Mantra not Mission May 7, 2008
Posted by mierow in Uncategorized.Tags: guy kawasaki, mantra, mission, statement, vision
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Yesterday I took some time to view a speech from Guy Kawasaki that he gave in Houston a little while back. You can find a video of the speech here [thanks to Houston Technology Center]. He was mainly there to go through the talk he gives on The Art of the Start. This is a book he has written to help people launch new ideas/products/services/etc. While listening I became struck by his idea of having a mantra and not a mission statement. Instead of a lengthy and wordy phrase that no one in your company knows, he suggests that you narrow yourself to 2-3 words. He gives a couple of examples in his speech, which you can also download from his site as a pdf. You can see the typical mission statement on pg 7 and some sample mantras on pg 11.
This was poking at the back of my mind the rest of the day. I was wondering how (or if) this could be applied to education. Is there a way to boil down what a school does into 2 or 3 words? By example, here are some mission statements from Christian schools of various levels:
The mission of ***** is to prepare students for thoughtful and informed living, for dedicated service to God and humanity, for enlightened care of God’s creation, all within the context of the Christian Gospel.
***** exists to provide Christ-centered higher education equipping students to grow intellectually and spiritually, to serve effectively in their professions, and to give God-honoring leadership in the home, church, community, and world.
To teach the Word of God in its truth and purity, to prepare children to be God’s itnesses, to provide a quality education necessary to equip our children for a God-pleasing productive life in today’s contemporary world, and to develop the gifts He has given each child for his service.
While they sound nice, and I’m sure they took a lot of time and planning to write, they all seem very lengthy and not too easy to remember. Is it possible to break down education (especially Christian education) into 2-3 words? Given enough time I think so, but my brain may be drained just from all the new thoughts that this line of thinking has sparked. Here are the things that quickly came to my mind:
“Life long growth”
“Education for life”
“A better you”
While I don’t think that any of these are particularly good or great, I’m sure that I’ll keep coming back to them to see how I can find something that fits. My only problem is that I’m not sure that I can find an educational institution that would adopt this idea, but I guess that’s a whole different discussion.
Art of the Start is an awesome read. You should check it out after Wikinomics. I agree that educational institutions have a long way to come in terms of understanding the difference between a mission statement and a mantra. Educational institutions have to really understand what their product/service is, who they are trying to reach, and what makes them unique. With so many different programs, it is pretty difficult to boil it down to 2 or 3 words. Maybe they should consider multiple mantras?
Interesting discussion. I agree that organisations often lose sight of the real goal of a mission statement in favor of ultra-distilled, committee-created prose. That is an easy and deadly trap to fall into. I wrote about the same idea in my blog today:
http://ciscoetl.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/a-mission-statement-is-no-longer-enough/
Thanks for the discussion.
Thanks Mike & Roger for the thoughts and ideas. I hope this sparks more discussion. I know that it already has for me, both at work and at home.
One of the things we talked about yesterday was how this may be implemented into education. It may be easier at the higher ed level because you can break it down to each area/college/program. There is a university around the Twin Cities that almost everyone seems to know the “mantra” of their MBA program: “Good. For Business.” I’m encouraged to see the possibilities of making small changes like this a reality.
new blog, my friend :
http://www.godchick101.blogspot.com/
Great ideas. I’ve been wondering about how much of the “business” and “start up” ideas I have been reading lately can transition into a college or university. I certainly hope so.