The Mission-Driven Organization: From Mission Statement to a Thriving Enterprise, Here's Your Blueprint for Building an Inspired, Cohesive, Customer-F

It seems like everyone wants to be a visionary these days, especially in the high tech sector where I make my living. The problem is that a vision without execution is a hallucination, and there are a lot of hallucinations from what I see. This book is a grounded and straightforward guide to crafting an organization based on realities.It starts with how to build and articulate a vision, and from that vision derive a mission statement that will guide your company towards realization of the vision. What I like about the authors' approach is the way they integrate quality management concepts into vision, mission and values. They also emphasize leadership and make it clear that the best crafted and articulated vision and mission statements are for naught without a total commitment and strong leadership to guide the organization and constantly keep focused on where they are supposed to be going. This is reinforced with some natural laws, such as you get what you talk about,the culture of a work team is a reflection of its leader, and you can't walk faster than one step at a time. The natural laws set forth in the book have corollaries in the form of problems. Here the authors identify and provide guidance to problems such as managers who won't let go, the front line resists greater authority, an inappropriate focus on the boss and clash of ideas. One key concept that I especially thought astute is relocating authority and identifying consultative and decision roles and responsibilities as centers of authority are transformed into participative management. I think this is key because doing this is a fine balancing act. I have witnessed attempts to do this in other organizations that did not clearly define scope and responsibility (or accountability and authority), only to see managers let go of authority that was rightfully theirs. The result can be chaos and lack of focus - using the authors' approach it becomes a true participatory environment that is focused on mission. Other highlights include: continuous cultural improvement with an emphasis on measurement, effective use of task forces and a wealth of HR guidelines ranging from hiring/firing to salary and incentives. These set this book apart from many that deal with vision and mission statements because too many books sidestep these important factors. Over the years I have read a number of books that deal with vision and mission statement development. This is the first that squarely addresses the leadership issues as well as the HR challenges that you will face when you publish your vision and mission and transform your organization into what you envision. If you are just looking for quick and dirty way to get a vision and mission statement hung in your lobby or emblazoned on your web site this book is not for you. If, on the other hand, you have an idea where your company should be going and want a clear path to getting there get this book and take it to heart.