Your Vision: Does Anyone Care? Why Should They?

You create your organization’s identity. It’s true!

The Board develops or at least approves the vision and mission of the agency together with its current strategic directions. You also ensure alignment of your key success factors with the mission to ensure maximum impact. So who cares?

Well, you should! Are they aligned? Does each level reinforce and extend the other?

Through your vision you want to achieve a broad social goal. A social change. Your mission highlights your critical and unique role in making that change.

And your key success factors ensure that you are measuring those tasks and strategies and services that are going to advance your mission. After all, it is your mission that is your purpose, your reason for being. It is the reason you work to achieve sustainable resources whether through donations, grants or fees-- to achieve your mission.

Your key success factors are then specifically aligned to advance, and measure the advancement, of your mission. This is how you set about having an impact, making sure that you deliver outcomes for individual clients and impact in and on your community.

Again, who cares? And why should you, as a board member?

Well, what happens too often is that there is no vision, no overall social imperative for the organization. The mission is too often an abstract goal or task or service that cannot be measured and simply states a lofty ideal.

We have written before of the challenge of boards that do not discuss key success factors, resulting in measurement of service delivery and satisfaction, not whether the service objectives are being achieved. And from my own research I have found that board members believe that their preferred key performance indicators are shared by others around the table when that is often not the case, and is rarely discussed.

It is part of the board's responsibility to ensure that the mission, which it has approved and for which it develops resources, is measured appropriately and having the impact that the board desires. When these are out of alignment the possibility of high impact becomes very challenging.

Take a look at your vision statement: does it meet the criteria which we have outlined in previous blogs and in resources is available on our website?

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Take a look at your mission: when was it last reviewed and revised? Does it ensure that your vision might be achieved in coordination with other related agencies?

What are your key success factors? Where are they written? How are they measured? Is there a dashboard so that the board can follow progress in achieving these objectives?

And critically, what is your impact? How do you know that you are making a difference in and on your community, for those who live and work there. Can you say at the end of every meeting that your time was well spent inasmuch as you made a difference through the time spent? 

If not, the issue may be your lack of alignment from your vision through your mission to your key success factors and your impact, all manifested of course through your services and programs.

What are your main “pain points” dealing with alignment and the Board’s role?

What advice would be most helpful to you?
And we always assume that you are asking for a friend!

Get in touch. We’ll address your questions and concerns in an upcoming blog post.

Share Your Vision With Your Board!

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P.S. May I ask a tiny favour? Would you mind sharing this blog with one person? I would love it. You can post the links in your Facebook Groups, LinkedIn or even send an email.