate, the candidate’s family, campaign staff, key financial donors, and local, state and/or federal party infrastructure.

These statements should be widely circulated & discussed often so the meaning is widely understood, shared, and internalized.

The better employees understand an organization’s purpose, through its mission and vision, the better able they will be to understand the strategy and its implementation.

2️⃣

Mission and Vision create a target for strategy development.

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To understand the relationship between Mission, Vision, Values & Strategy, visualize them as a funnel.

The Mission

is the broadest concept of purpose.

The Vision

distills the Mission down and guides development of strategy.

The Values

provide explicit direction to overall strategy.

The Strategy

is clear & explicit about what the campaign will & will NOT do to achieve the Vision.

3️⃣

Mission & Vision provide a high-level guide,

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The Values & Strategy provide a specific guide.

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The Values lay out goals & objectives showing success or failure of the Strategy and satisfies the general purpose laid out in the mission.

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Key Takeaway

Mission and vision both relate to an organization’s purpose and aspirations, and are typically communicated in some form of brief written statements. A mission statement communicates the organization’s reason for being and how it aspires to serve its key stakeholders. The vision statement is a narrower, future-oriented declaration of the organization’s purpose and aspirations. Together, mission and vision guide strategy development, help communicate the organization’s purpose to stakeholders, and inform the goals and objectives set to determine whether the strategy is on track.

Roles Played by Mission and Vision