Digital Marketing

Writing a mission statement: the ACORN exam

Have you ever wondered what makes a good mission statement? Thomas Gilbert is someone who has influenced what many of us do and believe in trying to shape the direction of the organization, but he may not be a name that many are familiar with.

Gilbert was a student of BF Skinner, the famous psychologist, and was well trained in the principles of behaviorism. However, Gilbert felt that behaviorism was fundamentally wrong because it focused on the actions people take, not the results of their actions. Instead, Gilbert argues that we should focus on worthy achievementsor results that have value. These are the objectives that we must identify, measure and align the actions of people. Without the context of worthy achievement, focusing on people’s behavior can be incomplete, misleading, or both.

While this may seem simple and obvious, Gilbert offers example after example of how organizations routinely reward behavior and not results. If you don’t believe me, just think of the last time you worked with an organization where managers from different departments had competing metrics, and therefore when one department won, another could lose. In Gilbert’s view, worthy accomplishments in these types of situations are not well enough defined at the policy level to influence and support the creation of appropriate metrics at the department level.

There are many applications of Gilbert’s work in organizations today. For example, consider the time people spend creating mission statements for departments, divisions, and companies. Ideally, these statements are carefully constructed, simple sentences or sentences that describe an organization’s reason for being. Mission statements should also help guide and focus the work of a group. However, it seems that many organizations embark on the journey to create them without thinking about their practical use.

Here’s a test: think of an organization you’re a member of. Can you recite the mission? Better yet, can you describe how the mission of the organization, your department or team guides your daily actions?

Gilbert offers a simple model, ACORN, for creating a good mission statement and aligning organizational actions.

A – Realization. Use words that describe an outcome or outcome. If a mission has been described as behavior rather than worthy achievement, it has not really been identified.

C – Control. Those who work in the organization must have the main control over the options, strategies and decisions that lead to the fulfillment of the mission. If the way the mission is articulated depends primarily on others outside the department, consider rewriting it.

O – General objective. Make sure the mission really captures the raison d’être of the organization. Avoid writing a mission that is simply a secondary objective of that general purpose.

R – Reconciliation. Check that the mission can be reconciled with other objectives of the organization. Multiple units must work in harmony to achieve the overall mission of the organization.

N – Number. Make sure that the mission or the results of its fulfillment can be measured.

The next time you’re thinking about creating goals, plans, mission statements, or objectives, consider Thomas Gilbert. He could help you produce a worthy achievement.

Gilbert wrote the book “Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance”, with a tribute edition published in 2007 by the International Society of Performance Improvement (ISPI).

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